Information sharing in Australia’s national security community by Kelly O’Hara and Anthony Bergin

This Policy Analysis, authored by Kelly O’Hara and Anthony Bergin, examines the information sharing vision of the new National Security CIO in light of reforms made towards a more joined-up national security community. It argues that information sharing should be a high priority for improving decision making in Australia’s national security community.

This Policy Analysis recommends: 

  • Making information discoverable and accessible to authorised users by means of off-the-shelf technology;
  • Mapping the information exchanges between agencies to reveal the extent of connectivity and capability gaps;
  • The National Security CIO conduct a regular audit to determine the extent to which community members have reached key milestones in making information discoverable and retrievable;
  • The new National Security College incorporate training modules on how to advance a responsibility to provide culture for senior national security officials;
  • The National Security CIO work in consultation with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner to develop a transparent national privacy framework of principles to guide information sharing in the national security community;
  • Greater use of Web 2.0 in the national security space to facilitate information sharing;
  • Establishing a centralised security vetting agency to issue clearances, rather than each agency ‘doing its own thing’.

Neighbourhood watch: The evolving terrorist threat 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.

The publication was launched at Parliament House by The Hon Mr Robert McClelland MP. For information on the launch including the speech click here.

The intelligence reform agenda: What next?

Intelligence is now at the forefront of our national security effort.

Recent reforms have delivered more money and more people to the intelligence community but limited structural changes.

This paper offers an assessment of the intelligence reform agenda and proposes some further steps towards restructuring the intelligence community and its activities to meet the national security challenges of the next decade. It argues that reforms to the coordination mechanisms, community engagement, education, training and accountability regimes are necessary to ensure that intelligence continues to play a central role in Australia’s national security.

An Office of National Security: Making it happen

Prior to the election, Labor promised two innovations in national security.

First, a Department of Homeland Security and Second a new position of National Security Advisor. 

The Homeland Security agency concept has been shelved, subject to a review, and its confirmed that the National Security Advisor isn’t a Ministerial position.

Assuming the National Security Advisor promise is still on the table, what might one look like?

Strategic Insights 6 – The Agenda for Intelligence Reform

This paper, authored by Peter Jennings, proposes reforms to the structure and activities of the Australian Intelligence Community designed to strengthen the capacity of the agencies performing intelligence analysis and to build a stronger sense of shared professionalism across the intelligence community.