David Smith (Bean, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Deputy Prime Minister. Following today's release of the Australian Signals Directorate's annual cyberthreat report for 2022-23, what action is the Albanese Labor government taking to meet these threats and why is this required after a wasted decade in defence?

Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for his question. Today the Australian Signals Directorate released its annual cyberthreat report, and what it shows is that there is a worsening cyberthreat to our country. We're seeing an increase in cybercrime. We're also seeing an increase in the interests of state actors in our critical infrastructure, including our defence. That includes an increase in the interest in our work on acquiring a nuclear powered submarine capability under the banner of AUKUS. What this requires is an improvement in our cyberdefence capability, which is what we are doing through the Australian Signals Directorate.

But this task has been made so much harder by the mess that was left to us by the Leader of the Opposition. When the Leader of the Opposition announced an increase in our cybercapability in March of last year, there was an $8 billion hole. It was a big announcement without the money to back it up, just as there was an announcement of $35 billion for guided weapons but only $1 billion was allocated. It was big on the fanfare and light on the substance. Those opposite weren't doing defence policy; they were just running an advertising agency. That is what they literally did on 4 January in 2020, when at the height of the worst bushfires in our country's history they used the Australian Defence Force to cut an ad to raise money for the Liberal Party.

This government is making the difficult decisions to prioritise defence spending on where it's needed most, and that definitely includes our cybercapacity. We also understand that that also requires an increase in our spending on defence. That actually stands in stark contrast to those opposite. Back in May of this year, the shadow Treasurer said:

We've said that the Defence budget should be within the envelope that's already been established …

That was the shadow Treasurer. Then last week the shadow minister for defence backed that in when he said:

… I can't commit to increased spending …

When it comes to those opposite, and it comes to defence, you will get hoopla, singing and dancing but you will not get an extra dollar for defence. This government is taking defence spending to 2.3 per cent of GDP over the next 10 years—that is a 10 per cent increase in the spending trajectory on defence that we inherited from those opposite—because we are committed to making the difficult decisions to keep Australians safe.