Credibility gap on national security

The cost to Australian taxpayers of this policy failure has been in the billions of dollars.

It is simply not credible for the Prime Minister to ignore her greatest policy failure in a speech on national security. Her failure to detail the level of the threat to our national security of this ongoing border protection collapse defies belief.

A key focus of the Prime Minister's speech was the increasing threat of cyber attacks on government and private sector networks.

Part of the government's response is to co-locate some of the agencies working on cyber threats.

However this approach will also be undermined by the Government's parlous budget position, for funding to the key agencies involved has already been slashed.

Significant cuts were inflicted last year on the Defence Signals Directorate, ASIO, the Office of National Assessments, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service and the Defence Intelligence Organisation.

The strategy makes the observation that "There is a mutually reinforcing link between our national security and our economic wellbeing".

Self evidently the Prime Minister should have detailed the government's plan for repayment of its massive debt built up over the past 5 years through wasteful spending, and particularly in light of last year's abandonment of the much promised but still elusive surplus.

Finally, the Prime Minister revealed yet again one of her deep character flaws that prevents her from acknowledging the work of others, in this instance, past governments.

The strategy states that the last 14 years have been "transformative" for Australia's security environment since the 1999 involvement in Timor-Leste, the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States, the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings, and the military deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan - all of which occurred during the terms of the Howard Government.

In her desperation to avoid any reference to the Howard government, the Prime Minister claimed that "This National Security Strategy is Australia's first", implying incorrectly that past governments had failed to develop a strategy for Australia's national security. Given Prime Minister John Howard's relentless personal focus and commitment to this issue, it is an obvious and unnecessary slight.

The Prime Minister's speech has done nothing to make up for her lack of credibility in the national security space.