The Home Affairs minister wants Australia to be an exemplar of good cyber hygiene. 

Australia’s Minister for Home Affairs and Cybersecurity, Clare O’Neil, has stated that the public sector must lead by example when it comes to defeating cyber threats. 

Speaking at the 2023 Australian Information Security Association’s Australian Cyber Conference in Canberra, O’Neil said that in the 10 months since Labor came to office, a more coordinated approach to cybersecurity had shifted the dial in terms of engagement. 

O’Neil urged Australians to consider the changing world of cybersecurity and be prepared for it. 

The government has committed $11.4 billion over 10 years for cybersecurity, which includes specific legislation to streamline the regulatory obligations that are currently in place, along with fines for corporate cybersecurity negligence. 

O’Neil is calling for the central coordination of cybersecurity to be part of the cabinet-level portfolio, with duties and delegations to be structured and disciplined. 

She said that the two largest cybersecurity attacks in Australian history, the Optus data breach and the Medibank Private incident, demonstrated the critical importance of the matter.