Australia’s National Security Institutions: reform and renewal

This Special Report, authored by Carl Ungerer, examines the recent evolution of Australia’s national security institutions.  
The report highlights the major changes to Australia’s national security institutions since 2008 including the shifting conceptual foundations for policy making, new power structures and changes to the way in which our national security institutions are funded and organised. The paper argues that despite several years of reform, the institutional design for national security policy-making as a whole remains dominated by centralisation and limited coordination.  
In the paper Carl Ungerer argues that, ‘a more appropriate model for Australia’s national security would better align strategy, resources and administrative functions.’
‘Over the next decade, Australia will confront an international security environment that will be more competitive and less amendable to a ‘business as usual’ approach’, he said.
The paper identifies three broad recommendations for building a more integrated policy framework: (1) making networks the main institutional design feature, not departments; (2) placing the functions of the National Security Advisor on a statutory basis; and (3) appointing a special minister of state for national security. 
These reforms are neither complicated, technically difficult or resource intensive, he said.