Treasurer Jim Chalmers handed down the Australian Federal Budget 2023-24 on 9 May 2023.
While the budget focused mainly on other priorities including cost-of-living pressures, it contains a number of cyber security and privacy focused measures.
Fighting scams and data breaches
As part of the Federal Budget 2023-24, the Australian Government has allocated the following funds for fighting scams and data breaches:
- $86.5 million to establish a National Anti-Scam Centre to help the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) fight scam websites. These funds are also for the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) and the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts to establish Australia’s first SMS Sender ID Registry. This is targeted at preventing scammers from impersonating government or established brands in message headers. ACMA has been active recently in moving to shut down SIM-swap scams, introducing stronger customer identity checks.
- $44.3 million for the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) to assist in enforcing privacy regulations, lift its data analytics capability. This includes funding the previously announced “standalone" Privacy Commissioner role, to tackle data security threats and the rising volume and complexity of privacy issues.
Improving cyber security
As part of the Federal Budget 2023-24, the Australian Government has allocated the following funds for improving cyber security:
- $23.4 million to expand the ‘Cyber Wardens’ training and credentialing program delivered by the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia. This program will help small business to build cyber resilience and mitigate harms from cyber incidents.
- A new Coordinator for Cyber Security will help to ensure that the Commonwealth’s collective cyber security efforts are "strategic, coordinated, timely and effective".
Growing the digital economy
As part of the Federal Budget 2023-24, the Australian Government has allocated the following funds for growing the digital economy:
- $26.9 million to expand digital IDs, and help improve efficiency and protection, and reduce fraud from use of digital IDs.
- $88.8 million over two years to support the Consumer Data Right in the banking, energy, and the non-bank lending sectors.
- $101.2 million over five years to support the development and uptake of technologies that enable capabilities across Australian industries, starting in quantum and artificial intelligence.
These are important measures, yet there’s nothing game-changing to see here. If you are interested in a high-level analysis about the Economic and Fiscal Outlook; select tax and superannuation-related measures for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) and individuals; and the effect of the already legislated Stage 3 personal income tax cuts, read HopgoodGanim’s related article on the Federal Budget 2023-24 by our Taxation team.