Television Interview, ABC News Breakfast

SUBJECTS: Annual Cyber Threat Report for 2025-26; MP Security; Helen Haines 

EMMA REBELLATO, HOST: The Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles joins us now from Parliament House in Canberra. Good morning.

RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Good morning, Emma. How are you?

REBELLATO: I'm very well, thank you. When we talk about disruptions to everyday services, what exactly are we talking about? What are we bracing ourselves for here?

MARLES: Well, cyber incidents can come in a number of forms, but, you know, when there are cyber incidents, invariably systems go down. You know, sometimes there are ransomware attacks, sometimes there's malware where viruses are placed inside systems. So, there's a range of ways in which this can manifest. But as you said, the Australian Signals Directorate over the course of the last financial year responded to 1500 incidents. That's up 20% in a single year, which is a large jump. And what this is about is malicious actors using AI to better enable them to find vulnerabilities in the systems of companies and organisations and to exploit them. And that's really the challenge that we face now.

REBELLATO: So, how much is cybercrime costing businesses and individuals? Because presumably it's going to get a lot worse.

MARLES: Yeah, look, there's, there's good and bad stories here, actually. I mean, for the larger businesses who are engaging with ASD, who are working on their systems, in fact, the cost of attacks has gone down over the last year by about 27%. That's about, on average, around $148,000 per incident. For medium-sized businesses, it's really where the damage is being done there. The average cost of an attack has gone up by 45% for them, about $144,000 per incident, which represents a very significant jump. And so that's really where we need to be focusing in terms of what to do. And so what we're saying to people right now is if you've got old systems, you've got to get rid of them. If you've got an old system which is connected to the Internet, that's a gateway for a malicious actor. You've got to take time to harden your networks, even if that means bringing them down for a couple of days to do that. And you need to use AI yourself. There's a lot of AI products out there, use them. And you can go to cyber.gov.au and there's a lot of information there about how to use those products.

REBELLATO: We found out that female MPs are turning to an AI tool to combat online abuse. Almost 5,000 threats and violent comments have been flagged on social media accounts of 22 Labor politicians in just three months. What's your reaction to that? That's an extraordinary amount.

MARLES: It is, and I mean, I'm shocked is the short answer to that. And I've been speaking to a number of these MPs over the last few weeks before obviously, last week's terrible incident with Helen Haines. And it is something that MPs are experiencing, I think, particularly our female MPs are experiencing. And it's not obviously just politicians. We are seeing heat online impacting lots of different people in lots of different ways. And I think that's why when the Prime Minister calls for the public discourse to see the temperature be turned down, it's really important that happens. I mean, I know these people, obviously, and whichever party people are coming from, at the end of the day, MPs are trying to do their best to represent their constituents, improve their lives, make our country better, and there's a sincerity with which they go about their work. And in, you know, the public discourse, all of that needs to be respected.

REBELLATO: There was a lot of talk about that yesterday, particularly when people paid wonderful tributes to Helen Haines in Parliament. But do you really think Parliament can continue to do better or you're just going to go back to your old ways?

MARLES: Well, I really hope that all of us can do better and I think it is about how parliamentarians engage in the public debate. I actually think it's also about how the media engages in the reporting of the debate as well. I think all of us need to take a responsibility here for the public discourse that we are all a part of. That's where we need to really try and collectively engage in bringing the temperature down and having a much more respectful and civil discourse. And I know that that's what Helen Haines would want and I think that's what all of us, those engaged in the public debate, those engaged in giving opinions about it, need to strive for.

REBELLATO: Richard Marles, thank you very much for your time.

MARLES: Thanks, Emma.

ENDS