By Staff Writer.
Former Fulbright scholar and Harvard graduate Clare O’Neil is to become Australia’s next Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Cyber Security. The announcement on Tuesday marks the first time the Australian Government has dedicated a minister to cybersecurity.
Ms O’Neil entered Parliament in 2013 as the Labor member for the Melbourne seat of Hotham. While in Opposition, Ms O’Neil served as Shadow Minister for Aged Care and Shadow Minister for Innovation, Technology and Future of Work. Clare O’Neil replaces Kristina Keneally in Home Affairs. Ms Kenneally failed in her bid to win the Sydney seat of Fowler in the May election.
Labor’s former cybersecurity frontman, Tim Watts, is relegated to Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs. Brendan O’Connor, widely tipped to take the Home Affairs portfolio, is the new Minister for Skills and Training.
“This is an exciting team. It’s a team which is overflowing, I think, with talent with people who are absolutely committed to making a difference as Ministers and Assistant Ministers in my Government,” said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
“It’s a mix of people who have served in the Cabinet before; it is the most experienced incoming Labor Government in our history since Federation. And I think that will augur well for how the Government functions.”
Under the former Coalition Government, cybersecurity fell within the purview of Home Affairs. But the Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews often shared duties with then Assistant Defence Minister Andrew Hastie, especially when they related to national security and defence matters.
The shifting of Ms O’Neil into Home Affairs and Mr Watts into foreign affairs has caught some Canberra observers on the hop. Mr Watts was a highly regarded cybersecurity and communications specialist while in Opposition.
Clare O’Neil and Tim Watts
Ms O’Neil was one of 13 women appointed to Labor’s frontbench on Tuesday and a member of Labor’s right faction. Observers note frontbench appointments are a cocktail of appeasing various factions, rewarding loyalists, and in the current environment, putting more women into leadership roles in Government.
The defeated Coalition Government had markedly upped its interest and involvement in cybersecurity in its last term before the election. They passed legislation with the support of Labor that upgraded the Government’s role in managing and intervening in cyberattacks while placing more accountability on organisations and enterprises to mitigate against them.
In the leadup to the election, the now Prime Minister was criticised for not focusing enough on cybersecurity. His March budget reply speech failed to mention the subject.
But closer to election day, Mr Albanese said he would prioritise “better and smarter cybersecurity” as a critical element of Labor’s national security policy.
“Labor will lift cyber-resilience across the whole nation and ensure that cyber-security has a dedicated minister,” he said.
This week, Mr Albanese made good on that promise. Historically, Ms O’Neil’s interest in the Home Affairs and Cyber Security portfolios wasn’t widely noted. She has previously flagged her key interests as indigenous affairs, Labor Party reform, asylum seeker policies, economics, child welfare, women’s issues, and education.
Observers will watch keenly to see whether those interests now include the more high-profile portfolios Ms O’Neil picked up on Tuesday.
