Page 140 - Australian Defence Magazine October 2019

DEFENCE IN THE NORTH
STRATEGY
date has been concerned with capability, manufacturing and deep maintenance. Phase 2 of that thinking needs to anchor the critical components for sustaining those capabilities in the north during their deployments. Darwin and Tindal need to become critical nodes in global defence supply chains for such capabilities as the JSF-35. Federal, state and territory govern- ment investment in Industry 4.0 capacity in northern Australia is also needed.
ADF and national security activities ought to be integrally linked and mutually supporting, especially in Northern Aus- tralia. Therefore, the current and future needs of Home Affairs and intelligence agencies ought to be considered in parallel with those of defence. The most pressing of issues that needs to be considered is the ‘future maritime surveillance capability’ project. This Home Affairs project aims to ‘provide the next generation maritime sur- veillance capability to counter current and emerging civil maritime threats to Austra- lia ... [and] provide surveillance capabili- ties that enable timely and effective deter-
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statement is required to guide this discourse. As highlighted by Alan Dupont in the Weekend Australian earlier this year ‘stra- tegic failure is a real prospect if defence and
national security policy are not aligned’. While many were critical of the Gil- lard government’s 2013 National Security Strategy, this kind of foundational docu- ment is needed more than ever now. A new national security strategy would provide the kind of intellectual rigor to our think- ing that would see greater synchronization of defence and national security policy, es-
pecially in Australia’s North.
DEFENCE
140 | October 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au
rence, prevention and response operations to protect Australia’s borders and exercise sovereign rights’.
Next steps
It’s clear that Australia needs to reconsider the role of the North in its defence policy. For this to occur Defence needs to encour- age and nurture greater public policy dis- course on the role of northern Australia in defence and national security.
Given the breadth of the threats faced by Australia, and the increased strategic uncer- tainty perhaps a more foundational policy
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