Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, President. It is a serious issue, and Senator Fawcett would know that there have not been many occasions on which the foreign minister of Australia and the home affairs minister have issued an attribution in relation to cyber that names the particular entities or country concerned. And we did so. We did so, obviously in consultation with our friends in the United Kingdom and other members of the Five Eyes. We did so because it is important, when it comes particularly to China state backed actors targeting democratic institutions and parliamentarians, that we do make clear that this is a line for all of us, that our resilience and our sovereignty do require respect for our democratic institutions. So you would have seen, I hope, what we said, which was:

The Australian Government joins the United Kingdom and other international partners in expressing serious concerns about malicious cyber activities by China state-backed actors targeting UK democratic institutions and parliamentarians.

The persistent targeting—