CYBERATTACKS
458. Mr W.R. MARMION to the Minister for Innovation and ICT:
I have a supplementary question. I thank
the minister for advising us that there has been increased cyber activity in
recent months. Can the minister advise whether Western Australia is being
targeted by this increased activity because the government terminated the
Huawei Metronet contract?
Mr D.J.
KELLY replied:
I
presume the member for Nedlands listened to what the Prime Minister said on
Friday when he was asked, ''Can you attribute a nationality to the state
actor that's been causing all this trouble?'' He and his
ministers were at pains not to attribute this increased activity to any
particular state actor. The member for Nedlands, on the other hand, jumped up
here and in his supplementary tried to draw a link between this activity and
the Huawei contract. I remind the member for Nedlands and members opposite, in
case it has escaped their attention, that the Prime Minister is a member of the
Liberal Party and their Liberal Prime Minister has been at pains to do two
things—one, draw attention to this problem as a real threat and, two,
not point the finger or put a label on a particular state actor. There is no
point. If these sorts of attacks are
to be defended, the systems are the same whether it is one state actor or
another, so it does not make any
difference as far as cyber preparedness is concerned. Going around and making
assertions about particular state actors can have a whole lot of knock-on
consequences for the Western Australian and national economies. I ask the
member for Nedlands to be very careful about commenting on this area because to
do so is irresponsible. He does not know what he is talking about. I am
absolutely sure that he does not have any information to back up the question
that he just asked. If he does have information, he should tell us what it is
because I am sure that it does not exist. Making these sorts of wild assertions
can have knock-on consequences that can affect the business of Western Australia.