05:36

Centre Alliance’s Rex Patrick has asked the Senate president Scott Ryan about reports that China was responsible for the hack of parliament’s computer systems in February, which China dismissed as “baseless”.

Ryan replied that it would not be appropriate to comment but restated Scott Morrison’s formulation that a “sophisticated state actor” was responsible. He said a small amount of data was taken but none was deemed sensitive.

Network security is of the “highest priority” and Ryan promises to give a further update at Senate supplementary estimates.

