Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes:

(a) a number of Australian businesses have been impacted by cyber-attacks including by ransomware in 2021; and

(b) ransomware is a common and dangerous type of malware employed by cyber-criminals that can affect both individuals and organisations, and cause severe damage to reputation, and business bottom lines;

(2) records its concern at the impact and frequency of cyber-attacks on Australian individuals and businesses;

(3) further notes the significant investment by the Government of $15 billion in cyber and defence capabilities, including $1.35 billion through the Australian Signals Directorate/Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), to keep Australians safe online;

(4) recognises the important work done by the ACSC providing advice and technical support to individuals and businesses affected by cyber incidents;

(5) urges all Australians to implement good cyber hygiene measures across their home and business networks; and

(6) encourages all Australians to visit cyber.gov.au and take the steps to protect themselves, their businesses, their families, and Australia's digital sovereignty.

According to survey data compiled by cybersecurity company NortonLifeLock, some 7½ million Australians over the past 12 months have experienced cybercrime and more than 1.4 million Australians were victims of identity theft. Every eight minutes, a case of cybercrime is reported to the Australian Signals Directorate or the Australian Cyber Security Centre. The impact of these incidents on individuals can be catastrophic and life-changing. Almost overnight, a person's life savings can be taken from them, with no chance of recovering those funds. Businesses face extortion or being locked out of their intellectual property and their bank accounts. Individuals' digital identities can be stolen and used to apply for bank loans, false identity documents and more. In the past year, according to NortonLifeLock, over $3 billion was lost by Australians as a result of cybercrime. Even the ACCC's more conservative methodology suggests the figure is as much as $1 billion. Each individual had to spend an average of 8.2 hours trying to resolve the issues caused by cybercrime, costing our economy billions more in lost opportunities. The average amount taken from an Australian business impacted by cybercrime is more than $33,000, while the average cost of recovering from the incident runs at more than $10,000. Often it is far more. It is no wonder that 70 per cent of Australians now see the protection of their personal information online as a major concern in their life.

The Morrison government is very alive to these concerns and is taking unprecedented action to protect Australians. We have a great example of that work in my own electorate of Fisher, where the government supports an organisation called IDCARE, which is led by cybersecurity expert David Lacey. I'm grateful to the Minister for Home Affairs for recently joining me in visiting IDCARE to hear directly from David about the impacts this scourge is having on our community. David informed the minister that demand for IDCARE's services, helping people to mitigate the impact of cybercrime on their life, has increased fourfold since 2015. IDCARE has now supported more than 200,000 Australians since its establishment in 2014.

The Morrison government recognises the growing importance of IDCARE's vital and market-leading work, which is why we recently announced $6.1 million in funding to continue providing their services to another 54,000 Australians. In total, the government is investing $15 billion in cybersecurity and defence capabilities. This includes $1.67 billion to keep ordinary Australians safe online through our Cyber Security Strategy 2020. We're developing a national plan to combat cybercrime, which will bring together the powers and capabilities of all our law enforcement, intelligence and security agencies to tackle this challenge. We're already deploying the Australian Signals Directorate's world-leading offensive capabilities to disrupt cybercriminals overseas and conducting sophisticated operations like Project Ironside to catch them in the act. The government has also introduced legislation to strengthen the powers available to the AFP and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and to increase the resilience of our critical infrastructure.

However, we all need to do our bit to fight cybercrime. As I've heard directly from David Lacey at IDCARE, there are a few straightforward steps that we can all take to be safer online. Make sure you're updating your apps and operating systems regularly with the latest security patches. Watch out for links sent to you by messaging services and by email. Use multifactor authentication and pass-phrases where available, and make sure your passwords are complex and hard to guess—no more 'Password' passwords. Finally, always make sure you keep a backup of your data offline, and if anyone phones you asking for any personal details, make certain they are who they say they are. If you are in any doubt, do not give out critical information. Please visit cyber.gov.au; the website of the eSafety Commissioner; idcare.org; or call 1300CYBER1 to find out more and protect yourself. (Time expired)

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The motion is seconded and I reserve my right to speak.

Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications and Cyber Security) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Fisher for moving this motion, though I have to say that the member may have left out a few things along the way that I do want to bring to the attention of the House. I'll start out by saying that, in the ASD and the ACSC, we have some outstanding technical capabilities. They do really fantastic work. There are world-class capabilities in these agencies and we need to ensure that they've got everything they need to do their jobs.

The member for Fisher is right to highlight the threat of ransomware, as I have done in this place many times over the last few years. It has been a rapidly growing threat over that time, particularly in the last two years—so significant that the ACSC, in its first Annual cyber threat report, in 2020, labelled it the 'highest' cyberthreat facing businesses and reaffirmed this in its most recent threat report.

Unfortunately, despite its agencies continually warning about the threat, the Morrison government has been a little bit slow to wake up to it and even slower to do something about it. I first mentioned ransomware in this place more than four years ago in 2017. In 2019, I warned in this chamber that:

We know that this threat is imminent. We've seen it playing out in the United States over the preceding months. If the Morrison government fails to act to get the word out on this issue now, then the consequences of these attacks in Australia for our nation will be on the government's head.

Of course, they didn't act. The former Minister for Home Affairs, the member for Dickson, never once mentioned ransomware in this place in his entire time in the role, despite the rapidly escalating ransomware attacks on Australian businesses during his years in the role. We saw multiple Victorian hospitals hit with ransomware in October 2019, BlueScope Steel hit with ransomware in May 2020, transport and logistics firm Toll in February 2020, and one of our biggest breweries, Lion, in June 2020, and countless more that didn't make the news headlines. But what did we hear from the Morrison government about what it was doing to stop those attacks at that time? Crickets. Cybersecurity was at the bottom of the Home Affairs minister's to-do list, and it has been at the bottom of the Morrison government's priority list ever since, with countless opportunities to act passed up.

The member for Fisher should listen, because one of the first acts of this Prime Minister when he took the job was to abolish the dedicated role for cybersecurity in the ministry. His 2020 Cyber Security Strategy, released in April 2020, mentions ransomware only twice—once in a third-party quote and once in a list of issues the ACSC can advise on. The Department of Home Affairs released its industry advisory report on ransomware in March 2021, but it consisted entirely of advice to business and included no new government policy initiatives. Australia's International Cyber and Critical Technology Engagement Strategy, also released in April, only mentions ransomware once, in a list of past attributions of cyberattacks, and again includes no new policy initiatives. Now, to her credit, the current Minister for Home Affairs said that cybersecurity was 'a priority' for her on coming into the job. Unfortunately, only when the scourge of ransomware has escalated to a crisis point has the government started paying attention. We've seen high-profile ransomware attacks on the Nine Network; on JBS, our biggest meat supplier; and, internationally, on the Colonial pipeline.

Now, Labor, having recognised this threat some time ago, has tried to be constructive in this area. We haven't just stood on the sidelines and criticised; we've proposed ideas. In February this year, we released a discussion paper calling for a national ransomware strategy designed to increase the costs and reduce the returns of ransomware attacks on Australia and outlined a series of ideas for how we could go about it. Among others we recommended a mandatory notification scheme for ransomware payments, an idea we crystallised in a private member's bill in June. We recommended renewed efforts to close a cyberenforcement gap, through increased law enforcement cooperation; a new campaign of offensive cyberoperations against ransomware crews that target Australians; and new anti-money-laundering interventions against cryptocurrency exchanges, to cut off their payment systems.

I'm pleased to see the government has now adopted all of these proposals, if somewhat belatedly. In July 2021, the government launched a multiagency ransomware task force, targeting ransomware and led by the AFP, called Operation Orcus—tick. In October, nine months after we called for a national ransomware strategy, the minister released a Ransomware Action Plan—totally different—tick. Included in the plan were new anti-money-laundering laws—tick; powers targeting cryptocurrency payments—tick; and new commitments to join international cyberoffensive operations against ransomware crews—tick.

The new plan even included a mandatory notification scheme, not just for payments but for all ransomware attacks. This, I admit, came as a bit of a surprise, as, when the minister was asked why the government wouldn't simply support Labor's widely welcomed private member's bill to require notification of ransomware payments, she said:

"What I don't want to do is end up putting the cart before the horse effectively, and moving directly to 'this is a mandatory reporting of ransomware' …"

She didn't want to act because the government hadn't 'gone through the process of raising awareness of cybersecurity and raising awareness of ransomware' with Australian organisations.

