{"id":20375,"date":"2015-05-14T10:00:54","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T00:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=20375"},"modified":"2015-05-14T10:05:12","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T00:05:12","slug":"the-2015-16-national-security-budget-beyond-the-headlines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-2015-16-national-security-budget-beyond-the-headlines\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2015\u201316 National Security budget: beyond the headlines"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Treasurer<\/a><\/p>\n

The Government has announced an overall increase of $1.2bn over the next four years<\/a> in national security spending. This new money comes in addition to the $1bn counter-terrorism<\/a> and Iraq operations<\/a> funding announced last year\u2014and there\u2019s also additional funding for border protection and health\u00a0and social cohesion.<\/p>\n

In a time of budget stringency, this is a good outcome because additional money for national security is needed. But as an analysis of this figure shows, this new funding is narrowly targeted with many national security agencies facing further cuts.<\/p>\n

Interesting, Defence gets most of this new money, with $750m of the headline $1.2bn being assigned to overseas operations in 2015\u201316. This comes in addition to an extra $2.4bn in the Defence department\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n

The remaining $450m of new money has been allocated to three major areas.<\/p>\n

The first, totaling $296m over six years, involves the Australian Secret Intelligence Service<\/a>. This agency, which is responsible for overseas intelligence collection, will receive additional staff, information technology and facilities. ASIS\u2019 annual budget in 2015\u201316 will increase by\u00a0$30m to a total of $405m.<\/p>\n

A total of $131m is being given to telecommunications businesses<\/a> to help them implement the mandatory data retention scheme. Government agencies will also receive around $20m to help them adjust, half of which goes to the oversight agencies, the Privacy Commissioner and Commonwealth Ombudsman.<\/p>\n

The balance of the national security package\u2014around $22m over four years\u2014is assigned to countering violent extremism online. This will include monitoring and a reporting tool that encourages community participation in the effort.<\/p>\n

In addition to the headline amount, border security<\/a> will receive additional funding for smart gates, new information technology, and training of the newly-created Australian Border Force.<\/p>\n

Money that will assist national security is also allocated in the Health portfolio<\/a> to the Darwin-based National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre ($63.5m over four years) and $20m over two years for drug education.<\/p>\n

And only yesterday, Senator Brandis has said that the government will spend $545 million over four years to support social cohesion and community based programs, which he says will complement spending on national security agencies. This money is included in the human services budget.<\/p>\n

But the story for national security agency bottom lines is not altogether rosy, with many taking cuts:<\/p>\n