Good afternoon all,

Thank you for your very generous welcome. That [introduction from Professor Rory Medcalf, Head of the National Security College] perhaps gives me some credentials for what I hope to talk about. But then I’m going to diminish your hopes by saying I fall into that category of people who made models as a child, so you can pigeonhole me, and if I were with my wife she would absolutely nod her head and say that’s a very appropriate starting point for me.

It’s great to be back at ANU [Australian National University] and with the National Security College – it’s an institution that I have great admiration for. I particularly welcome the opportunity to come together on a topic that I hope to demonstrate to you is both very important to me, but also I think very important to our nation.

I begin by acknowledging the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we meet, the Ngunnawal people. I pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. I also recognise all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who have served in our country’s uniform and continue to do so.

What a great title [Securing our Future: a ready and resilient Australia] that you have, and I think the sessions that you’ve had. I’ve looked at your program and I know there is a final panel to come after me, and I hope to perhaps set the scene for some of the discussion that follows in it. But it directly goes to the heart of one of the priorities I established when I commenced this particular role which is Defence preparedness, readiness and resilience of course are one way of describing the one word example that I talk to which is preparedness.

It is a really important topic for us, of course as we reach the end of the life-cycle of National Defence Strategy 2024. It’s due to be refreshed and presented by Government very shortly, it is a really good time to be addressing this topic.

A couple of scene setting comments from me, as I then draw you to why I think this topic of readiness and resilience is important, and what we can take from current world events that help us inform what Australia might need to do.

You would know, from the conversations that you have been having over the two days already, we are characterised by a world that is more connected than ever before, which has brought us many benefits – economic growth, cultural exchange, rapid technological advancement and, of course, innovation.

However, in an era of increasing uncertainty and conflict – and I would recognise that in the years of 2024 and 2025 the globe has experienced more state-on-state conflict than at any time since the end of the Second World War, so we are in a period of great uncertainty and conflict – that the interconnectedness that we enjoy also has serious implications for our national security.

Almost every aspect of our day-to-day lives that we take for granted – the ability to commute to work, contact our friends and family around the world or, as in my household, order nearly anything to our door at the push of a button – is increasingly vulnerable to disruption or attack.

National security is something that touches all Australians, whether they are conscious of it or not, and that reality makes public understanding, preparedness and resilience more important than ever before.

These vulnerabilities extend across Australian society, business and communities.

The research and findings of the National Security College’s Community Consultation, which you’ve been addressing, are both enlightening, and I find, entirely unsurprising.

Australian values, based on freedom, respect, fairness and equality of opportunity are central to the definition of what it means to be Australian, and are the reason why so many people choose to call Australia home. They are also central to our community remaining a secure, prosperous and peaceful place to live.

‘Ensuring peaceful and safe communities’ was the top priority for Australians who engaged in the consultation process, closely followed by ‘increasing Australia’s economic prosperity’ and ‘upholding Australia’s democratic rights and freedoms’.

‘Strengthening Australia’s security’ was ranked last of the four options.

For me, strengthening Australia’s security does not belong on that list at all. Why? It’s not a priority of itself, rather it is the pre-requisite that underwrites the conditions for the other three priorities.

The reason I say these results are unsurprising is because most Australians are not experts in national security, nor do I think they should they be.

Regardless of expertise, every Australian will live with the consequences of decisions taken, or not taken, by the people you have been engaging with over these few days.

While national security may not be baked into the day-to-day lives of Australians in the same way as it is for people living in Ukraine or Taiwan, we are familiar with the concepts of resilience and preparedness.

Every year, communities across Australia prepare for the fire and high-risk weather seasons. We make plans, we stockpile supplies and stay up to date on local conditions. We also have frank, practical conversations with our families and neighbours about what we will do if faced with an imminent threat from a natural hazard.

We know and accept that emergencies are part of life on our continent, and that preparedness and resilience reduce harm and save lives. We also know that preparedness is not solely the job of government and emergency services – it is a responsibility we all share.

When it comes to bushfires, we know and accept that preparedness and resilience cannot stop every disaster or prevent every loss. They are equally about how we respond, recover and rebuild after harm has occurred.

The same logic can be extended to our national security resilience. It is a shared responsibility of everyone who calls Australia home.

In the past, Australia has been able to rely on our geographic distance for safety and protection. Our daily lives were relatively insulated from immediate disruption from events happening elsewhere in the world.

This is no longer the case.

We have seen this quite clearly with the current conflict in the Middle East. While geographically distant, Australians have immediately felt the economic pain of the disruption to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz through increased fuel prices, disrupted critical supply chains and the consequential interest rate rise last week.

As a result of the conflict, the topic of fuel resilience is at the forefront of public discussion. Questions around fuel stockpiles, supply chains and national preparedness have become part of everyday conversations for every Australian in a way we rarely see.

However, fuel resilience is only one part of the much larger picture.

Just as firefighters require a logistics network of fuel, water, equipment and supplies to fight a fire, Australia is reliant upon the national support base to keep many aspects of our society working.

Every Australian relies on our supply chains, critical infrastructure, industrial capacity, workforce and essential services, and every Australian is affected when they are disrupted.

