Safeguarding Australia Summit

🔹 Air Marshal Robert Chipman, Vice Chief of the Defence Force — Day 1 Opening Keynote on defence strategy, security challenges, and regional leadership
🔹 Dr Julie Sunday, High Commissioner of Canada to Australia — Dinner Keynote on the evolving Canada–Australia partnership
🔹 Stephen Moore, First Assistant Secretary AUKUS Advanced Capabilities — Closing Keynote on sovereignty and AUKUS
🔹 Hamish Hansford, Deputy Secretary, Head of National Security, Department of Home Affairs — Day 2 Opening Keynote on Australia’s role in shaping Pacific stability

Day 1—29 october

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

  Opening Keynote: Vice Chief of the Defence Force—Air Marshal Robert Chipman AO CSC, Australian Defence Force

  A Hosted Dialogue: Regional Security Outlook
  Chris Crozier — Chief Information Officer, Department of Defence Digital Group
  Guided by Kendy Hau, this dialogue will unpack Australia’s digital defence agenda—covering the strategic implications for regional security
  
  

• Critical Infrastructure: Fortifying Resilience Against Hybrid Warfare
  — Securing Critical Infrastructure in the Age of Hybrid Threats
  Pillar: Critical Infrastructure & Hybrid Warfare

  Speaker 1 - Professor Matt Warren — Director, Centre for Cyber Security Research and Innovation, RMIT University
  Speaker 2 - Stephen Beaumont AM — Chair, CI-ISAC Australia
  Speaker 3 - Devon Whittle, Director, Global Shield Australia

  
  

• 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 - Peter Anstee, First Assistant Secretary Counter Foreign Interference, Cyber and Technology, Department of Home Affairs
  Speaker 2 - John Garnaut - Senior Fellow, International Cyber Policy Centre (ICPC)
  Speaker 3 - Tom Rogers — Distinguised Advisor, National Security College (ANU)
  
  
  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

• Closing Keynote: Matthew Flint — Assistant Secretary, AUKUS Advanced Capabilities, Department of Defence

  Panellists
  1) Matthew Flint — Assistant Secretary, AUKUS Advanced Capabilities, Department of Defence
  2) David Nockels, Defence Trade, Regulation and Industrial Collaboration—Department of Defence
  3) Dr Lesley Seebeck, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Geomastery Advisory—Senior Fellow at Strategic Analysis Australia
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• Day 1 Evening Session
  Summit Dinner Keynote Address by
  Dr Julie Sunday — High Commissioner for Canada to Australia

  “The New Imperative: Strong Allies and Strategic Cooperation in Uncertain Times.”
  With deep expertise in diplomacy, emergency management and global security, Dr Sunday will share her perspective on the evolving Canada–Australia partnership in an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape.
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day 2—30 october

• Security and Resilience in a Hyperconnected Contested Region
  — Applying protective security frameworks to protect sovereign assets, strengthen critical systems, and build Australia’s resilience
  Pillar: Resilient Security, Regional Stability

  Keynote Speaker: Hamish Hansford — Deputy Secretary, Head of National Security, Department of Home Affairs
  Speaker 2 - Tim Neal — Assistant Secretary Commonwealth Security Policy, Department of Home Affairs
  Speaker 3 - Mark Whitechurch — Assistant Secretary Protective Security, Department of Home Affairs
  

• Dual presentation on A Pandemic of the Mind, a dialogue:
  Augmented Intelligence versus Artificial Intelligence in National Security and Resilience
  Speaker 1: Air Vice-Marshal John Blackburn AO (Retd) — Chair of the Institute for Integrated Economic Research – Australia
  Speaker 2: Dr Justin Fidock, Program Leader for National Security within the Space, Intelligence, National Security and Cyber (SINC) Division — Defence, Science, Technology Group (DSTG)

• Day 2 Panel Closing Panel
  “Quantum technologies: securing our sovereign and international position through responding to opportunities and threats”— As quantum technologies move from lab to deployment, this panel will explore what actions Australia must take now to shape a secure and competitive future in the quantum era.

• Professor Allison Kealy — Director, Innovative Planet Research Institute, Swinburne University of Technology, Board Member, Quantum Australia

• Josh Kennedy-White, Defence Industry Lead, Fujitsu Australia

• Dr Scott Foster — Program Lead of Quantum Technologies at the Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) 

• Professor Robert Ward — Centre Director, Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics, ANU

Click the link below to access the full program book