Attorney-General for Australia

You are here:

REMARKS AT THE CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE ADVISORY COUNCIL MEETING

Sydney

9 December 2009

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

First, may I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we meet on – and pay my respects to their elders, both past and present.

It’s a great pleasure to join you today. I trust you have found today’s meeting helpful.

I understand you have covered a number of topics – including updates on the Government’s Review of Natural Disaster Arrangements which the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) considered on Monday, as well as information about the new National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) and the new National Cyber Security strategy which the Government recently launched.

I am always impressed with the breadth of issues this Council deals with.

Today provides me with an opportunity to not only acknowledge the good work that’s been achieved this year, but also talk about some future directions.

I think 2009 will be remembered by Australians as a year marked by significant tragedy.

In February, Victoria suffered the most horrific bushfires in our history. And throughout the year, parts of Queensland and New South Wales have been hit hard by damaging floods. Indeed, weather patterns around the nation have been unusual and extreme, including recent heat waves – underlining some of the effects of climate change.

The Government has also been responding to the H1N1 flu pandemic which has highlighted the wide reaching effects – both social and economic – that a full blown pandemic could have.

Each of these events serve as timely warnings of the need to prepare for and recover from a range of disasters, including those that often can’t be predicted.

This is especially the case for our critical infrastructure – which is why I place such value on the partnerships that have been established through the Trusted Information Sharing Network (TISN).

Trusted Information Sharing Network Achievements

The Trusted Information Sharing Network (TISN) is a forum that provides an environment where industry and Government can share vital information on critical infrastructure protection and organisational resilience. The TISN has established a truly collaborative relationship between business and government that is helping to build a more resilient Australia.

Business is doing an excellent job in driving the TISN agenda and it’s great that several communities of interest have been formed to help with cross-sectoral understanding of particular issues.

I understand the Pandemic Influenza Community of Interest has played a key role in helping business respond to H1N1 and providing input into changes to some of our national pandemic plans.

The Food Chain Infrastructure Assurance Advisory Group has also been very active in this regard and I’d like to commend their work on the national food plan, to prepare for the impact that any crisis may have on the supply of essential food and grocery items.

The most recent group to form, in September, was the Climate Change Adaptation Community of Interest. I wish it every success in helping industry engage with climate change initiatives, and helping inform the adaptation policy process as it develops.

For the last two years the Resilience Community of Interest has also been doing very important work in promoting the concept of organisational resilience within the business community generally, and critical infrastructure in particular.

It is in this direction that we need to move forward and I will speak more about this shortly.

Achievements in Critical Infrastructure Protection

First, I’d like to set the scene and note some key achievements that have provided significant progress in the critical infrastructure space over the last year.

One highlight was the Government’s decision in this year’s Budget to provide ongoing funding for the Commonwealth Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) program. This sends a very clear message about the national importance of this work – and the need for it to be effective, on an ongoing basis – well into the future.

Likewise, there has been the recent review of threat assessment briefings, which is a key element of the CIP program. It has been some five years since the briefings were introduced, providing a broad range of owners and operators of critical infrastructure with information about threats to their sector.

To ensure the briefings remain targeted and effective, the Attorney-General’s Department has been working with the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), and the States and Territories to conduct this review.

Recommendations aimed at improving the usefulness of the briefings were considered at a meeting of the National Counter-Terrorism Committee held last week and we will continue to oversee the industry briefing process in consultation with relevant jurisdictions.

Moving Forward

Perhaps some of the most significant activity, however, has been in terms of policy.

To date, there has been an all hazards approach to protecting critical infrastructure, but the time has come for the ‘protection’ mindset to be broadened – to embrace the broader concept of resilience.

This approach has been clearly articulated in some key pieces of work. For example, a shift to resilience was supported by the recent review of national Critical Infrastructure Protection arrangements conducted by a working group under the auspices of COAG and the Homeland and Border Security Review conducted by Ric Smith last year.

The Ministerial Council for Police and Emergency Management (MCPEM) have also agreed that the future direction of emergency management should be based on achieving community and organisational resilience, including the development of national partnerships with the private sector and non government organisations.

As part of the shift to resilience, the Attorney-General’s Department has also restructured to create a National Security Resilience Policy Division, with a key focus on looking after critical infrastructure.

I would today also like to announce the Government’s intention to shift the existing Critical Infrastructure Protection program to Critical Infrastructure Resilience, with new branding to accompany the change.

Over the next few months we will be conducting a consultation process to develop the details of the Critical Infrastructure Resilience Program and I invite all stakeholders to make a contribution to this.

At present, it is envisaged that the new program will be launched in May next year and will include at least two components:

  1. organisational resilience; and
  2. support for disaster resilience.

Organisational resilience will focus on enhancing the ability of critical infrastructure businesses to continue to deliver essential services in the face of significant and unexpected challenges.

Disaster resilience will focus on the contribution businesses could make to the ability of communities to prepare for and recover from disasters.  This will necessarily require organisations to take greater account of the impacts on the community of their operational decisions, before and immediately after a disaster.

I’m sure there are many other good ideas people have in terms of resilience, and I look forward to hearing them.

I look forward to working with the Advisory Council to create a new Critical Infrastructure Resilience program that helps build a more resilient nation.

One where all Australians are better able to adapt to change, where we have reduced exposure to risks, and where we are all better able to bounce back from disaster.

Thank you.