Guarding Against Uncertainty: Australian Attitudes to Defence

The expert panel found a wide diversity of views but a shared interest on the part of many Australians in defence and security policy, a strong desire to be consulted and a broadly positive view about Australia maintaining a well-funded, capable Australian Defence Force. As part of the community consultation, the expert panel conducted an extensive industry liaison process, which is also summarised for you in the report. We also include our input to the draft Defence Industry Policy Statement prepared by panel members Davies and Kalms for consideration by Senator Johnston in late 2014, which expands on many of the defence industry recommendations contained in the community consultation report. We want to draw to your attention to matters that may fall outside the scope of the Defence White Paper but which were raised in the consultations and are sufficiently important to warrant Government consideration. First there was strong support for the principle that Government needs to consider the need for proper resourcing of the treatment and reintegration of combat veterans, including to minimise the impact on relationships and society. Secondly, there was wide public recognition of the increasing importance of the cyber domain and the way it is becoming a new area of warfare. There was general support for greater investment in this area, although much less certainty about how Australia and Defence in particular should organise for it, given that there are so many dimensions. Most accepted that this a 'work progress' but emphasised that a whole-of-Government approach, of which the Defence effort would be only a part, was essential. Our view is that in an appropriate policy document, Government identity a lead agency to steer a whole-of-government focus on cyber security.