Committee to review second round of proposed Critical Infrastructure legislation

THE Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) has commenced a review into new laws to protect Australia’s infrastructure from sophisticated cyber threats.

The Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure Protection) Bill 2022 was referred to the committee by Karen Andrews MP, Minister for Home Affairs, and has been requested to report in time for the Bill to be passed in the March 2022 sitting period.

The Bill has been introduced to address the outstanding elements of the proposed framework that the PJCIS reported on in its Advisory report on the Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Bill 2020 and Statutory Review of the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018.

The Bill proposes revised measures to introduce:

• Critical Infrastructure Risk Management Programs – revised and reformed in line with the recommendations of the PJCIS report. The form of the programs, the rules defining their content and scope, and ongoing consultation to ensure collaborative design and to avoid regulatory duplication has been highlighted by the government in the Bill’s introduction;
• Declaration of Systems of National Significance and accompanying Enhanced Cyber Security Obligations; and
• Other measures to achieve the outcomes of other recommendations from the PJCIS report, feedback from stakeholders and other realised efficiencies. 

More information regarding the Bill and its referral can be found at the review website.

The committee is requesting submissions to the Bill review by Tuesday, March 1, 2022. The committee has acknowledged the short timeframe for this review, and has provided some principle-based questions and themes to help aid submitters on addressing the key areas the committee will be interested in. These principles are available on the review website.

Prospective submitters are advised that any submission to the committee’s inquiry must be prepared solely for the inquiry and should not be published prior to being accepted by the committee.

Further information about making a submission to a committee inquiry can be found at this link.

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