Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Foreign and defence policy
increasing ‘securitisation’ of foreign policy evident since the Howard government.
In this respect it is more appropriate to employ the broader term security policy
rather than defence policy. These policy shifts are demonstrated by budget cuts
to DFAT and corresponding expansion and strengthening of the security-oriented
institutional apparatus, including the ONI, ASIO, ASIS, the NSC and the DHA.
This reflects the securitisation of a new range of problems such as terrorism
and migration, in addition to traditional concerns about the regional strategic
environment. Cyber security has also been an area of increasing concern, with
attacks launched by both state and non-state actors upon Australia’s political,
economic and defence sectors. 37 Added to this are less obviously defence-related
threats such as climate change and other environmental disasters, financial risks,
pandemics and societal/political instability, typically described as ‘non-traditional
security challenges’. 38 As such, challenges such as terrorism and irregular migration
are increasingly considered as national security threats, sometimes demanding a
militarised response.
In the wake of the 2001 al-Qaeda attacks upon the USA (which for the first
time activated ANZUS), Australians were subjected to attacks in Bali (2002 and
2005) and Jakarta (2003 and 2004), followed by other incidents and foiled plots
in Australia. Canberra responded by deploying military force alongside the USA
in the Middle East. Canberra also ramped up its security apparatus domestically
and regionally and initiated major counterterrorism co-operation with regional
partners like Indonesia. Australia has thus provided training, equipment, and direct
military and police support overseas, and is engaged in surveillance and deradicalisation
programs among domestic would-be Jihadists.
Irregularpopulationmovementshavealsoassumedanoutsizedpresencein
Australian security policy, often involving asylum seekers. While Australia has
accepted refugees from Vietnam or China in the past, such ‘illegal arrivals’ have
since been criminalised and military assets are now used to apprehend them in
tandem with Indonesia (Operation Sovereign Borders), and arrivals detained in
offshore processing centres (earlier known as the ‘Pacific Solution’). Such policies
violate Australia’s obligations under various human rights treaties and international
law and damage its reputation as a ‘good international citizen’, but the Australian
public sees asylum arrivals as a security threat 39 and such policies now receive
bipartisan support.
Nature itself is sometimes conceived of as a ‘security issue’, especially the risk
of global climate change. Kevin Rudd called it ‘the great moral challenge of our
generation’. 40 Yet Australian governments have been ambivalent in their response
37 Hanson et al. 2017.
38 Baldino et al. 2011.
39 Lowy Poll 2018 – 77 per cent agreed that large numbers of immigrants and refugees coming
into Australia was a ‘critical threat’ or an ‘important, but not critical threat’ (Lowy Institute and
Oliver 2018, 8).
40 Rudd 2007.
591