STEM career pathways for the Indigenous Australian community

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute has been awarded a competitive grant from the Department of Defence to support a project which will look at strategies to provide more STEM career pathways to the Indigenous Australian community in Northern Australia.

This project will build on previous work ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre has done in 2019-20 including the Indigi-Cyber Camps for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids and ongoing research work.

This new multi-year project – which focuses on information and communications technology and cyber-security – will establish a best practice reference model comprising a framework and strategy for creating and sustaining workforce pathways for Indigenous Australians.

Across the country there is an increasingly vibrant Indigenous innovation sector and initiatives that walk hand-in-hand with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge keepers and communities.  Indigenous people across Australia need to be resourced and supported to learn from each other, share knowledge and build sustainable activities and enterprises.

Up-skilling this community will boost the economy of northern Australia, service the shortage of STEM experts, strengthen the national security ecosystem of Australia’s north, and sponsor a more inclusive and diverse community culture.

Project co-lead Dion Devow from ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre said “Our ambition is to look 30 years ahead and consider the paths forward for Indigenous Australians into IT and cyber.  We want to learn from the examples of Indigenous excellence in this area and expand education and employment opportunities. We are driven by the importance of forming shared values with communities, collaborating, celebrating and incorporating Indigenous Australian peoples and culture into IT and understanding the way this intersects with tech innovation.” 

Please contact Dr. Huon Curtis if you would like to find out more about this new project huoncurtis@aspi.org.au.

Xinjiang Data Project website launch

ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre has launched the Xinjiang Data Project, along with two new major pieces of research, on Xinijang’s detention system, and on the destruction of mosques and significant Uyghur cultural sites in the region. One of the most effective research methods in both of these projects was the collection and analysis of satellite imagery, including the examination of night-time satellite imagery from Xinjiang.

Since 2017, a government crackdown in the far-western region of China known as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region has seen over a million Uyghurs and other Turkic and Muslim minorities extrajudicially detained in a vast network of purpose-built detention facilities. There have also been media reports about incidents of mosques demolished or repurposed, along with other Uyghur cultural sites. 

Credible data on the extent of Xinjiang’s post-2017 detention system is scarce. But researchers at ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre have now located, mapped and analysed 380 suspected detention facilities in Xinjiang, making it the most comprehensive data on Xinjiang’s detention system in the world. This new database highlights ‘re-education’ camps, detention centres, and prisons which have been newly built or expanded since 2017, and we believe it covers most such detention facilities. 

The findings of this research contradicts Chinese officials’ claims that all “re-education camp” detainees had ‘graduated’ in December 2019. It presents satellite imagery evidence that shows newly constructed detention facilities, along with growth in several existing facilities, that has occurred across 2019 and 2020. 

The second key piece of research on our new website is a project investigating the rate of cultural destruction in Xinjiang. This research estimates 35% of mosques have been demolished; and a further 30% have been damaged in some way, usually by the removal of Islamic or Arabic architectural features such as domes, minarets or gatehouses. We estimate approximately 16,000 mosques have been damaged or totally destroyed throughout Xinjiang (65% of the total). The majority of demolished sites remain as empty lots. 

Further, 30% of important Islamic cultural sites (sacred shrines, cemeteries and pilgrimage routes) across southern Xinjiang have been demolished since 2017, with an additional 28% damaged or altered in some way. This includes the complete demolition of the ancient pilgrimage town of Ordam Mazar. 

This new research and associated maps and satellite imagery, can be viewed at the Xinjiang Data Project website. 

The new space age – Four Corners

The new space age: The race to colonise outer space

“It’s not just a boom. It’s a frenzy. Suddenly every government department is a space department in one way or another. All industry sectors somehow are dabbling in space…It truly has become a frenzy.” Space academic

Sixty years ago, the world watched in wonder at the dawning of the space age. Humankind’s first flights into space and the landing on the moon showed the seemingly impossible was achievable.

Now we are on the brink of a new space revolution.

ASPI’s Dr Malcolm Davis is interviewed for the ABC’s Four Corners special; The new space age.

You can watch the program here: https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/the-new-space-age/12613242.

The Truth about 5g – ABC Four Corners

“If you are not currently working to stop 5G this means you don’t understand it. Nothing else matters anymore.”  Leading activist

Around Australia a vocal band of activists have joined a worldwide protest movement against the arrival of the next generation in wireless technology known as 5G. 

“I don’t want to be a human lab rat. Because that’s what’s happening. They’re just using us to see if it’s going to be okay. And if we die, well, we’ve got so many of us, what does it matter?”  Protestor

Activists claim 5G is an invisible and potentially deadly health hazard, blaming the radiation emitted by the technology for a range of long-term health problems.

ASPI’s Dr Huong Le Thu is interviewed on ABC’s Four Corners special: The truth about 5G

You can watch the program here: https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/the-truth-about-5g/12519392.

2020 Defence Strategic Update & Force Structure Plan

ASPI warmly invites you to view the 2020 Defence Strategic Update Announcement by the Minister for Defence.

When: 12:30pm-1:30pm, Thursday 2 July 2020
Where: Watch live at ASPICanberra

In October 2019 Minister for Defence, Senator the Hon. Linda Reynolds CSC, announced the Defence Department was conducting a strategic review that would reassess the strategic underpinnings of the 2016 Defence White Paper, with the outcomes to be considered by Government in 2020.

Senator Reynolds will make a public address at ASPI that will expand on the announcements made the previous day. Her 30 minute address will offer more detail on the 2020 Force Structure Plan in particular.

The Minister will then be joined by General Angus Campbell, Chief of the Defence Force, and Mr Greg Moriarty, Secretary of Defence, for a panel discussion and Q&A moderated by Peter Jennings, ASPI’s Executive Director.

