Director of UNSW Canberra Cyber Nigel Phair said such a centre had been a long time coming, arguing parliament's cyber operations were in need of an upgrade.

Treasurer Scott Morrison confirmed in Tuesday's budget the Department of Parliamentary Services (DPS) would receive $9 million over four years to establish a cyber security operations centre.

The centre will be set up during the 2018-19 financial year, with $300,000 of capital funding.

A spokeswoman for DPS said the department was funded for up to seven positions in order to staff the new centre.

"Development of the new capability will commence immediately with a target of being operational over the following 12 months," the spokeswoman said.

"The team will be located within the existing Parliament House premises."

The centre would be set up to "enhance cyber security protection for the parliamentary computing network" according to budget papers.

Mr Phair said there had been talk of setting up an increased cyber security presence in Parliament House for some time.

"Nothing in cyber is ever too late, it would've been great if it was set up some years ago, but it's better late than never," Mr Phair said.

"It's great that there's now dollars attached to it and that Parliament House as an entity itself will be focusing on the security of the data."

Mr Phair said he expected the centre to focus on cyber security surrounding confidential communication within the building as well as the social media accounts of MPs.

"I hope that it will be holistic in its approach," he said.

"It would need to look at everything from department-to-department data all the way to simple things like social media accounts."

The DPS spokeswoman said consultations for the new centre had been under way for the past two years.

"Significant research and consideration of priority areas for the cyber security of the parliamentary environment has been undertaken," she said.

"Consultations have included Australian intelligence and security organisations as well as counterparts in the Commonwealth parliaments."

The hacking of the social media accounts of MPs has come under investigation from the AFP in recent months, after the Twitter account of Health Minister Greg Hunt liked a tweet belonging to a porn account in early December.

The minister said neither himself or his staff members liked the tweet.

Mr Phair said it's vital communication between MPs and government departments were protected, following on from previous cyber attacks on Parliament House.

Fairfax Media reported in 2014 Chinese intelligence agents may have been inside Parliament House's computer network in 2011 for up to a year, having access to sensitive emails and documents.

"There's lots of state secrets and government policy that is shared around on the computer network, and that data is really valuable and also has commercial interests," Mr Phair said.

The DPS spokeswoman said the new centre would allow for an improvement in the current systems being used to protect information.

"It is vitally important that the information technology systems and information are protected to ensure that parliament can operate without interruption," she said.