If a ransomware payment notification scheme was too much too soon for business, according to the minister, it's difficult to see how the notification scheme for all ransomware attacks isn't too much today. Regardless, the distinction is likely to be moot, as there are not enough sitting days left before the election to pass this bill. The government dithered— (Time expired)

Celia Hammond (Curtin, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for this motion. Cyberattacks are a deliberate act of manipulating or destroying computers, networks or information, and I strongly support the government's significant investment in its prevention. Cyber is a new battlefield which we must be prepared to protect, as it poses threats to individuals and businesses alike. The Australian Cyber Security Centre received over 60,000 cybercrime reports last financial year, and it is reported that 7.5 million Australians experienced cybercrime. This has resulted in over $3 billion lost by Australians as a result of cybercrime and over $61 billion lost in trying to resolve issues created by cybercrime.

The problem of cyberattacks has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as people are spending more time online than ever. While continuing to increase their usage, using the internet and various other online devices connecting to the internet, 48 per cent of Australian consumers feel more vulnerable to cyberattacks now than prior to the pandemic. Despite feeling vulnerable, our usage continues to increase. Although many Australians are taking steps to protect their cyberactivities, including 70 per cent of Australians taking more precautions online, individual actions alone do not quell the rising threat of coercive activity that could undermine Australia's digital sovereignty.

Overcoming this risk is a team effort that has government, organisations, business and individuals working together for the common goal of protecting Australia's cyberspace. I'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the important work of the Australian Cyber Security Centre. They are a critical part of the team, providing information to businesses and individuals on how to protect themselves online and providing technical support to those affected by cybercrime.

This government is committed to developing the next national plan to combat cybercrime, a plan that will build on the Cyber Security Strategy 2020. We have a duty to Australians to ensure that we are doing everything we can to prevent and manage cyberattacks, and we are meeting this obligation by investing $15 billion in cybereducation, offensive capabilities and task forces to tackle cybercrime.

I want to spend a moment speaking on the biggest threat to Australia's online security, and that is ransomware—a malicious type of software that cybercriminals use to deny individuals and organisations access to their information and demand payment to have this access returned. Perhaps the most concerning attacks using ransomware in recent times have been those targeted at our banks. Banks have been disproportionately affected by cyberattacks, with banks in the US experiencing a staggering 1,300 per cent year-on-year increase in ransomware attacks this year. This is also occurring here on our own soil, with the Reserve Bank of Australia reporting that a significant cyberattack is inevitable, given year-on-year growth.

The Australian government is acting appropriately and pre-emptively to mitigate this threat to financial institutions, and we are protecting the privacy and information of all Australians. Strong, defensive cybersecurity is the best chance we have against ransomware, which is why the ACSC have a variety of resources available regarding ransomware and protecting against attacks, alongside a free alert service for all Australians and Australian businesses. I would encourage all Australians to visit cyber.gov.au and to have a read of the Ransomware Attacks Emergency Response Guide and the Ransomware Attacks Prevention and Protection Guide. There are also personal security guides with advice on how to protect yourself from common cyberthreats.

To keep these practical and simple, there are five simple things you can do to protect yourself online. Update your apps and computer systems. You can do this by simply turning on automatic updates. Use multifactor authentication. Use pass phrases, not passwords, making sure they are complex. Back up your data in a place separate from your network. Beware of emails and messages from unknown organisations or people. In fact, a message just came through on our parliamentary network this morning reminding us not to open up unknown addresses. I reiterate that dealing with cybercrime is a team effort, and we all need to pull our weight to secure Australia's digital environment. Again, I thank the government and the ACSC for the hard work that they do, and the Australian businesses and individuals who are taking the time to educate themselves.

