Safeguarding Australia Summit

Day 1

• Balancing Dependency and Sovereignty: Building Australia’s Sovereign DNA
  — Can Australia Become an Indo-Pacific Tech Nexus?
  Pillar: Sovereign Capability & Resilience

  Speaker 1 - Chris Crozier — Chief Information Officer, Department of Defence Digital Group
  
  

• Fortifying Critical Infrastructure: Energy Resilience in an Age of Cyber Uncertainty
  — Guarding Energy Sovereignty and Autonomy
  Pillar: Cybersecurity & Hybrid Warfare

  Speaker 1 - Matthew Warren — fmr CEO of the Australian Energy Council, the Energy Supply Association of Australia and the Clean Energy Council

  Speaker 2 - Professor Matt Warren — Director, Centre for Cyber Security Research and Innovation, RMIT University
  
  

• AI’s Dual Edge: Sovereignty, Strategy, and the New Frontier of Conflict
  — Can Australia harness AI to defend its autonomy
  Pillar: AI & Emerging Technologies in National Security

  Speaker 1 - Dr Paul Robards AM — Chief Data Integration Officer, Defence Data Strategy
  Speaker 2 - Dr Kate Conroy — Wing Commander, Royal Australian Air Force
  Speaker 3 - Allan Dundas — Chief Executive Officer of DEWC Services

• Spies Next Door: Foreign Influence & Countering Coercion in the Age of Algorithmic Influence — TikTok to Campus: The Battle for Australian Minds
  Pillar: Countering Foreign Interference & Coercion

  Speaker 1 - Ky Blackman — First Assistant Secretary / Deputy Coordinator of the Counter Foreign Interference Coordination Centre (CFICC), Department of Home Affairs

  Speaker 2 - Tom Rogers — Distinguised Advisor, National Security College (ANU)

• Day1 Closing Panel
  Sovereignty in a World of Weaponised Trade, Tech, and Trust — AUKUS vs. Autonomy?
  Leverage alliances to counter weaponised trade and technology, to prioritise sovereign autonomy amid rising coercion.

• Day 1 Evening Session
  Summit Dinner Keynote Address by
  Dr Julie Sunday — High Commissioner for Canada in Australia
  _____________________________________________________________________

Day 2

• Stewardship or Stagnation: Australia’s Role in Shaping Pacific Stability
  — Can a Middle Power Forge Unity in a Region of Competing Giants?
  Pillar: Regional Stability

  Keynote: Hamish Hansford — Deputy Secretary of Cyber and Infrastructure Security Group, Department of Home Affairs

• Rethinking Protective Security for a Hyperconnected Age
  — Safeguarding sovereign assets without compromising innovation or trust
  Pillar: National Security and Resilience
  Speaker 1 - Mark Whitechurch — Deputy Commander, Operation Sovereign Borders, Department of Home Affairs
  

• Day 2 Panel Closing Panel
  2030: Sovereignty or Subservience? Australia’s Quantum Crossroads in a Fractured World Order — Quantum leaps or quantum collapses?
  A no-holds-barred debate on partnering without capitulating, innovating with independence, and securing our position without fracturing relations.

  Keynote Speaker: Dr Cathy Foley AO — Fmr Chief Scientist of Australia (TBC)

*Summit program is under development, for updates, please subscribe to the mailing list below*