Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

As I say, it's greatly regrettable that the opposition have decided to politicise this, but let me go with them. I want to say this to the opposition: this is an incredibly embarrassing question from someone who was the minister for cybersecurity five months ago. This problem did not begin on 22 May. I would say to those opposite, as I have said repeatedly, that we are about five years behind where we need to be on cybersecurity. Do you know who ministers were over the previous five years? It was the Minister for Home Affairs and it was the person who sits in the opposition leader's chair.

We would like to collaborate with those opposite to fix what is an urgent national problem that is in part their creation. I would invite them to come together with us to work as a team. If you would like to ask further questions on this matter, I would welcome them because we know quite a bit about the record of the previous Minister for Home Affairs, her treatment of public servants on election day. That demonstrated her commitment to national security issues in this country. We take a different approach. We are trying to fight for our citizens and we are trying to improve this for our country. We invite those opposite to come and join us whenever they're ready to stop shamelessly politicising every issue in this parliament, which they did relentlessly for almost a decade. And where did that get us?

Honourable members interjectin g—

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