Milton Dick (Oxley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this important motion before the House regarding cyberattacks. I thank the member for Fisher for raising this in the parliament and recognise all the contributions so far. This is an issue that I think unites us all: keeping Australians safe. Ransomware attacks are now the biggest threat facing the Australian government, businesses and our broader community, according to the Australian Cyber Security Centre, who warn that these attacks, where criminal groups deny access to an organisation's IT systems and data until a ransom is paid, are becoming more sophisticated and far more damaging than ever before. Ransomware is the most common breach of an organisation's data security. Increasingly savvy cybercriminals now target organisations, extracting hundreds of thousands of dollars from each successful attack and helping to drive small and medium-size enterprises out of business. Australia is not alone in this crisis. The former director of the US Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency recently told the US House Committee on Homeland Security that ransomware is the nation's top cyber threat. Globally, security firm MC Soft estimates that the global cost of ransomware attacks in 2019 was at the very least US$42.4 billion and is likely to be closer to US$169.7 billion. Here in Australia these attacks are estimated to cost our economy at least US$1.1 billion.

It's difficult to capture the full scope and scale of these attacks, both globally and here in Australia. But these numbers show us that action is necessary to combat this threat. We need a national ransomware strategy. This issue isn't going away anytime soon, and it cannot be up to the private sector and Australian organisations to fight this threat alone. While organisations have primary responsibility for their own cybersecurity, the government does have tools at its disposal that could help reduce the risk for Australian organisations and lower the overall volume of attacks here in Australia. These include regulation making, law enforcement, diplomacy, international agreement making, effective cyberoperations and the imposition of sanctions. These interventions can make Australia less attractive overall to cybercriminals by increasing risks for attackers and attaching significant cost to targeting Australian businesses and organisations.

With a strong basis of deterrence, the federal government can shore up our national cybersecurity by assisting stakeholders to increase their resilience against such attacks. These interventions are important, because we know that ransomware attacks do not exist in a vacuum. The actions of one organisation can shape the nature of the threat faced by others. When an organisation decides that it's in its own best interests to pay a ransom, that increases the resources available to ransomware crews to mount further, more-sophisticated attacks against other targets.

When a series of organisations from particular countries or particular industry sectors make ransomware payments, it can create a reputation that these countries or industries are valuable targets, increasing the number of future attacks. Whilst network security might be an organisational challenge, ransomware is a threat that requires collective action in response. This is where our federal government must step in and deploy a policy and regulatory framework to mitigate the risk of ransomware. We need a comprehensive national ransomware strategy with the aim of reducing the attractiveness of Australian targets to cybercriminals.

While I'm here, I want to highlight a local business in my electorate of Oxley that is making strides in this field, Cryptoloc. Cryptoloc's patent technology ensures that businesses and their customers can interact securely. While most encryption solutions only use one algorithm and two keys, Cryptoloc's patent technology combines three different encryption algorithms into one unique multilevel, multilayer process, and requires three different key pairs located in three separate locations to decrypt protected data. Hailed by Forbes as one of the 20 best cybersecurity start-ups to watch in 2020, Cryptoloc's technologies can be deployed across a wide range of applications, including file storage, document management and counterfeit prevention, and detection solutions to protect businesses and organisations against attacks.

Cybersecurity is only going to become more and more important as our world becomes increasingly digital. Businesses like Cryptoloc are leading the way when it comes to risk mitigation and attack prevention. There is no silver bullet against these attacks. Cybercriminals will continue to evolve their strategies. We need to ensure that we are evolving with them, and that our government is agile enough to face the cybersecurity challenges today and— (Time expired.)

Garth Hamilton (Groom, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Cyberattacks are no longer only the concern of very large global corporations. Increasingly, we're seeing small regional businesses fall victim to malware and ransomware attacks. Last year the Australian Signals Directorate and the Australian Cyber Security Centre received more than 60,000 cybercrime reports. That's one every eight minutes—an extraordinary number.

A quorum having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 13:02 to 13:07

There's a concerning trend in the increase in cybercrime we're seeing, and it can have a devastating impact on mum-and-dad operations. I know of one panelbeating workshop in my electorate of Groom which had its files seized and was forced to buy bitcoin to get its digital property back from hackers. It's a cross it certainly could have gone without along with the downtime required to get its systems back online, which was an added pain. This answers, in a way, a similar question to that asked in the title of a song by the Smiths: how small is small? We're talking about very small businesses. In many of these cases, the businesses are single operators with a computer but without much training, and certainly most are having their first interaction with bitcoin. But this changing face of cybercrime victims is a very important reality for Australia to address. It's an issue that no longer belongs on the extremes of either big business or vulnerable grandparents clicking on things they should ignore. Small businesses are no longer a secondary concern of cybercriminals, but in many cases are being specifically targeted, the size of the payday being of less importance than the ease with which it can be won.

I know many small-business owners feel this couldn't happen to them or that the cost of implementing cybersecurity measures just isn't worth it. I'm here and the previous speakers are all here to say that it does happen, and the average cost of recovering from cybersecurity incidents starts at around $10,000. But, realistically, usually it's far more. Unfortunately, attacks only have to be successful that one time to cause tremendous damage: money, valuable client information and years of data are able to be swiped in just a matter of minutes. If anything, the increasing move towards working from home during the pandemic has multiplied the risk we face, with employees often working from unsecured networks, particularly in small businesses, instead of the centralised protected location they previously enjoyed. But while this is a new frontier for regional businesses, I'm proud to say that we already have a number of operators leading the way in cybersecurity in the Toowoomba region.

I had a fantastic opportunity to take Minister Karen Andrews to see some of them during a visit to my electorate in May this year. I know she was very impressed with the calibre of innovation that was on display. Toowoomba prides itself on taking a punt on new technology, and this is certainly true in the field of cybersecurity. One such project is FKG Group's Pulse Data Centre, which is the first large-scale data centre outside of a major capital city in Australia. It's a magnificent facility that speaks to the future of Toowoomba's regional economy and its ambition to be a bit more of a big city. The centre supports corporate customers, small to medium businesses, governments and international technology giants.

Toowoomba is a perfect location for this centre because it can cater intimately and personally to small businesses who have these needs. It has the added physical security of being located outside of a capital city. We have a low threat level. Any natural disaster that impacts Brisbane is unlikely to affect us on top of the hill, or the other side of the hill in this case. The centre also offers strong data security, because Pulse Data Centre is 100 per cent Australian owned. It ensures all data stored in the centre is covered under Australian laws. This is an important issue in an internationally fluid environment.

Another important player in this space in the Toowoomba region is Heritage Bank. We were able to show the minister the cybersecurity measures they use to keep their customers' financials safe. It's clearly an issue they take very seriously. I commend them for their efforts. It was great to see the leading edge practices they use to stay ahead of cybercriminals and assist law enforcement agencies. This cooperation with relevant authorities was repeatedly presented as a key driver of the bank's success in this area. That's a very important message for small businesses, too—it's far better to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to cybersecurity.

There's much information available at cyber.gov.au that will be of use no matter the size of your business, including simple tips on checking your systems to ensure you're operating on updated apps and computer software, upgrading the multifactor authentication and keeping a backup of your data off the network. This enables a business IT provider to restore files that may be encrypted or destroyed in a ransomware attack without having to pay hackers for the advantage. The government will continue to play its part, investing $15 billion in cyber and defence capabilities and strengthening protections for our critical infrastructure with new legislation for digital centres and data.

Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the member for Fisher for moving this motion and providing a great opportunity for members to speak on such an important matter to Australia, cybersecurity. It's no surprise that most of Australia's economy is running off the internet, and most businesses rely on online transactions and communications. Although this is the future, it also makes us vulnerable to cyberattacks.

Last financial year alone, the Australian Signals Directorate and the Australian Cyber Security Centre received over 60,000 cybercrime reports. That's one every eight minutes, and that's only those that were reported. In the last year, scams are estimated to have cost Australian businesses more than $140 million, at an average of $33,000 taken each time. There is no doubt that Australia risks many more cyberattacks in the future. Cyberattacks are low cost, hard to attribute and can be done at any time, anywhere.

Many of us have talked about sovereignty in territorial terms here in this place. But this is changing. Australians need to start the conversation about what it means for Australia to retain and protect its digital sovereignty. We need to protect our critical infrastructure to make sure that digital centres and our data are protected. That's why the Morrison government is investing $1.35 billion through the Australian Signals Directorate and the Australian Cyber Security Centre to keep Australians safer online. This is part of the $15 billion the government is investing in cyber and defence capabilities. As I've said, cyberattacks are low cost and can happen at any time. Anyone in Australia can become a target, whether it's our institutions, businesses or private citizens.

