Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Roberts. Again, what I can tell you is the matter is being investigated through a variety of channels. There are issues to do with potential privacy legislation breaches. You probably saw that the FBI is now involved in investigating this matter in addition to a range of Australian authorities. I will come back to you with a specific answer on the particular type of investigation you are asking about.

On the matter of penalties, not only are members of the government on the record saying penalties are insufficient but even members of the former government were on the record. The very ministers who had responsibility for cybersecurity in the former government were on the record saying penalties were too low and, despite being in government, they did nothing to fix this problem. Former Attorney-General Christian Porter back in 2019 admitted penalties were too low, three more years went by, nothing happened and here we are.