What do we believe?

We believe in implementing three key principles concerning Australia's strategic and domestic security:

  • Our common defence and strategic security is the first responsibility of any Australian government.
  • Ensuring our common defence is also a universal civic responsibility of all Australians. Not just, for example, current or former members of our defence force. At the very least we all need to think about it seriously.
  • National unity, economic strength, free speech and robust public debate are essential components of Australia's national security.

As a community-based, non-partisan, national public-interest guardian organisation — with an independent and long-term perspective — we therefore seek the development and implementation of national security structures, processes and policies encompassing:

  • an accountable, integrated and flexible structure for making strategic security, defence and wider national security decisions over the long term;
  • a practical and effective balance between potentially competing needs for civil liberties and community security;
  • intellectually and professionally robust means of continually assessing Australia's external strategic and domestic security situations;
  • the sustained allocation of adequate national resources to all our strategic security, defence and wider national security needs according to such means (rather than tailoring supposed "assessments" to the funding levels, bureaucratic fashions and partisan policies thought to be acceptable politically);
  • integrated and deterrent defence and national security strategies based on the protection and support of our enduring national interests;
  • the development and maintenance of an adequate defence force capable of executing the defence aspects of such a national strategy; and
  • the development and maintenance of manufacturing and service industries capable of developing and sustaining defence force capabilities and operations.