In October and November 2025, the heads of Australia’s two most significant strategic intelligence assessment agencies made public their views on the geostrategic threats confronting Australia today.  In those remarks, both leaders set out some of the threats and explored some of the consequences that could be inflicted upon Australia, including Australia’s critical infrastructure assets, if action is not taken now to detect, deter, and defend against these threats to Australia’s national security.

Australia has been warned for years by its intelligence agencies, and by its allies, of the threats to our critical infrastructure by threat actors including hostile nation states, organised crime, and issue-motivated groups and individuals. Have Australian governments, private sector entities, or citizens  responded in any meaningful way to these warnings, or have we been party to a slow-motion car crash, which we belatedly realise we are in the drivers’ seat for?