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

I thank the member for his question. The final act of the previous government was their decision on 21 May to sabotage protocols that protect Operation Sovereign Borders for their own political gain. The parliament will remember that the former prime minister directed the former home affairs minister—

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

They don't like it much we talk about this subject, do they? And for very good reason. I'm referring to facts that were found in a report that was provided to me in July 2022—

which demonstrated that the former prime minister directed the former home affairs minister—who is getting quite vocal over there—to order a senior military officer to issue a public statement about a live military-led operation in which young Australians in uniform were at risk. She didn't do it herself; she asked a public servant to do it for her. The report that was released to about this incident—

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

Sometimes the facts hurt. This report found that the minister and her office had interfered inappropriately with the work of the Public Service, and demonstrated that the former government put their political interests above the national interest. This is an approach that I see right across the Home Affairs portfolio.

The House will remember that one of the first actions of the former member for Cook on becoming prime minister was to abolish the cybersecurity ministry. Well, haven't their chickens come home to roost on that one! Australia has just experienced its two worst ever cyberattacks within three weeks of one another. The Australian government in the last six months—

Honourable members interjecting—

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

There is no question that in the last six months the new Australian government—

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

There is no question that in the last six months the new Australian government has done more to protect the cybersecurity of Australians than the previous government did in the whole preceding six years. This has included creating—

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

It's not a history I'd be proud of, either. This has included creating an incident response function which did not exist before we came to office. It has involved fixing privacy laws and the rollout of a new model of policing which will see the Australian government hack the hackers. There is a lot more work to be done and there will be more cyberattacks, but we are punching back for the first time in this critical area of policy.

On immigration, when we arrived in office there were one million unprocessed visas sitting in the system with no plan to process them in the middle of the biggest labour shortage we have had in 70 years. I pay credit to the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs for the work he has done. I could go on: failed citizenship laws that left a legal and constitutional mess, an immigration policy framework totally failing to meet the nation's needs, an immigration system being exploited by criminals. For every rock I look under there is a legal and policy mess created by the former government, and we are cleaning it up.