Joe Biden acclaims ‘essential’ ANZUS

Scott Morrison marks the 70th anniversary of ANZUS by announcing a cyber and critical technology centre within the peak intelligence assessment agency.

Lachlan Murdoch, left, News Corp CEO Robert Thomson and Scott Morrison at the 70th anniversary dinner of the ANZUS Treaty at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday night. Picture: Gary Ramage

Scott Morrison has marked the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS Alliance by announcing a cyber and critical technology centre to be established within the nation’s peak intelligence ­assessment agency to deploy cutting-edge technologies to protect Australia’s security.

The Prime Minister announced the new centre at a dinner to mark the milestone for the alliance – a pact US President Joe Biden declared on Monday was “essential to our shared safety and prosperity”.

Mr Biden’s “Asia tsar” Kurt Campbell relayed the President’s words to guests including leading figures in politics, business and defence at the Parliament House dinner, saying the Australia-US alliance was not only a historical document but essential to strengthening Indo-Pacific security into the ­future.

Mr Morrison said Australia and the US’s shared intelligence commitments were a major pillar of the alliance, and with “changing geopolitical realities”, Australia was “stepping up to do more”.

The new Cyber and Critical Technology Intelligence Centre will be located within the Office of National Intelligence to harness rapidly evolving technology and meet the security challenges that technology presents.

“This multi-agency centre will ensure Australia, working with our allies, can better anticipate and capitalise on emerging technologies,” Mr Morrison told guests at the dinner, hosted by the American Australian Association, the United States Studies Centre and the Perth USAsia Centre.

Parliament House is lit up with the Australian and US flags to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS Treaty in Canberra on Monday night. Picture: AFP

He said the centre would work across the intelligence community and with non-­government R&D partners “to fund, shape and deploy cutting-edge science, research and technology to deliver better capa­bilities into the future”.

“Beyond defence and intelligence, today Australia and the US work together on a wide and expanding canvass – cyber ­security, space, supply chain resilience, critical minerals, quantum computing, low emissions technologies and more,” Mr Morrison said.

In his message, Mr Biden commended Australia’s “strong response” to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and “the strength of your voice in upholding the values that guide us as ­democracies”.

John Howard with Joe Hockey, right, at Parliament House on Monday night. Picture: Gary Ramage

“Seventy years ago, our countries came together at the Presidio in San Francisco and established an enduring partnership – as stated in the ANZUS Treaty – to strengthen the fabric of peace in the Indo-Pacific region,” the White House Indo-Pacific co-ordinator said, reading the letter from Mr Biden.

“Today, the ANZUS partnership is essential to our shared safety and prosperity.”

Mr Morrison said the alliance was one of “trust, commitment and sacrifice” that “continues to be renewed for our times”.

“We come to this partnership as equals. We come to this partnership bringing everything we have, and to share it … standing equal,” he said.

Guests at the dinner included Labor leader Anthony Albanese, US charge d’affaires Mike Goldman, Foreign Minister Marise Payne, her Labor counterpart Penny Wong, former prime minister John Howard, former foreign minister Julie Bishop and former US ambassador Joe Hockey.

ONI director-general Andrew Shearer, ASIO director-general Mike Burgess and Australian Secret Intelligence Service director-general Paul Symon were also among the guests, along with ­Defence Secretary Greg Moriarty, Foreign Affairs secretary Kathryn Campbell and Home Affairs secretary Mike Pezzullo.

News Corp co-chairman Lachlan Murdoch and chief executive Robert Thomson attended, along with Herald and Weekly Times chair Penny Fow­ler, Pratt Foundation chair ­Heloise Pratt, and Boeing Australia president Brendan Nelson, a former defence minister and Liberal leader.

The Australian’s editor-in-chief Christopher Dore said Sir Keith Murdoch, who established the Australian American Association in 1948, saw clearly “the shift in Australia’s interests from our sentimental and emotional attachment to Britain to our practical and actual relationship with the US”. He said Sir Keith would be “extremely proud” the alliance continued to thrive.