As a maritime nation, over ninety-nine per cent of Australia’s international trade is carried by sea.3 As such, our supply chains and several key resources, including fuel, are highly vulnerable to the disruption of maritime trade. The current conflict is not the first time the Australian public has seen this vulnerability, and we all remember the supply chain issues that occurred during the COVID pandemic, with the difficulties around sourcing personal protective equipment and medical products from overseas as just some examples.

One of the realities we must confront is that many systems we rely upon have been optimised for efficiency rather than resilience. Global supply chains minimise cost and maximise speed in stable conditions, but they can quickly fail when placed under stress.

Strengthening resilience may mean accepting higher peacetime costs – building redundancy, diversification and stockpiling – measures that can appear inefficient until they are urgently needed.

The focus provided by the Defence Strategic Review in 2023 and the 2024 National Defence Strategy has enabled Defence to perform improved contingency planning, including identifying the vital enablers for Defence operations. These encompass a wide range, from munitions to medical stocks.

There is also much Australia can learn from the experiences of other countries. Ukraine in particular can offer us invaluable insights into resilience and preparedness.

In the four years since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have undergone a dramatic transformation. From an initial force utilising largely Cold War era Soviet equipment, Ukraine now operates American F-16s, German Leopard tanks, and of course, a range of indigenous and foreign uncrewed systems.

At every stage of that conflict, Ukraine has made sure to fight with what they had.

That initial force, while it would be ill-suited to the current battlefield, used its limited resources to buy invaluable time and space for Ukraine to build industry, develop its forces and prepare its population to contribute – everything from building anti-tank barricades, to feeding their communities and troops.

The current Ukrainian force heavily utilises uncrewed and autonomous systems, which it has used to great effect in targeting the industry, supply chains and more exquisite capabilities of their numerically superior adversary.

Most importantly, the close partnership between the Ukrainian military and government with industry has also been a key factor in their current success.

The replacement period for battlefield technologies has shrunk significantly over the course of that war, from roughly seven months in 2022 to barely four to six weeks in 2025. With such a short replacement period, close cooperation between the military and industry is crucial to ensure requirements are understood and supply is maintained.

It is clear to us that new and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and uncrewed and autonomous systems, are well into development or in service with militaries around the world. It is important that Australia also sets up the frameworks around which we can manufacture these systems and govern their use in an Australian way – now, not when a crisis occurs.

The ADF has a variety of uncrewed and autonomous systems in service or undergoing trials. These capabilities are, to a great extent, designed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. However, emerging capabilities such as the MQ-28 Ghost Bat and Ghost Shark are examples of systems that will provide our nation with a strike capability as they are introduced into operational service.

This same work also needs to be taken on countering these systems, as Australia has not faced an adversary fielding the types of systems being utilised in Ukraine.

We are working closely with Ukraine and other partners to learn from the hard fought lessons of their conflict.

Regulations to support the defence force countering threats from uncrewed aerial systems are now in effect, but we have more to do with partner agencies across government to improve our ability to protect all forms of critical infrastructure.

Ukraine has also benefitted greatly from the strong support they have received from international partners, including Australia. The equipment, munitions, support and training the Ukrainian partners have provided to Ukraine have directly enabled Ukraine to work with additional time, capability and enhanced resilience that would not have been possible for Ukraine to achieve alone.

Likewise, Australia’s national resilience also depends on maintaining our strong international partnerships. Our allies and partners provide crucial support to our resilience, and these relationships help us to respond effectively to a complex and changing strategic environment.

When the People’s Liberation Army – Navy Task Group 107 was transiting the Tasman Sea during its circumnavigation of Australia last year, the ADF was working in close partnership with the New Zealand Defence Force to monitor and track the task group.

Risk is shared, responsibility is shared, and preparation must also be shared.

We are also exercising alongside our allies and partners at greater scale and complexity than ever before. Last July, Australia hosted the largest iteration of Exercise Talisman Sabre to date, with over 40,000 people and 19 nations participating.

Exercising our combined forces and capability builds and affirms our military-to-military ties and strengthens our interoperability. Most importantly, it provides us an opportunity to learn from one another in order to strengthen our own resilience.

We live in an uncertain era, where our day-to-day lives are vulnerable to disruption due to events on the other side of the globe with little warning.

Australians are used to living with risk, and our response is to prepare.

National security requires the same mindset. Not fear or alarm, but readiness.

Just as we do not wait for the flames to reach our doorstep before we prepare or evacuate, we cannot wait for a crisis to test our national resilience.

However, when we talk about national resilience, security or defence, the word ‘national’ can be overlooked. We must remember that these are whole-of-nation issues that all of us are stakeholders in – Government, industry, academia and our communities.

The Community Consultation Initiative’s findings show that Australians know what they value and want to protect. We just have to guide them on how we plan to do so.

We must talk about the resilience challenges and issues Australia faces openly, and bring them into the public consciousness for a national discussion.

Only through the cooperation and partnership of our entire nation will we be able to address these challenges, and ensure a ready and resilient Australia.

Thank you.