Australia will establish a new cyber intelligence centre to be led by the Office of National Intelligence to bolster the country’s security, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced at a dinner to mark the 70th anniversary of the ANZUS alliance with the United States.
Noting that shared intelligence was a major pillar of the ANZUS alliance, Morrison said the multi-agency cyber intelligence centre will ensure Australia works well, and keeps pace, with its allies and emerging technologies at a time when “changing geopolitical realities” meant cyber intelligence was “more important than ever.”
“Beyond defence and intelligence, today Australia and the United States work together on a wide and expanding canvass—cyber security, space, supply chain resilience, critical minerals, quantum computing, low emissions technologies, and so much more.”
In his remarks, Morrison outlined steps his government had taken to bolster Australia’s security, including increasing defence spending from 1.56 percent of the country’s economy to 2.1 percent this year and committing half a trillion dollars over the next decade in defence and defence capability spending.
The announcement of the new Cyber and Critical Technology Intelligence Centre comes at a time when “the stakes could not be higher” with Morrison warning: “Our quest for a world order that favours freedom has never been more urgent and it has never been more pressing.”
Amid geopolitical power struggles between China and the United States in the Indo-Pacific, Australia, despite its comprehensive strategic partnership and significant economic ties with China, has reaffirmed its “deep and everlasting” alliance with the United States, which Morrison noted is based on shared values.
Meanwhile, Australia’s relationship with China has, over the last two years of Beijing’s economic coercion, often been referred to as “mutually beneficial.”
“This is a partnership of values, not of contract and certainly not of contradiction. It is not a relationship of transaction. It is a bond that goes deep and is everlasting,” Morrison said, reflecting on the nature of the ANZUS alliance.
“In this age where peace, stability, and prosperity can certainly not be assured, I affirm our Australian pledge: that we look to the United States but we will never leave it to the United States.
“We come to this partnership as equals. We come to this partnership bringing everything we have and to share it and to ensure that we can meet the challenges together.
“We stand in an Alliance of trust, commitment and sacrifice. An Alliance that continues to be renewed for our times,” he said.
News Corp’s The Australian reported that U.S. President Joe Biden said ANZUS was “essential to our shared safety and prosperity.
