There is no more important priority than keeping Australians safe.
The Government announced an Independent Intelligence Review in September 2023 to ensure our intelligence agencies are best positioned to continue to serve the Australian national interest.
The Independent Intelligence Review, led by Dr Heather Smith PSM and Richard Maude, has found Australia’s hard working National Intelligence Community is highly capable and performing well.
The unclassified report of the 2024 review has been released today.
The review found agencies have been successful in protecting Australia’s national interest.
The review recommends investing in further capability to ensure the intelligence community maintains its high performance across a range of fronts, including economic security, crisis warning and preparedness, and open source intelligence.
The Government will invest $44.6 million over four years from 2025-26 in the Office of National Intelligence to support initial implementation of key priorities identified in the response to the Review.
This new investment builds on a significant increase in funding for national security over the past three years.
Since coming to government in May 2022, we have increased national security funding over the forward estimates by $53 billion, or 20 per cent.
The Government’s commitment to keeping Australia secure means national security funding has increased from $265 billion over four years from 2021-22, to $318 billion over four years from 2024-25.
The 2024 Independent Intelligence Review found significant progress had been made since the last Independent Intelligence Review in 2017.
This progress includes establishing the National Intelligence Community and creating the Office of National Intelligence to lead and coordinate the community.
Consistent with the approach to past independent intelligence reviews under successive Governments, details about the proposed approach to specific recommendations will remain classified.
Independent reviews of Australia’s intelligence community have been commissioned periodically since 2004 to ensure Australia can effectively meet and respond to future challenges.
The unclassified report can be found on the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s website.
Quotes attributable to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
“I welcome this review. Our hard working intelligence agencies are crucial in safeguarding Australia’s national security, and we have full confidence in their capacity.
"We will continue to invest in capability to ensure Australia’s intelligence community can deal with emerging threats and challenges.
“I would like to thank Dr Smith and Mr Maude for their work on this review, which will ensure our intelligence community continues to protect our national interest.”