Home       Previous newsletters

27 May 2004

2004-05 Commonwealth Budget Analysis

1. Engineer's Australia Assessment
2. Summary of budget measures
3. Selected budget areas in detail
   1. critical infrastructure protection
   2. research support for counter-terrorism
   3. transport security

Engineers Australia assesses the Investing in Australia's Security initiatives in the Federal Budget as a B-.

"It has addressed the most security needs for Australia following the 11 September 2001 and 2002 Bali attacks, and we congratulate the government for its initiatives", said Bruce Howard, Security Commissioner, Engineers Australia.

Areas which are strongly welcomed by Engineers Australia are:

• The focus on enhancing intelligence and law enforcement. Improving intelligence is the best weapon in the fight against terrorism and the increases to the intelligence agencies will enhance Australia's ability to prevent incidents.
• The additional funding to the core policy area of the Critical Infrastructure Protection within the Attorney General's Department. This area has initiated many significant activities, notably the formation of the Trusted Information Sharing Network, but has been constrained by its limited budget and staffing levels.
• The direct funding of research support in counter-terrorism technology. This funding is essential to identifying government's counter-terrorism technology needs as well as in harnessing the public and private sectors technological capabilities to counter terrorism.
• Increased funding for security enhancement at regional airports. This funding recognises that it has been difficult for regional airports to improve their security due to their cost structure.

Areas where Engineers Australia considers there are further opportunities for Australian Government leadership are addressing:

1. The lack of a dedicated program aimed at ensuring the private sector, which owns most of the nation's structures, is aware of the new security risks and are mitigating those risks.
2. The lack of financial incentives or assistance with investments in physical infrastructure improvements to enhance critical infrastructure security but which are not commercially viable.
3. The ongoing lack of focus on initiatives aimed at enhancing the security of soft-targets, rather than critical infrastructure. Soft-targets appear to be the most likely target of terrorist actions and viable mitigation actions include emergency management exercises involving significant areas and business continuity planning.
4. The lack of measures aimed at developing a robust method of distributing security alert to relevant private sector organisations.

This assessment reflects the recommendations contained in the 150 page Engineers Australia report "Security Critical Infrastructure and the Built Environment", published in June 2003. This is available at:http://www.ieaust.org.au/policy/publications_by_year1.html

2 Summary of Budget measures

Below is a summary of the security budget expenditures. It is an extract from the Australian Government's Budget Overview.

Reflecting the Government 's commitment to making Australia safe and secure, this Budget provides an additional $755 million (including $144 million capital funding)over five years to counter the threat of terrorism in Australia and the region. In total, the Government has committed $3.1 billion over the seven years from 2001-02 for a range of national security initiatives.

Strong intelligence is the best weapon in the fight against terrorism. The Government will provide $270 million to Australia 's intelligence gathering agencies to boost their capacity to identify and respond to possible threats to national security.

Funding of $207 million will be used to upgrade protective security. This includes testing national information systems as part of continuing efforts in critical infrastructure protection, more Air Security Officers and diplomatic guarding as well as relocating a number of overseas diplomatic and trade missions in high risk locations.

An additional $150 million will help secure Australia 's borders. More robust identity verification processes will be tested for passport holders, and Australia 's global visa processing systems will be enhanced.

Because the threat to Australia from terrorism extends beyond our borders, the Government will provide $87 million to improve security capacity and cooperation in the region. The Australian Federal Police will be more able to assist regional counterparts respond to terrorist attacks, and funding will be provided for the establishment of a regional counter-terrorism centre in Indonesia.

In addition to security initiatives in the region, the Government is acting to support improved governance in the Pacific. The Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands and the Enhanced Cooperation Package in Papua New Guinea aim to improve law and order, and build stronger economies in the Pacific.

3 Selected budget areas in detail

Of particular interest are the two initiatives in the areas of

1. critical infrastructure protection
2. research support for counter-terrorism.
3. transport security

3.1 Critical infrastructure protection

The Government will provide funding of $50.2 million (including $1.7 million capital funding)over four years as part of continuing efforts to ensure there are adequate levels of protective security in respect of critical infrastructure, minimal single potential points of failure and rapid, tested recovery arrangements. This funding provides resources for nine Government agencies for a range of activities to progress three key areas of critical infrastructure protection. They are:

• national coordination and leadership -including activities such as the provision of expanded Secretariat support to the Trusted Information Sharing Network for Critical Infrastructure;
• infrastructure vulnerability identification, analysis and remediation -including activities such as the testing of Australian Government and private sector national information infrastructure; and
• infrastructure interdependence modelling and analysis - including activities to model and analyse interdependencies between different critical systems and networks.

