Parliamentary Speeches

Bills: Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2020; Second Reading (24 Au...

Tim Watts: In rising to speak on the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2020, I can't help but reflect on the circumstances in which we find ourselves in debating this bill. This bill is an important piece of national security legislation, which amends the Surveillance Devices Act 2004. It also amends the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act, the Crimes Act and...

Adjournment: Prime Minister (23 Aug 2021)

Tim Watts: On the first day of parliament this year, the Prime Minister bragged that Australia was 'the envy of the world'. He told this House that the sacrifices that Australians had made in 2020 had 'bought valuable time' and that the 'preparations' he was making would see Australia 'emerge from 2021 even stronger'. Well, look at us now! While other countries who fared far worse in 2020 are now...

Motions: Online Safety Bill 2021; Consideration of Senate Message (23 Jun 2021)

Tim Watts: The government cites this Online Safety Bill as evidence of its commitment to the online safety of Australian women. I say to the House that you can see the commitment of the government to the online safety of women in this country every day in this chamber: when they are given an option to condemn the actions of the member for Bowman and they refuse. You can see the evidence of their...

Bills: Ransomware Payments Bill 2021; Second Reading (21 Jun 2021)

Tim Watts: I move: That this bill be now read a second time. The Morrison government never misses an opportunity for a dramatic press conference on cybersecurity, but it has gone missing when called on to act on the biggest cyberthreat facing Australian organisations-ransomware. With this bill, Labor is showing the political leadership on cybersecurity policy that has been missing since the...

Constituency Statements: Immigration Detention (16 Jun 2021)

Tim Watts: Yesterday saw an overdue but welcome decision from the Morrison government in the case of the Murugappan family-the Biloela family, as they've become known around the country-Priya, Nades, Tharunicaa and Kopika, a Tamil family from Sri Lanka who have been in detention on Christmas Island since 2019. Many of my constituents have contacted me about this family's case for several...

Bills: Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2021-2022; Consideration in Detail (16 Jun 2021)

Tim Watts: On Tuesday of this week the Assistant Minister for Defence released new figures indicating that ransomware reports to the Australian Cyber Security Centre had increased by 200 per cent. In response, he announced an awareness campaign and called on Australian organisations to lift their cyberdefences in the face of increasingly sophisticated and well-resourced Russian ransomware groups....