Federal election 2016: Expert’s chilling warning on cyber security

AUSTRALIA is “facing a rapidly deteriorating national security environment and a growing cyber threat to the economy which the major political parties need to address urgently”.

Professor Rory Medcalf, head of the National Security College / Picture: Gary Ramage

• ROLLING COVERAGE: FEDERAL ELECTION 2016

AUSTRALIA is facing a rapidly deteriorating national security environment and a growing cyber threat to the economy which the major political parties need to address urgently, the head of Australia’s National Security College has warned.

The Australian National University’s Rory Medcalf, an adviser to the government on the Defence White Paper, has said national security should be made a top order issue for the election.

“Voters deserve to know whether our major parties are interested in anticipating and planning for Australia’s future in a more risk-prone world, or merely rolling with events and electoral opportunity,” he said. “The election is likely to be dominated, understandably, by economic and social issues. But Australia’s security and foreign policy ­environment is marked by rapid change and complex ­uncertainty.

“From terrorism to resource insecurity, from the assertive rise of China to the impact of disruptive technologies, especially cyber, Australia faces a crowded horizon of risk requiring a whole-of-nation response and long term planning.

“This is at odds with the short-termism and fragmentation that has beset our politics. The credibility of leaders and political parties should ­depend on how seriously they bring Australia to confront its strategic challenges.”

Prof Medcalf has raised the lack of an overarching national security strategy and the absence of a white paper on foreign affairs in the past 13 years as significant challenges for the Coalition and Labor.

“Times have changed,” he said. “Those days were before the vicious upsurge of Islamic State and its misguided sympathisers (in Australia).

Originally published as Federal election 2016: Expert’s chilling warning on cyber security