In Australia, our security is inseparable from our proud national values and identity as a democracy and a multicultural society, where the rights, freedoms and equal opportunities for all are advanced and respected.
As the AUSMIN communiqué in Washington has just underscored, the Albanese government has no illusions about the strategic environment. It is now intensely contested.
What constitutes security?
China’s military modernisation, full-spectrum assertiveness and ambitions for regional dominance are one part of that picture. Vladimir Putin’s grievous demonstration in Ukraine that war is real and that nightmares can come true, is another.
But we are also seeing elements of a broader vision about what constitutes security and the national interest. We are learning that when sorrows come, they come not only in battalions but in economic, societal and environmental shocks as well.
Meanwhile, other threats to social cohesion, democratic institutions and the multicultural identity of modern Australia may be down but are certainly not out.
Foreign interference, espionage and cyber risk may now officially be dominant priorities, but terrorism, racism and conspiracism also keep our…
