Australian PM Kevin Rudd wants to redraw security priorities

[mich@el]

Article from: The Australian

KEVIN Rudd says Australia must adopt a new concept of national security to cope with an array of complex new challenges ranging from climate change to energy security and nuclear proliferation.

The Prime Minister yesterday nominated climate change as a "fundamental national security challenge" for Australia in the long term as he delivered the first annual national security statement to parliament.

"Significant climate change will bring about unregulated population movements, declining food production, reductions in arable land, violent weather patterns and resulting catastrophic events," the Prime Minister said.

"This is an area of emerging consequences which will require the formal incorporation of climate change within Australia's national security policy and analysis process."

Mr Rudd also confirmed the appointment of former SAS commander Duncan Lewis as his new national security adviser, with the rank of associate secretary, in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

He said terrorism remained a serious ongoing threat to the nation and the Government would release a counter-terrorism white paper next year.

The long-awaited statement detailed a 10-point checklist of national security priorities.

Australia, "a regional power prosecuting global interests", faced a "complex array of national security challenges", Mr Rudd told parliament.

"For the first time, this country will have a coherent statement of the national security challenges facing Australia into the future and the comprehensive approach we propose to adopt in responding to those challenges," he said.

Those responses would require a strengthening of regional security co-operation with Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.

While the US alliance remained the cornerstone of the country's security architecture, the growing rise of India and China required a fresh diplomatic focus, the Prime Minister said. A stronger engagement with the UN was also needed.

The statement called for a stronger defence force and a stronger US-Australia alliance. That coincided with the signing yesterday of a new Australia-US Defence Agreement.

Mr Rudd reaffirmed the Government's commitment to an Asia-Pacific community, a diplomatic initiative that has failed to excite, evoking lukewarm regional interest and suspicion.

He called for the implementation of the Smith report recommendations for a revamp of Homeland and Border Security.

"Mr Smith's advice is that big departments risk becoming less accountable, less agile, less adaptable and more inward-looking," Mr Rudd said. "What we need is the opposite. At the same time, Mr Smith has concluded that existing national security departments, agencies and capabilities do need better co-ordination."

Under the shake-up, Customs will get a new name and a new mandate. The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service will tackle threats posed by global organised crime, including a return of people-smugglers.

Troubled states in the southwest Pacific can expect "enhanced economic development" to help create better regional security. The statement also recommended enhanced e-security measures to counter emerging threats from the technology revolution. "We have to protect ourselves from the extreme use of basic, readily available technology and hardware by terrorist groups," the Prime Minister warned.

In a scathing response, Malcolm Turnbull accused the Government of a swag of foreign policy errors and stuff-ups.

The former Howard government had left Australia more secure than it was now, the federal Opposition Leader said.

"It's in the interest therefore of all Australians that this Government, like its predecessors, prove itself to be capable and sure-footed in its exercise of these heavy responsibilities," he said.

The national security statement was a "really good start", said former army chief Peter Leahy now director of the National Security Institute at the University of Canberra.
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[Mingus]

And yet, he's five million miles ahead of the Bush administration on global warming. How sad.