September 30, 2022
More than $60 million in cyber security workforce training grants have been left in limbo for months after Labor paused a program aimed at boosting Australia’s digital capabilities.
Pressure is also mounting on telco giant Optus to cover the cost of replacement passports and other ID documents stolen in a massive data breach last week, as the federal government reveals plans to reform the Privacy Act to better protect Australian consumers.
The Optus hack has prompted calls for Labor to unfreeze “critical” cyber security funding currently held up by a broader review of industry grants administered by the Morrison Government.
The opposition claimed the ongoing delay had put businesses even further behind in developing the skilled workforce needed to protect against cyber attacks and enhance the nation’s digital security.
Deputy opposition leader and industry spokeswoman Sussan Ley said withholding round two grants from the Cyber Security Skills Partnership Innovation Fund was inexcusable.
“Labor’s politically-motivated review of these grants has left our cyber workforce smaller and less capable than it could have – and should have – been,” she said.
“Labor’s go-slow (is leaving) Australian industries behind and that is having real-world consequences for Australians.”
Industry sources confirmed applications for the grants of between $250,000 and $3m were submitted by December 2021 and had been allocated pending an announcement expected in the first half of this year.
But after Labor won the federal election in May, guidance on the program’s website advised the “government is currently reviewing programs to ensure its investments are targeted and aligned with policy priorities”.
Applicants were told they “must not commence” their project until they have a finalised agreement with the Commonwealth.
Coalition cyber security spokesman James Paterson said the previous government provided “record funding” to protect Australia from escalating threats.
“Given the significant cyber breach millions of Optus users have just suffered under Labor’s watch, Australians deserve to know why the Albanese Government is running interference to crucial funding designed to strengthen our cyber workforce and capabilities,” he said.
A spokesman for Industry Minister Ed Husic said the outcome of the cyber security grant review would be detailed in the October federal budget.
“The government is going line-by-line through the spending commitments of the previous government,” he said.
Mr Husic has previously said the review was designed to avoid a repeat of the Coalition’s “car park rorts and sports rorts” grant programs.
In the wake of the Optus data breach Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has confirmed the government is looking “very closely” at potential changes to the Privacy Act to better protect Australians.
“We’re terribly concerned about this huge data breach affecting, as it has nearly 10 million former and present Optus customers with the hacking of some very sensitive personal information,” he said.
Optus has confirmed more than 36,000 Medicare numbers were included in the data stolen by an unknown hacker.