The Government will assume a leadership role in these three core areas of activity, working in partnership with the States and industry to progress critical infrastructure protection.

Source Budget Paper No. 2 http://www.budget.gov.au/2004-05/bp2/html/index.htm

From the above information, the Critical Infrastructure Branch at the Attorney General's Department will be getting the bulk of the money. In the Department's Portfolio Budget Statement it states the relevant output description and performance measure. This is listed below.

In the Attorney General's media release, it was stated that: "Some of the important projects that will be undertaken through this 2004-05 Budget initiative include:

• testing to search for weaknesses in the protection of the national information infrastructure
• analysis of the potential flow-on consequences of specific critical infrastructure failures
• developing a geospatial critical infrastructure incident response capability for law enforcement and emergency services agencies
• enhancing services provided by the Australian Computer Emergency Response Team (AusCERT) for the owners and operators of critical infrastructure.

Geoscience Australia will be receiving $200,000 a year. Its role will be to contribute to the contingency planning by improving the government's capacity to analyse the consequences of critical infrastructure failure. This work will help plan for a range of events, from natural disasters to disruptions caused by terrorism.

3.2 Research support for counter-terrorism

The government will provide $7.2 million over four years, to support research in counter-terrorism technology. Funding will enhance Australia's counter-terrorism efforts by stimulating new research and enabling Australia to engage in international research projects.

3.3 Transport Security

The following is extracted from the a budget statement on the DOTRS website. http://www.dotars.gov.au/dept/budget/0405/trs11_budget.aspx

Airports in regional Australia will benefit from an extra $21 million in aviation security funding in 2003-04, on top of the $93 million Enhanced Aviation Security Package that the Government announced in December 2003.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and Regional Services, John Anderson, said the Government would now spend a total of $35 million to assist smaller airports to implement security measures, with $14 million previously announced in the Enhanced Aviation Security Package.

"Recent world events have highlighted the need for us all to remain vigilant, move quickly and keep strengthening Australia's transport security systems. Security enhancements to potentially vulnerable facilities in regional areas are the logical next step," Mr Anderson said.

"The Government recognises that many smaller and regional airports operate on slim margins. We will therefore provide one-off grants to each of the 140 airports soon to become regulated under the new Aviation Transport Security Act 2004. It will not now be necessary for airports to match the amounts provided by the Australian Government.

"After consultation with industry and state and territory governments, we have decided to more than double the amount previously announced, reflecting the extremely high priority of transport security in our regions.

"The funds will be provided to airport owners and operators to purchase capital items for security upgrades as part of their security plans. Eligible items will include fencing, lighting and alarm systems."

The Australian Government will also spend an extra $9.0 million over the next four years ($2.4 million in 2004-05) within the Transport and Regional Services portfolio to boost other elements of Australia's transport security

"The Government will expand our role in providing transport security assistance to other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, under the transport security component of our Regional Counter-Terrorism Strategy," Mr Anderson said.

"We will spend $4.7 million over the next four years - $1.4 million in 2004-05 - to help improve the preventive security measures that are currently in place in South East Asia, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific.

"The funding will provide the Office of Transport Security in my department with the resources to deploy more technical experts overseas and deliver training programmes.

"Over time, the funding will help improve the security of the planes and ships arriving in Australia from overseas, and will complement our comprehensive domestic security measures," he said.

The Government will spend an additional $366,000 a year to fund the Inspector of Transport Security (ITS). The position was announced in the Enhanced Aviation Security Package last year.

"The ITS will investigate major security incidents in the aviation and maritime sectors, and will be able to recommend changes to improve Australia's transport security systems," Mr Anderson said.

"The ITS will also be able to investigate security incidents involving other modes of transport with the agreement of the responsible state or territory government."

The Government will spend $2.4 million over four years ($626,000 in 2004-05) to fund the Office of Transport Security's role in critical infrastructure protection. The measure will result in the establishment of a trusted information sharing group comprising governments and the owners and operators of critical infrastructure in the transport sector.

"These key operators will be provided with the best protective security information we have available, so they will be in a better position to make security planning judgments," Mr Anderson said.

Since 2001, the Australian Government has introduced a comprehensive set of measures within the Transport and Regional Services portfolio to strengthen and expand our transport security arrangements. They have included a package of aviation security measures totalling $85.4 million, and $15.5 million to tighten Australia's port and maritime security in line with new international maritime arrangements.