Preparedness, resilience and blurred threats were the top security concerns for panellists at ASPI’s Women in Defence and Security Network (WDSN) Gala on 12 November. In the speakers’ views, addressing these issues required collective effort and communication.
The panel—hosted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Jane Norman—was a rare opportunity to bring together prominent female leaders in defence and security, some of whom were the first women to serve in their roles.
The panel included the first female Australian Federal Police commissioner, Krissy Barrett; the first culturally diverse chief of the Communications Security Establishment Canada, Caroline Xavier; Australian Defence Force Chief of Joint Capabilities Lieutenant General Susan Coyle, one of only three female three-star uniformed ADF officers; and Gai Brodtmann, the first female chair of ASPI’s council. They embodied WDSN’s purpose, inspiring the next generation to leave its own mark on Australian security.
The speakers shared their views on today’s biggest security concerns. For Coyle, it was the resilience of the systems that sustained Australia’s defence. In her role, she worried about fuel resilience, supply chain vulnerabilities, cyberattacks and ‘our ability to protect and defend our networks and our mission systems.’
‘If they aren’t working,’ she said, ‘ships won’t sail, missiles won’t fire, aeroplanes won’t launch. We can’t see anything without satellite communications, without ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance). It would be a diabolical nightmare.’
Barrett discussed ‘the continuing blurring of lines across traditional threats.’ She said this shift had required the AFP and other agencies to change their approaches, explaining that ‘it’s no longer that we target a particular crime type; it’s now that we target the threat, which can really permeate across multiple crime types.’
Xavier discussed the importance of prevention in cybersecurity. She said communication was crucial and ‘the only way you can get to prevention is to ensure that people are aware of what are the possible threats, and what are they doing to protect themselves.’
In a similar vein, Brodtmann highlighted a lack of preparedness, a concern echoed among security commentators. Acknowledging Australia’s ability to respond to natural disasters, she said we needed to be similarly prepared for serious security threats—for ‘what happens if the lights go out for days or weeks.’
She also expressed concern about ‘piecemeal regulation’ taking the place of international standards on artificial intelligence and similar technology, and instead would like to see the global like-minded community develop a universal, uniform code. At the same time, she noted that when developing those standards, we needed to be aware of whose ethics and values were informing them.
The panellists made clear that security relied, in part, on collective effort strengthened through institutional transparency, community trust in agencies, and public awareness and education.
Xavier said that ‘in government institutions, it’s about building trust. If we’re not sharing and being transparent, we’re not building that trust into these public institutions.’ She also stressed the role of the individual, saying that ‘cybersecurity is something we all need to care about’ and that ‘having a phone in your hand means you have a responsibility to also ensure that you’re doing your part’.
Brodtmann also discussed the need for clear communication with the public. ‘They’re not going to run screaming from the room. They do understand the threats in a very general way.’ She flagged the need for community education, saying that people want to better understand the threats and, importantly, know what they need to do in response to those threats on a national and individual level.
Barrett shared Brodtmann’s view on the need to speak clearly and directly to the Australian people. ‘We are a country full of very smart people. So, to speak in a condescending way or to not talk to the intellect is not going to help, and in actual fact, it will erode the trust.’
She also spoke of ‘the depth and the maturity of the relationships that we’ve built across law enforcement and intelligence’ at the institutional level. She highlighted that the ‘ongoing benefits that we’re reaping from the depth and the trust in those relationships to keep all of our communities safe gives us a really good advantage.’
Coyle characterised warfighting itself as a cooperative mission, saying: ‘We don’t do it alone. We don’t go to war as an army. We don’t go to war as an ADF. We go to war with allies and partners, as part of a coalition of the willing. And there is great strength in that.’
The panellists’ messages on the need for collective effort were taken to heart by gala guests, brought together by a shared concern and passion for security.
And it is through mechanisms such as the WDSN that women (and men) of all ages, backgrounds, ranks and perspectives can come together in this way, with the confidence that they can safely share concerns, experiences and opportunities. In these spaces, participants are not constrained by their differences but empowered by them.