Release of ASPI Special Report Public opinion in Australia towards defence, security and terrorism

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The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) today released a new Special Report which traces the public’s changing views of the main issues relating to defence and security over an extended period. The paper identifies three key views of the public on defence and security: 

  • The threat of terrorism is now regarded by almost two in three people as part of everyday life in Australia, and half are concerned about becoming the victim of a terrorist attack. Two-thirds are concerned about a major attack in the future.
  • The proportion of voters seeing a conventional security threat to Australia has declined consistently since the late 1960s.
  • Public support for defence links with the United States has remained consistently high over an extended period, though there have been recent declines in support, caused by the unpopularity of the Iraq War. 

Author Ian McAllister says in the post-Cold War world, terrorism is seen by most Australians as the new threat to their security. 

Release of ASPI Strategy Report – Neighbourhood watch: The evolving terrorist threat in Southeast Asia

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The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) today released a new report on how the Southeast Asian terrorist threat might evolve in the future.

The report was launched by Attorney-General The Hon Robert McClelland MP, at Parliament House. In his speech, the Minister welcomed the publication of the report and said it help Australians better understand the critical challenges faced by our country, and by countries in Southeast Asia.

The regional terrorist threat remains high on the list of Australia’s national security priorities. It is time to take stock of the regional security environment and to ask how the Southeast Asian terrorist threat might evolve in the future.

This report, authored by Peter Chalk and Carl Ungerer, analyses the changing nature of religious militancy and sets out a framework for understanding the forces and trends that are driving jihadist extremism in the region.

A number of policy recommendations are made on the appropriate next steps in Australia’s regional counter-terrorism strategy including leading a diplomatic campaign to ensure compliance with international counter-terrorism conventions.

At the launch, author Dr Carl Ungerer said despite the absence of a major bombing campaign in Southeast Asia since 2005, the regional terrorist threat remains real and requires constant vigilance and monitoring.

Release of Strategic Insights – Policing our ocean domain: Establishing an Australian coast guard

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The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) today released a new report recommending Australia establish a coast guard. 

The report, written by Derek Woolner, calls for the establishment of a statutory authority, the Australian Coast Guard, out of the current Border Protection Command to be directly responsible to a Minister for the assessment of intelligence, planning and implementation of operations and future improvements to maritime border security. 

‘For almost four decades Australia has had great difficulty in deciding how to police the vast areas of sea to which it claims sovereign rights. There have been significant improvements in the last two years but there is nothing in place to make these permanent or to fully support approaches to getting further improvements’, said author Derek Woolner. 

Currently the authority of Border Protection Command rests on directives issued by the CEO of the Australian Customs Service and the Chief of the Defence Force. The reforms proposed in the report would replace the previous appointed committees created when failure occurs and put in their place a professional organisation able to anticipate problems and operate as Australia’s national maritime police. 

By developing a central organisation for civil maritime security, the Government would widen the options for developing the nation’s maritime expertise through personnel training, capacity available for maritime research, cooperation with regional coastguards and development of plans for the use of Coast Guard capabilities in time of conflict. 

‘Australia’s maritime security was not discussed at the 2020 Summit, yet the very next day Australia accepted sovereign rights over an additional 2.5 million square kilometres of ocean. This puts Australia up with the top maritime nations in the world. It is time that we acknowledged this with arrangements allowing us to control events that happen in our own maritime backyard’, says Woolner.  

Release The Cost of Defence: ASPI Defence Budget Brief 2008-09

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The Australian Strategic Policy Institute today released The Cost of Defence: ASPI Defence Budget Brief 2008-09. 

This document has been written to give readers greater access to the complex workings of the Defence budget and to promote informed debate on defence budget issues.  

In releasing the document, ASPI Defence Analyst Mark Thomson said: 

Defence is not short of money at the moment. Not only will they hand back $812 million of unspent funds this year, but they’ll receive an extra $939 million in price indexation for next year. This explains why they’ve been told to absorb around $1 billion of operational deployment costs in 2008-09. 

Nonetheless, the Defence budget will still exceed $22 billion next year representing 1.8% of GDP. 

Deployment costs continue to mount. Over the next three years, a further $702 million will be spent in Afghanistan and $268 million in Iraq, which will bring the accumulated cost in these two theatres to $2.1 billion and $2.3 billion respectively.  

For the long term, the government extended 3% real growth in the Defence budget from 2016 to 2018. 

