Cyber security executives have raised concerns that the Federal Budget’s digital and AI initiatives may not be matched by sufficient investment in cyber resilience, as government and critical infrastructure face escalating threats.
In comments provided for Budget coverage, SentinelOne Area Vice President Australia and New Zealand Jason Duerden said the Budget included “positive steps on secure digital government”, pointing to funding for Services Australia security and ongoing investment in Digital ID, but questioned whether Australia is “moving quickly enough” given what he described as the scale of AI-enabled cyber threats.
Duerden said cyber attacks were already placing sustained pressure on government, businesses and critical infrastructure, and argued that AI would increase the speed and targeting of threats. He also pointed to the government’s $70 million AI Accelerator as “a smart start”, while warning that outcomes would depend on execution, organisational readiness and “guidelines to enforce safe innovation and governance”.
He said modern national security also depended on digital systems supporting government services, defence supply chains and smaller businesses, and cautioned against reliance on a single approach to defence, arguing that “putting all their eggs in one basket is not an effective defensive strategy”.
Duerden said Australia had made progress on cyber policy and strategy, but that the next phase needed to focus on operational readiness, including improved “visibility, automation and response capability” to detect, contain and recover from attacks before disruption reaches essential services.
Separate commentary distributed alongside the SentinelOne remarks included statements from Elastic Country Manager ANZ Jeremy Pell, who said the government was right to use AI to improve service delivery, but warned AI tools depended on data foundations and could “hallucinate wrong answers” if not grounded in robust, searchable information.
On cyber security and AI safety, Pell argued that “policy alone won’t stop a data breach” and said organisations risked “flying blind” when data is locked in silos, limiting visibility into how AI systems use or expose information. He described $206 million for APRA and ASIC’s data and cyber security capability as welcome, but said regulatory investment would not automatically raise security across all entities they oversee.
Pell also said cyber security did not feature in the Treasurer’s speech, calling that “a concern”, and pointed to $89 million to sustain the Australian Cyber Security Strategy as evidence the issue had not been abandoned, while arguing that sustaining existing initiatives was not the same as matching the threat.
The Australian Computer Society also weighed in on the Budget, saying it supported measures to strengthen national AI capability and skills development. In a statement, ACS President Beau Tydd said AI was reshaping roles and career pathways across the technology workforce and that building capability was important for productivity and service delivery, alongside managing risks including governance, accountability and public trust.
The ACS also highlighted skills needs, with Tydd stating Australia would need 1.3 million tech workers by 2030, requiring around 60,000 additional technology workers each year to meet national demand.
