This article delves into the Australian government’s ongoing reforms of laws aimed at protecting the country’s ‘critical infrastructure assets’ and ‘systems of national significance.’
To realize these goals, the Exposure Draft of the Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Bill 2020 was released on 9 November 2020. The bill’s aim is to introduce an enhanced regulatory framework to better protect essential services by uplifting the security and resilience of Australia’s critical infrastructure; the three key ways in which this will be achieved are: (1) a revised definition of the critical infrastructure sector; (2) new and enhanced obligations; and (3) government assistance and intervention.
Authors: Lesley Sutton, Partner, Mark Ferguson, Lawyer, and Nikhil Shah, Consultant, Gilbert + Tobin