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

I think they were hoping that I'd back up and be the fourth one to make a valedictory speech, but they can't get rid of me that easily! In continuation, on behalf of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security: collectively, the bills that I spoke about earlier provide a suite of measures intended to uplift Australia's cybersecurity, including through mandated minimum security standards for smart devices, mandatory reporting of ransomware payments made by businesses, establishing a cyber incident review board and limited-use provisions to encourage private-public cooperation on cyber incidents, and reforms to the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018, including to bolster the protection of business-critical data and to simplify information sharing across industry and government.

Bolstering Australia's cybersecurity is a whole-of-nation endeavour, and one in which the Australian business community can and must play a crucial role. The evidence supplied to the committee within 60 high-quality written submissions and over two days of public hearings demonstrates that, from the business community, there was broad support for the bills amongst most contributors to the inquiry. Many contributors had been involved in consultation prior to the bills being introduced, in connection to the 2023-2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy. Although some witnesses had in-principle objections to aspects of the package, the majority of matters brought to the committee's attention concerned implementation or matters of detail.

In response to the matters raised, the committee has made a total of 12 recommendations, mostly aimed at ensuring the implementation of the package is as effective as possible and subject to ongoing review. These include recommendations for the government to ensure businesses are educated about the new ransomware reporting obligations and provided with clear administrative guidance on how the various aspects of the new legislation are intended to be interpreted and applied in practice. The committee has recommended a small number of technical amendments aimed at clarifying the operation of the ransomware reporting obligations in relation to incidents that do not affect a business's operations in Australia, clarifying the protection of material that is subject to legal professional privilege and ensuring the package's limited-use provisions are clearly expressed.

The committee has also recommended that the Cyber Security Bill be subject to a statutory review by this committee after three years and that an existing statutory review of the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 be deferred by two years. This will allow time both for the new reforms to be implemented and for the currently legislated independent review of the SOCI Act to be completed. The committee recognises that hardening Australia's cyber resilience and implementing the 2023-2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy is an urgent priority of this parliament.

On behalf of the committee, I extend my thanks to the range of organisations and individuals who contributed to the inquiry and helped inform the committee's report. I also thank my fellow committee members for their constructive and bipartisan approach, and I'll take this moment to thank the former chair of the committee, the member for Wills, for his work and dedication to the PJCIS. I have been on many committees in this place, serving as a committee member, chair or deputy chair, and, hand on heart, I can honestly say that there is no other committee with such a demanding workload as the PJCIS. The member for Wills has had some difficulties in recent times, and I want to send out a shout-out to him for those difficulties that he has encountered both in his electorate and in his family. It's a difficult role to be in in this place, but it is made even more difficult by virtue of being the chair of this committee, which is, as I said, one of the most onerous positions in this place.

I want to thank the new incoming member, Senator Raff Ciccone. He's already demonstrated a very significant willingness to work very closely with me and the coalition members of the committee. I thank him and all members of the committee, but, most importantly, I want to thank the members of the secretariat who managed to turn a very significant body of work around in a very short period of time. The members of the secretariat are absolute champions, and we thank them for their efforts. I commend the report to the House.