National Security

One of the smartest moves Bill Shorten made when he became Opposition Leader was to make Labor a small target on national security by endorsing most of the Coalition’s national security initiatives. This small-target approach neutralised a traditional Coalition strength while shoring up Labor’s security credentials, which had been weakened by the Rudd-Gillard government’s policy disarray on asylum-seekers and perceived softness on border protection.
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The challenges for national security and foreign policy continue to mount. News about the arrest of Huawei’s chief financial officer for alleged infringements of US sanctions against Iran broke at the same time as espionage concerns were reignited by the Chinese technology company’s plan to build a pan-Pacific undersea internet cable from Chile to China via Sydney. This raises the possibility that Australian internet traffic could be intercepted covertly at the cable’s Sydney node. Read more

Large-scale immigration, so long the hallmark of successful cosmopolitan societies in the developed West, threatens to fracture democracies in the old and new worlds. Across Europe and North America rising anti-immigration sentiment, driven by the number of asylum-seekers and undocumented labour migrants, is exacerbating divisions over identity, values and national security.
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The US Justice Department’s ­indictment of Russian interference in the 2016 US election makes for sobering reading and has direct implications for ­Australia.

Its 37 pages forensically detail the audacious tactics employed by Russia to undermine the electoral processes of a sovereign state, our ally and fellow democracy, raising the question of whether the integrity of our own elections also may be compromised one day. Read more

The national security establishment believes the media doesn’t appreciate the extent of Chinese, Russian and other nations’ intelligence operations in Australia and wants more press coverage of the problem, according to a former senior intelligence official.

Speaking amid a backlash from media companies and journalists towards tough new laws governing intelligence leaks, Ross Babbage, a former head of strategic analysis at the Office of National Assessments, said security officials did not want to limit press freedoms, which they saw as aiding the fight against foreign spy agencies. Read more

Are Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s changes to Australia’s intelligence and national security arrangements necessary and genuinely transformational, as he claims? Or are they essentially an exercise in political management aimed at burnishing Turnbull’s national security credentials and ensuring the continuing loyalty of his key conservative ally and current Immigration Minister Peter Dutton?
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