Information sharing in Australia's national security community

• Anthony Bergin, Kelly O'Hara
• Australian Strategic Policy Institute

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30 November 2009This paper examines the information sharing vision of the new National Security CIO in light of reforms made towards a more joined-up national security community. It argues that information sharing should be a high priority for improving decision making in Australia’s national security community.

The Policy Analysis recommends: 

• Making information discoverable and accessible to authorised users by means of off-the-shelf technology;
• Mapping the information exchanges between agencies to reveal the extent of connectivity and capability gaps;
• The National Security CIO conduct a regular audit to determine the extent to which community members have reached key milestones in making information discoverable and retrievable;
• The new National Security College incorporate training modules on how to advance a responsibility to provide culture for senior national security officials;
• The National Security CIO work in consultation with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner to develop a transparent national privacy framework of principles to guide information sharing in the national security community;
• Greater use of Web 2.0 in the national security space to facilitate information sharing;
• Establishing a centralised security vetting agency to issue clearances, rather than each agency ‘doing its own thing’.