James Paterson, the Coalition’s home affairs spokesman in Australia, has stated that Chinese cyberattacks and interference in Australian institutions are currently at their highest levels. This comes as intelligence officials express concerns over the activities of the state-sponsored hacking group Volt Typhoon.

Australian officials held deep concerns about Volt Typhoon because intelligence suggested the group was “pre-positioning for the purposes of disruptive impact” including sabotage, according to Abigail Bradshaw, head of the Cyber Security Centre at the Australian Signals Directorate.

Bradshaw made the remarks, which had not been reported before, during a Senate estimates hearing earlier this month, alongside directorate chief Rachel Noble. Noble commented that China’s increasingly extensive efforts to spy on MPs and other prominent Australians were expanding significantly.

On the first day of Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Australia, the opposition questioned the ruling Labor Party’s strategy of “disagreeing where necessary” in its approach to Chinese relations, while the government emphasized that skillful diplomacy should not be interpreted as submission.

“It’s up to the prime minister to explain how you can have a stable relationship with an authoritarian power that is determined to threaten our critical infrastructure assets, interfere in our democracy and intimidate Australian citizens into silence,” Paterson said.

Paterson’s criticism, informed by his access to high-level briefings from parliament’s intelligence and security committee, mirrors concerns within certain factions of the Coalition and intelligence community regarding Labor’s stance on China. This unease stems from recent incidents including aggressive actions towards Australian military personnel, signals concerning Taiwan’s sovereignty, and the suspended death sentence of Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun.