The Australian government’s cyber experts were not consulted on the awarding of a $23 million grant to an industry body without tender to train thousands of “cyber wardens”, while Treasury has yet to detail how it managed any conflicts of interest in awarding grant without a competitive process.
In the May Budget the Albanese government allocated $23.4 million to Treasury for a small business cyber wardens program to be delivered by the Council of Small Business Organisations (COSBOA).
The peak body will receive all the funding to train 60,000 wardens towards in small businesses within three years in an effort to build a “cyber-smart small business workforce”.
COSBOA did not have to bid for the grant and no other group was considered for the program, with Finance minister Katy Gallagher defending it as a “government decision” that did not require a tender process.
COSBOA was handed the funding to deliver the free training program, which spent the last seven months in pilot with the sponsorship of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and Telstra.
Ms Gallagher was questioned about the lack of competition at Budget estimates, where she defended the funding allocation.
“This is essentially a pilot program; it’s moving it to a program that’s being run by COSBOA, in response to a budget request from them, through the budget engagement consultations, and it hasn’t been subject to a procurement process at this point,” she said.
The program is being delivered by Labor-aligned consulting firm 89 Degrees East, where the CEOis Alistair Jordan – a former chief of staff to Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister – and where Health minister Mark Butler’s wife had worked as a consultant until resigning in May, reportedly for unrelated reasons.
Mr Butler in June said he had not being involved in any decisions about 89 Degrees East, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said which contractors COSBOA engages to administer the program is “a matter for them”.
The development of the program is now also under a cloud with, the Department of Home Affairs revealing it had very limited input despite being responsible for cyber strategy and policy leadership, and the program representing the Albanese government’s second largest cybersecurity initiative in the 2023/24 Budget.
In answers to questions on notice, the Department of Home Affairs said it had not provided any advice to government about the cyber wardens proposal or subsequent contract.
The department did assist Treasury to develop the proposal “in the context of considering” the upcoming national cyber strategy and measures to support small business cyber uplift, but gave no advice on the contract and said it was unaware the program would be delivered by 89 Degrees East.
Treasury officials are yet to provide a response to questions at the May hearing about what risk-management and conflict-of-interest arrangements are in place.
