The spooky Defence Signals Directorate has joined Federal Police investigations into the denial of service attacks on Government web sites that left the Department of Parliamentary Services without access to its internet site for three days.

Shadow Attorney General George Brandis has stepped up Opposition attacks over the appointment of a former Labor political staffer to a $450,000-a-year role within the NBN Company, calling it a "rolled-gold example of jobs for the boys."

Seasonally adjusted jobs advertising in the tech sector remained steady in January in a month that saw overall job advertising climb four per cent, according to the latest Job Index numbers from recruitment firm Olivier.

The freshly-minted Member for Bradfield and former Optus executive Paul Fletcher has used his maiden speech to the Parliament to declare his ambitions for improving Australian capability in research and education, for improving commercial outcomes for local innovation, and for creating a society that makes best use of information technology.

The NBN Company has defended its recruitment practices in the wake of the Mike Kaiser 'Labor Mates' row that erupted from a Senate hearing yesterday, and says its employment processess are based on "merit not mates."

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has conceded he suggested to the NBN Company that it look at possibly hiring Queensland Premier Anna Bligh's former chief of staff Mike Kaiser - the man now at the centre of a $450,000-a-year 'Labor Mates' row.

The NBN Co will soon name locations around Australia for the initial roll-out of National Broadband Network infrastructure as 'first-release' live trial sites, executive chairman Mike Quigley has told a Senate committee.

Australia's skilled migration program is to be overhauled mid-year with the scrapping of the wide-ranging Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL) in favour of a new system that it says will better target skills in short supply.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy wants the industry to open a dialog to develop a code of practice for better protecting intellectual property online in the wake of the iiNet court case before Government considers stepping in with new legislation.

An estimated 72,000 children who accessed the internet last year had some kind of personal safety or security problem, according to a Australian Bureau of Statistics report published today.