In September this year, Stonnington City Council in my electorate of Higgins was hit by a cyberattack. The council drew on assistance from the Australian Cyber Security Centre following the attack and was able to continue operating essential services while it dealt with the outage. But this affects the services that governments deliver. It affects the services that businesses deliver. It undermines our privacy. This attack emphasises the warnings from ASIO that councils across Australia can be subjected to cyberattacks, so too our genetic digital data. It's stored in services across Australia. We need to do more to protect our sovereign data, whether it's government, business or collated medical research data. Protecting it protects Australia's interests.

The government is committed to tackling cybercrime, including through developing the next National Plan to Combat Cybercrime, which will bring together the powers, capabilities, experience and intelligence of all jurisdictions to build a strong operational response to cybercrime harming Australians and Australia; investing $1.6 billion through the Cyber Security Strategy 2020; introducing legislation to bolster the powers of the AFP— (Quorum formed)

Sitting suspended from 13:15 to 13:19

As I was saying before the suspension, the government is committed to introducing legislation to bolster the powers of the AFP and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission to identify individuals and their networks engaging in a serious criminal activity on the dark web. We also plan to introduce legislation to uplift the security and resilience of Australia's critical infrastructure and provide $6.1 million for support services through IDCARE to protect Australians online, if they've been a victim of cybercrime.

It's not only what governments can do, however. Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility. It is vital that Australian businesses and organisations are alert to this threat and take the necessary steps to ensure our—and their—digital data is safe and ensure they're implementing good cyber practices, such as checking systems, making sure their apps are updated regularly and computer systems are at the latest version, and installing any available security patches. We want them to be mindful of links sent to email and other messaging systems, and we want multifactor authentication to make sure there's an extra step between your valuable data—like you bank account—and a cyberattack hack. We want to use passphrases, not passwords, and we want you to keep a backup of your data off your network.

I encourage all Australians to go to cyber.gov.au to find easy-to-follow guidelines on how to increase your cybersecurity online.

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In my more than 25 years in this place representing the good people of the Hunter electorate, there have been issues which have stayed with me as a challenge for all of that period. Two really stand out.

The first issue is intergenerational unemployment. This is an area in which we've made some inroads, but I have a very strong view that we won't succeed in overcoming this issue until we have an education system that maximises intervention with children at the earliest age, preferably at the level of preschool, if not early child care. It remains my view that that intervention at the earliest possible age is critical with children who have never known their parents or grandparents to have worked, who have never woken up to an alarm clock—or seen others do so—and have certainly never worked to a routine and a schedule. These are people who are, effectively, born to be unemployed. The intervention of those wonderful people who work in early child care, preschool, kindergarten and primary school more generally will be very, very critical in achieving more success on that front.

The second issue is the shortage of GPs in many of the towns I represent or have represented. It's not quite as big a challenge to me these days because, with the 2015 redistribution, my electorate substantially shrank from 20,000 square kilometres to 10,000 square kilometres, excising from my electorate many of the more rural townships that found this such a difficult challenge. Alas, though, I still have challenges in townships. I was very pleased that, earlier this year, the minister agreed to provide DPA status, or distribution priority area status, to Muswellbrook LGA in my electorate, which is going to make an enormous difference to people in Muswellbrook, Denman and indeed, the township of Merriwa in the electorate of the member for New England. But what has been consistent, is the inadequacy of the system for all of that time. We don't have a GP shortage in New South Wales; we have a malapportionment of GPs, and—

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order!

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

you're very fortunate because I'm sure you have plenty of GPs in your electorate of Parramatta, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Member for Hunter—

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Alas in more regional and rural areas, we struggle. Even in a township like Morisset, which is very close to the western side of beautiful Lake Macquarie, on the major train station taking people to Sydney and two minutes drive from the M1.

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Hunter will address this remarks to the motion being debated.

Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I was looking for some latitude, of course, because this is an unanticipated expectation. So I'm just going to close by saying that I appreciate the attention that Minister Hunt has given to this issue for me in recent days, but I still have a number of issues, including in my home town of Cessnock. I have seen many models used to address this malapportionment. None of them have been perfect. The current system is not perfect, and I hope I can work with the minister to address some of the existing problems, particularly in western Lake Macquarie and, of course, in my home town of Cessnock.

Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.

Sitting suspended from 13:25 to 16:00