Australia should cooperate more closely with Taiwan enhance cybersecurity, bilateral trade and economic relations, Australian parliamentarians said on Wednesday.
They learned that Taiwan is one of the most frequently cyberattacked places in the world, said Julian Hill, a member of Australia’s ruling Labor Party and chair of Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit, during a media roundtable in Taipei.
“So, there’s a lot that Australia can learn from Taiwan,” he said.
Photo: CNA
“We are equally facing very significant amounts of cyberattacks, but this is where it is very important for like-minded countries and people to learn from each other,” he said.
Australian industrial bases are also being hit hard by cyberespionage, Hill said.
Australia primarily faces cyberattacks from China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, said Australian Representative Shayne Neumann, chair of the Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.
There are existing exchanges between police forces in Taipei and Canberra regarding cybersecurity, said Andrew Wallace, a member of Australia’s Liberal Party.
“Cybersecurity is not necessarily just a national security issue, it also involves child sexual labor slavery... Those connections between our various police forces, the Australian Federal Police and the police in Taiwan are very important,” he added.
On the prospect of Taiwan and Australia signing a free-trade deal, Neumann said that Australia is pushing to sign a trade deal with the EU first, but added that he understands Taiwan’s desire to reach a trade deal.
Taiwan is Australia’s seventh-largest trading partner, and Australia is a main source of coal and natural gas imports for Taiwan, so the nation is important to Australia and both sides have been deepening trade arrangements for a long time, Neumann said.
His party is interested in exploring a closer economic relationship with Taiwan, given the size of the nation as a market and the fact that both countries are APEC members, Australian parliamentarian Dave Sharma of the Liberal Party said.
As for Australia’s take on Taiwan losing Pacific ally Nauru earlier this year, Sharma said that although it is Nauru’s decision to make, based on its sovereign interests, Australia does “have an interest in ensuring that Taiwan retains some diplomatic space.”
It is important that there are still channels and avenues for dialogue with Taiwan from around the world, Sharma said, adding that it is why Australia supports Taiwan’s presence in international organizations.
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