Risky business – latest update on new critical infrastructure risk regime

Australia's critical infrastructure safety regime is again the subject of parliamentary consideration with the second tranche of proposed amendments to the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 (Act) introduced earlier this month.

As canvassed in our previous articles here and here, Australia has been subject to several cyber attacks targeting the federal parliamentary network and key supply chain businesses since the Act's introduction. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic broke during this time, causing widespread disruption to major industries such as health, transport and manufacturing.

These disruptions led to the introduction of the Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure Protection) Bill in 2020. Following consultation, this bill was split in two so that critical aspects of the bill could be progressed whilst other aspects of the bill could be the subject of further workshopping between government and industry.