In order to hold governments of all political persuasions accountable for properly meeting their national defence responsibilities — and to help public debate on Australia's strategic and domestic security challenges be truly informed — the ADA undertakes a wide range of activities:
- We provide public-interest monitoring of Australian national security policy and its execution.
- We try to update and educate the broader Australian community about strategic security, defence and other national security issues;
- We contribute informed commentary to public, academic and professional debates and encourage our members to do so as individual citizens.
- For over four decades we have been invited to make public-interest submissions to parliamentary machinery-of-government committees and parliamentary and official inquiries. Especially those conducted by all-party parliamentary oversight bodies such as the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade (JSCFADT) and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS).
- Print, radio and television media regularly consult with us when seeking research guidance, long-term perspectives, historical or contempory contexts, background detail or other informed comment on strategic policy, defence capability, intelligence, domestic security, international affairs and related issues.
- We maintain liaison and informal co-operation on international security and related matters with counterpart national public-interest watchdog organisations, research institutes and scholars across the Indo-Pacific basins.
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