The Australian Government is seeking submissions and insights into the protection of essential services by uplifting the security and resilience of critical infrastructure.
The Department of Home Affairs has stated: “Critical infrastructure is increasingly interconnected and interdependent, delivering efficiencies and economic benefits to operations. However, connectivity without proper safeguards creates vulnerabilities that can deliberately or inadvertently cause disruption that could result in cascading consequences across our economy, security and sovereignty.
To ensure we continue to protect ourselves from such incidents, we are seeking your views on the details of Government’s agreed reforms, through the Protecting Critical Infrastructure and Systems of National Significance Consultation Paper (1246KB PDF).
The reforms are a key initiative of Australia’s Cyber Security Strategy 2020, announced on 6 August 2020.
Make a submission
We encourage all Australians to take an active interest in ensuring that Australia’s approach to protecting critical infrastructure is fit for purpose.
We are especially keen to hear from the following critical infrastructure sectors, given their fundamental importance to our economy, security and sovereignty:
- Banking and Finance
- Communications
- Data and the Cloud
- Defence industry
- Education, Research and Innovation
- Energy
- Food and Grocery
- Health
- Space
- Transport
- Water
Submissions to this consultation paper close on Wednesday, 16 September 2020. Make your submissions via Protecting critical infrastructure and systems of national significance – Submission form
Further opportunities to share your views are detailed below.
Events
Industry workshops
We welcome people working in a critical infrastructure sector listed above to attend a virtual workshop (via WebEx) on the reforms. Workshops will commence on 20 August 2020.
Workshops are designed to gather insights and views on the reforms from the perspectives of specific critical infrastructure sectors. If you would like to participate in a workshop relevant to your sector, please register your interest via the sector links provided below. You will be redirected to WebEx and provided multiple workshops to choose from. Due to limited capacity, please register for one session only.
We will review all registrations and confirm attendance based on registration numbers to ensure workshops are not over-subscribed.
If you or a representative from your entity is unable to attend a workshop, or you have any further questions on the reforms, please email ci.reforms@homeaffairs.gov.au to discuss meeting options.
Alternatively, if a quorum is reached, we may hold additional workshops for that sector.
- Banking and Finance
- Communications
- Data and the Cloud
- Defence industry (further consultation to be arranged by the Department of Defence)
- Education, Research and Innovation
- Energy
- Food and Grocery
- Health
- Space
- Transport
- Water
Note: Industry workshop participants are also welcome to attend Town Hall sessions.
