Daniel Mulino (Fraser, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Cyber Security. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to clean up the mess left by the former government in cybersecurity?

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank my good friend the member for Fraser for his question and thank him for his very commendable representation of his local community. Cybersecurity is something that affects every one of our constituents. It is also one of the most important national security challenges that faces our government. So it was a great pity for us to arrive in government a year ago to find that cybersecurity was in an absolute mess. We had voluntary cyber obligations which barely anyone was meeting. We had a response for cross-government which was completely uncoordinated. We had no meaningful cyber incident response function within the Australian government—absolutely unbelievable.

And it's not surprising, because under the former government we didn't even have a minister for cybersecurity. So, it's not surprising that we ended up where we are.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The opposition are a bit sensitive about this, because they're probably aware that the opposition leader was ostensibly responsible for this during his time as home affairs minister. And I can share with the parliament that he did not once during his tenure as home affairs minister mention the word 'ransomware' in the Australian parliament—not a single time—when he was the minister, and this was at a time when this problem was costing the Australian economy a billion dollars a year.

Our Prime Minister has changed all that, and this has led to a very large volume of action on behalf of us as a government. We're taking a very different, highly active approach. In this first year, that has included setting up Hack the Hackers, a 100-strong task force of Australian Federal Police and Australian Signals Directorate operators who are hacking back at the criminals who are seeking to harm Australians.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I just ask the minister to pause, and I'll hear from the Leader of the Opposition.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On relevance: we had committed $9.9 billion to the ASD. It's—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Resume your seat. That is an abuse of the standing orders. We're going to return to the question. I give the minister the call.

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was asked about cybersecurity, and I'm talking about cybersecurity and the dismal failures of the former government on this issue. In the past year Australia has taken on global leadership of the counter-ransomware initiative.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Groom will cease interjecting.

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We are building global cooperation to fight the cybercriminals who are attacking not just us but also many other countries with whom we share close relationships. Our government has declared 82 systems of national significance. We've delivered $20 million to make sure those critical assets are protected through the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Centre. We have imposed tough new rules for cybersecurity across 11 major sectors in the economy and, for the first time, we are bringing coordination to the work of government. We're developing, in close collaboration, a cybersecurity strategy that is going to be really important to making sure we meet our desire to be the most cybersafe country in the world by 2030. Tomorrow we will begin a program of national cyber exercises which will bring together all the actors in the economy to help protect our country.

Cybersecurity is national security. We arrived in government to fix the mess, and we're doing it, but there's a lot more work to be done. (Time expired)

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Manager of Opposition Business on a point of order?

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I ask that the minister table the document from which she read word for word in that answer.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Look, we continue to do this each time, but was the minister reading from confidential documents?

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As is the longstanding practice—

Order, Member for Boothby!