Unfortunately, Defence’s long-troubled acquisition program again looks to be faltering. Another $2.3 billion of planned investment in new equipment was deferred in the budget.  

In a sign that recent personnel initiatives are making a difference, the permanent defence force has grown for the second year in a row, after having fallen across the preceding three years.  Over the next four years the force is planned to grow from just over 53,000 to around 57,500. 

Despite the present healthy budget situation, Defence is likely to need more money to deliver the plans presently in place for the defence force.  For this reason, the recently announced decade-long $10 billion internal savings program is critical.  

But even for a colossus like Defence $1 billion a year is a lot of money. To free up this much money will demand root and branch reform to how Defence goes about its business.  

Release of ASPI Strategy Report – Seeing Indonesia as a normal country: Implications for Australia

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The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) today released a new report on Indonesia, examining the country’s political and economic evolution since the Soeharto era and the implications for Australia. 

The report was launched by The Hon Stephen Smith MP, Minister for Foreign Affairs, at Parliament House. In his speech, the Minister welcomed the publication of the report and said it will do much to help Australians better understand the very special nature of the connection between Australia and Indonesia. 

‘This report helps inform the Australian public about important and fascinating changes that have occurred in Indonesia and it provides very thoughtful insights into future directions for our bilateral cooperation’. 

The report, authored by Professor Andrew MacIntyre and Dr Douglas E Ramage, urges Australia to understand the more stable landscape of Indonesia. It makes a number of specific policy recommendations including:  

  • a new approach to engagement with the military
  • a geographic shift within the country of our development assistance programs
  • a renewed emphasis on supporting economic growth, poverty reduction and enhancing governance at the national and sub-national levels.

 ‘Indonesia in 2008 is a stable, competitive electoral democracy…playing a constructive role in the regional and broader international community’. 

Strengthening Australia’s success in Afghanistan

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Release of ASPI Strategic Insight  Making it count: Australia’s involvement in Afghanistan 

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) today released a new report on Australia’s commitment in Afghanistan. The report, written by ASPI Research Fellow Raspal Khosa, argues Australia’s security interests are tied to the success of the International Assistance Force (ISAF) mission in Afghanistan. 

Afghanistan will become the main focus of Australian Defence Force Operations supporting Australia’s wider interests over the next year. Recently the Australian Government announced it will commit $619 million in 2008–2009 to Operation Slipper: Australia’s contribution to the ISAF armed state-building mission in Afghanistan. 

The report makes three key recommendations on how Australia’s commitment in Afghanistan can increase its effectiveness: 

  • focus on security sector reform by training competent Afghan security forces 
  • improve reconstruction and development efforts through better coordination of civil and military resources 
  • engage with Pakistan to contain cross-border insurgent activity.

 Author Raspal Khosa contends the only way to expedite our withdrawal and protect our interests is to work towards a sustainable, democratic and secure Afghanistan.  

Australia needs to bounce back from both terrorism and natural disasters

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Release of ASPI Strategic Insight   Taking a punch: Building a more resilient Australia 

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) today released a new report on how Australia can bounce back from all hazards, not just terrorism.  The report is written by the former Director General of Emergency Management Australia, David Templeman and ASPI’s Research Director, Anthony Bergin.  The paper recommends a number of specific measures to build a more resilient Australia including: 

encourage schools and communities to plan on how they would cope without essentials and for how long. Supermarket check-outs could provide customers with a pantry list of products and food items people should stock in anticipation of a need. And we should invest in basic first aid training for all Year Five school children

amalgamate our national counter-terrorism and emergency management protection arrangements into one structure

create a national community information and disaster warning system

factor climate change into emergency planning

examine if disaster response by our military ought to be regarded as a core mission and what this might mean for selecting equipment and dispersal of military assets around Australia

undertake realistic testing of our health assets in mass casualty disasters

draw large business suppliers of goods and services much more into emergency planning

introduce a program that provides some assistance with personal costs or childcare support to emergency volunteers and a national scheme to assist employers of emergency workers, so they might receive compensation if they face difficulties in releasing employees to undertake emergency duty

incorporate robustness and alternative supply options in design as part of the  selection criteria for infrastructure projects by  the Rudd Government’s new advisory body, Infrastructure Australia

designate the ABC as the approved national emergency broadcaster with the ability to interrupt immediately any program to provide community advice on any aspect of a likely or resultant disaster.

