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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 458 asked in the Legislative Assembly on 23 June 2020 by Mr W.R. Marmion

Parliament: 40 Session: 1

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.