Clare O'Neil

Clare O'Neil has stated that Home Affairs must evolve to protect Australia's domestic security.[13] As Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Cyber Security, O'Neil's focuses include improving Australia's response to natural disasters from climate change, improving Australia's cyber security, countering foreign interference, reforming Australia's migration system, national resilience and strengthening Australia's democracy.[14] She has stated that Australia's migration system is broken and is not serving the needs of Australia, business or migrants.[15] On 2 September 2022, she announced a comprehensive review of Australia's migration system to address existing challenges and set a new direction for the coming decades.[16] This review is scheduled to report their results in early 2023.[17]

In Clare O'Neil's first six months as Minister for Cyber Security, Australia was subject to the Optus and Medibank cyber attacks which were at the time Australia's largest cyber attacks in Australia's history, within three weeks of each other. [14] As a result from these cyber attacks, a new joint task force was created to "hack the hackers" and disrupt cyber attacks in Australia before they were committed.[18] O'Neil has announced a comprehensive review of the Optus and Medibank cyber attacks to look at how Home Affairs can learn from these cyber attacks and what policy reform needs to be done. [14] She has appointed a new expert advisory board to develop a new Cyber Security Strategy to improve Australia's national resilience to cyber threats and properly address the consequences of cyber incidents.[19] Clare O'Neil was praised for leading the Albanese Government's response to the Optus and Medibank cyber attacks and her efforts to reform cyber security in Australia. [20] She was named 2022 Cybersecurity Person Of The Year by CyberCrime Magazine. [20]

In a 2013 interview with Michelle Grattan, O'Neil nominated four key areas as priorities for her in politics: economics, child welfare, women's issues, and the welfare of Indigenous Australians.[21] She has also spoken on issues such as human rights violations in Cambodia,[22] primary, secondary, and higher education,[23][24] asylum seeker policy,[25] and Australian Labor Party reform.[26]

In her maiden speech O'Neil placed an emphasis on the importance of a strong economy in effecting a fair society and stemming disadvantage. She stated that while she believed "government should not be building great tariff walls or controlling the big macroeconomic levers", it did in practice provide "the platform on which our businesses compete – and win – globally" and that political leaders must therefore play a role in providing "good policy and clear communication" on the topic. O'Neil cites her family's history, work at McKinsey & Company, and experiences in indigenous communities as influential in shaping her views on the economy.[4]

In 2011 O'Neil spent nine months living with her partner in North East Arnhem Land, one of the northernmost regions of the Northern Territory, fostering a child and assisting local women to establish small businesses. During her time in the region she witnessed crises in health, housing, and employment; and she has since spoken in Parliament on her desire to see action taken to resolve them: "For many decades politicians have said it is shameful. I want my generation to be the last to have to say it."[4]