Watch the announcement here.

How to stay cyber-secure when working from home during Covid-19.

As Australian organisations plan to slowly return to the office in the coming weeks and months, cyber security, and cyber safety, becomes even more important.

ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre asked experts for some tips on how to stay secure and safe when working from home, and as we transition back to the office, full-time or part-time.

They discuss the importance of patching your device & updating your firmware; two-factor authentication; being wary of suspicious emails, links and attachments; e-safety when at home with your kids; and treating cyber security at home just as you would in the office.

Hear from:

  • Paul Fletcher MP, Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Arts
  • Tim Watts MP, Shadow Assistant Minister for Cyber Security
  • Sean Duca, Palo Alto
  • Christian Frain, Splunk
  • Matt Carling, Cisco
  • Julie Inman-Grant, Australia’s e-Safety Commissioner
  • Vicky Xu, ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre
  • Glenn Maiden, Fortinet
  • Damien Manuel and Megan Spielvogel, AISA
  • Mark Anderson, Microsoft
  • Michelle Bedson, Jacobs
  • Rachael Falk, Cyber Security CRC

Video edited by Henry Stentiford

Australia’s intelligence community needs another independent review

On 9 March 2020 ASPI’s Danielle Cave co-authored an article with The Lowy Institute’s Alex Oliver focused on why women remain under-represented in senior and strategic roles in Australia’s intelligence community:

“The quality of the community’s output is dependent on the thousands of staff who manage an increasingly complex mix of operational, technical, and analytical work. Many of them work in high-pressure environments and are responsible for delivering the fruits of that work to the government, and to parliament.

A lack of independent and in-depth investigation over many decades has allowed a community to evolve in which women have not risen to the top at nearly the same rate as their male counterparts, which has produced a culture far less diverse than Australian society itself…

…The gap is most startling because, when you interrogate the data as we did for our 2019 report Foreign Territory: Women in International Relations, you can see it clearly. Our report found that Australia’s intelligence agencies, collectively, have the lowest proportions of women in leadership among the study sample, with female representation in the senior executive service across the community far lower than in the public service generally. Some agencies had actually suffered periodic declines in senior female representation.

We also discovered that there were fewer women in key senior intelligence roles, running operational, analytical, and technical divisions, posted in senior roles overseas and leading policy-shaping activities (such as reviews).”

Read the full article at the Lowy Interpreter here.

Michael Shoebridge on the end of lockdown in Wuhan

After 76 days, the lockdown of Wuhan in China has come to an end.

ASPI’s Michael Shoebridge discusses the ramifications of this decision with Tim Lester on 7 News. 

Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) Statement

ASPI is an independent, non-partisan think tank that produces expert and timely advice for Australia’s strategic and defence leaders. To this end, ASPI is proactive in its disclosure of funding to ensure strong transparency and accountability.

ASPI’s annual reporting through the Minister to Parliament is a strong transparency and accountability measure, imposing the same accountability for our operations and use of funds as other public sector entities.  Our compliance is audited by the ANAO.

ASPI is also one of the very few Australian organisations, including think tanks and universities, that has registered under the FITS.  This is consistent with the spirit of transparency and accountability of our independent organisation.

The ASPI grant amount cited in the Senate this week was incorrect. The 2019 State Department grant cited was for less than half the amount quoted in Parliament. These grant funds were used for ASPI’s China Defence Universities Tracker project [https://unitracker.aspi.org.au/]. As this grant falls within the current financial year, it will be reported in ASPI’s 2019-20 annual report that will be tabled to Parliament.

We are incredibly proud of the China Defence Universities tracker project. It was an enormous piece of in-depth analysis that is data driven, policy relevant and rigorously researched by our analysts. Importantly, the idea for the project came about in 2018 in response to requests from the university sector – in Australia and overseas – for more analysis and Chinese-language support to better understand potential research partners in China. The feedback we have had on the project, from universities in Australia and around the world, has so far been excellent and it is being well-used by both university sectors and governments.  

In 2019 ASPI created a webpage to explain its registration on the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme (FITS), an Australian Government initiative that aims to provide the public and government decision-makers with visibility of the nature, level and extent of foreign influence on Australia’s government and political process.

ASPI registers projects under the FITS as necessary; funding from the U.S. State Department, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Government of Japan have been listed on FITS: https://www.aspi.org.au/foreign-influence-transparency-scheme

The FITS complements ASPI’s existing disclosure and reporting methods. As with all of ASPI’s work, ASPI retains independent control over the content and direction of all foreign funded or sponsored work. This is made clear in the agreements with each principal and is essential both to comply with the ASPI’s charter, which requires ASPI to provide independent analysis and advice, and to protect ASPI’s reputation for independence in its research and commentary.

For more information on the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme please visit: https://www.ag.gov.au/Integrity/foreign-influence-transparency-scheme/Pages/default.aspx

To see ASPI’s annual reports since its inception in 2001 please visit: https://www.aspi.org.au/annual-reports

After White Paper 16 – Save the Date!

ASPI International Conference

After White Paper ’16: What next for defence strategy?

10-12 June, 2020. Hotel Realm, Canberra

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) invites you to save the date for our annual international conference.

The world has changed more quickly than we assessed in 2016…and so too are the consequential challenges. For Defence that means we need to assess these changes and challenges in a hard-headed manner to adapt to the rapidly changing world around us.

Senator the Hon Linda Reynolds CSC, Minister for Defence.

As Defence is reassessing the strategic foundations of the 2016 White Paper, ASPI is convening distinguished international and Australian thinkers for two days of debate to consider what is next for Australian defence strategy.

Tickets and agenda to be available soon.