30th Mar 2022, 8:32 PM – Senate Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure Protection) Bill 2022 - Third Reading - Pass the bill

The majority voted in favour of a motion to pass the bill in the Senate. The bill will now be sent back to the House of Representatives where our MPs will consider whether they agree with Senate amendments.

What does the bill do?

According to the bill homepage, the purpose of the bill is to:

• provide that specified critical infrastructure assets must adopt and maintain a critical infrastructure risk management program;
• provide for annual reporting obligations for assets that are exempt from the risk management program obligation;
• make minor amendments in relation to consultation requirements and immunities;
• provide for additional cyber security obligations that may be applied in relation to systems of national significance;
• provide that directions facilitating government assistance to industry in the event of a serious cyber security incident prevail over the requirements of a risk management program;
• amend provisions that authorise the use and disclosure of protected information;
• provide that the minister's power to privately declare an asset as a critical infrastructure asset includes a power to require compliance with a risk management program; and
• enable the minister to declare a critical infrastructure asset to be a system of national of significance; and include additional reporting requirements.

See the bills digest for more detailed information.