Dear Michael,

This week I announced an update in our fight against ransomware and cyber attacks.

Ransomware is a significant threat to individuals, businesses, and our critical infrastructure.

Attacks are carried out by lone hackers, sophisticated criminal networks, and authoritarian states. 

But we are fighting back.

AUKUS is preparing Australia for the national security challenges ahead.  

With our AUKUS partners—the UK and USA—we are protecting Australians online and striking back against our adversaries.

Not that the Labor Party would want you to know about it.

Although they claim to fully support AUKUS, the truth is that some of Anthony Albanese's closest supporters are trying to tear up the deal. 

Tomorrow the national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union, members of Young Labor, and radical activists of the Labor Left will join 93 year old anti-war activist Noam Chomsky in an anti-AUKUS protest.

They are militantly opposed to AUKUS and to Australia getting nuclear submarines. 

These activists are close to Albanese. He once led the same ALP youth organisation; he relies on their factional support. He shares their DNA. 

They want to destroy the most important security agreement Australia has signed in 70 years.

When Albanese was last in Government, he was part of the cabinet that slashed defence spending to its lowest levels since pre-World War Two. 

The world has changed since then. Now is not the time for weakness. Authoritarian powers like Russia and China are rumbling the West and undermining our strategic strength. 

How could Anthony Albanese stand up for Australia when he can't even control the radicals in his own party? 

With Russian forces massed on the border of Ukraine, and China militarising the South China Sea, Australians are right to be concerned about what is happening around the world.

We need leadership, courage, and strength. 

Anthony Albanese and his radical Labor friends are a risk to our security. We can’t risk him in The Lodge.

Best,

Andrew Hastie