The federal government should treat the personal data of Australians like critical infrastructure, with better protection needed to keep information secure as a consideration in foreign investment and takeovers.

Speaking at an Australia China Business Council event in Sydney on Monday, Foreign Investment Review Board chairman David Irvine went off-script and detailed his efforts at FIRB to protect personal data during foreign takeovers.

Mr Irvine, who is a former ASIO chief and the current Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre chair, detailed his “long-running battle” to treat data like critical infrastructure and his concerns about this data being moved “willy nilly” offshore, but these remarks were not included in the official transcript of the speech published by Treasury.

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