A new agenda for national security

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Release of ASPI Special Report  

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) today released a new Special Report on Australia’s national security. Defining national security priorities in the current international environment is a complicated task. National security concepts that focus on military threats and responses are no longer sufficient to deal with the range of security risks that Australia faces in this new environment.  This paper addresses four critical questions highlighting the key challenges for the Australian Government as it seeks to implement a national security agenda: 

  • What is the definition of national security?
  • Why do emerging security issues such as organised crime, pandemic diseases and climate change pose a national security risk?
  • How have other countries such as Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom approached national security planning?
  • What bureaucratic changes are necessary in Australia in order to deal with the contemporary security environment?

 In answering these questions, the paper puts forward a number of recommendations including the publication of an annual security risk assessment and the creation of a single national security budget to be administered by the new Office of National Security. Author Dr Carl Ungerer says ‘At its core, the concept of a national security policy requires governments to think about three interrelated questions; the trajectory of the international and domestic security environment and its implications for the modern democratic state; judgements about the likely probability and consequences of events across the emerging threat spectrum; and the range and combination of policy instruments needed to meet those risks today and into the future’.  

Australia’s security industry-the forgotten partner in national security

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Release of ASPI Special Report Advancing Australian homeland security: Leveraging the Private Sector

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) today released a new Special Report on the security industry and the role it could play in protecting Australia’s homeland security.   

The report finds that the integration of effective security across all sectors of Australia is being hindered by a general lack of mutual understanding and respect between those who define security requirements and services and those who provide these goods and services. 

The paper suggests five measures that would allow public and private sector customers access to a wider spectrum of advanced security capability and leverage leading edge security thinking from industry and the research community. 

First, governments should produce clear statements of capability to provide guidance as to the requirements, expectations and desired level of security. 

Second, in partnership with suppliers, governments should develop standards for security requirements for the guidance of security managers in the public and private sectors.  

Third, the federal government should facilitate impartial testing arrangements for emerging security technologies and oversee and assess the uptake of such technologies. 

Fourth, to allow the maximum number of customers access to all those potentially providing relevant technologies and services, a national customer group should be established that would bring together key Australian government agencies to develop and discuss broad capability requirements. 

And at the state level, security buyers and sellers could be assisted in business matching by the Industry Capability Network Limited, that assists businesses to maximise opportunities that arise from purchasing requirements from both the government and private sector.  

Dr Anthony Bergin, ASPI’s research director and co-author of the report, said ‘These measures would better integrate customers and sellers in our security market and enhance the ability of Australia to protect itself at all levels from all hazards.’ 

‘Our security industry is now a multi-billion dollar industry. Security spending will continue to expand, driven by risk perceptions of terrorism, the hosting of major events and the on-going need to protect critical infrastructure.’  

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The South Pacific: a long-term challenge, say ASPI Reports

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Release of ASPI Reports on the relationship between Australia and the Pacific Island Countries 
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) today released two new Special Reports on the relationship between Australia and the Pacific Island Countries, Australia and the South Pacific: Rising to the challenge and Engaging our neighbours: Towards a new relationship between Australia and the Pacific Islands. 

The publications were launched by The Hon Duncan Kerr SC MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs at Parliament House.

The reports are the products of an eight-month project designed to find ways of improving the prospects for economic development and political stability in the region. The reports analyse the diverse challenges facing South Pacific island states and their impacts on regional security, as well as Australia’s role in the region, leading to recommendations for policy makers.

Australia and the South Pacific: Rising to the challenge, a research collection of seven distinct papers by leading experts, examines key issues in South Pacific security and Australia’s role in the region. It offers a range of suggestions that should be considered in the development of Australia’s regional strategy. 

ASPI convened a group of prominent Australian academics, researchers, business representatives and policy makers to develop a consensus view about Australia’s relationships with the Pacific Island Countries. ‘Engaging our neighbours: Towards a new relationship between Australia and the Pacific Islands’, is the report of this Independent Task Force.
The Pacific Islands will always matter strategically to Australia and it is important that we engage our regional neighbours over the long term, especially Melanesia.  ‘That’s a key message from these two reports’ says ASPI Executive Director Peter Abigail, who served as co-chair of the ASPI Pacific Task Force.  ‘Another is that while we cannot fully open our doors to our Pacific neighbours, we should open them more than we have in the past’.