Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Yesterday, on behalf of the Prime Minister, I hosted the Cyber Security Challenge Australia awards ceremony. The challenge is one of the ways the government and Australian business try to address our serious cybersecurity skills shortage and secure our online environment. It provides an outstanding opportunity for students to test their foundational cybersecurity skills in a most practical way. It also exposes students to some of the most dynamic cybersecurity employers in the Australian market. It provides a 24-hour virtual computer network competition for undergraduate students. I am delighted that we saw such success, with record entrants and record numbers of women participating in this high-tech opportunity this year. These are the types of students and skills that we will need across the Australian economy, but particularly to ensure the successful implementation and meeting of the challenges that are addressed in the defence white paper. It is very important we continue to drive initiatives like the cybersecurity challenge that will complement the needs and aspirations of Australia in our Defence requirements. (Time expired)