James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Cyber Security) Share this | Hansard source

That last part of your answer does not fill me with confidence. You suspect that if there were issues you would have heard about it, and since you haven't, perhaps there aren't. That indicates to me an attitude or a culture in the government of not taking this issue seriously. It is your job as ministers to seek advice and to consider the advice you are provided with. Minister, I did ask you this morning whether the government had sought advice from any agencies. You did undertake to come back to me about that. You appear not to be able to. Can I ask you to confer with the advisers next to you, who will be able to consult the ministerial offices they are here representing. I am sure they have telephones and WhatsApp and Signal and can seek that advice from their ministerial offices and provide that answer to the chamber now. Now is when the chamber is considering relevant amendments which will have implications to foreign interference, which I will come to next.