Opening Statement from Kathy Klugman, Director-General of National Intelligence
Senate Finance and Public Administration Legislation Committee, 25 May 2026
Since I appeared before the Committee in early mid-February, international instability has intensified. As all members will be acutely aware, war in the Middle East has been affecting Australia and Australians, including through disruptions to energy, other supply chains, markets and travel. The effects will be felt for some considerable time, even if the war was to end tomorrow.
National Intelligence Community agencies have worked hard over recent months to give ministers and senior officials awareness of events in the Middle East and of their implications, to inform government decision-making and to help keep Australians safe.
While the conflict has been a key focus of our work – quite naturally over the last few months – the Office of National Intelligence has sustained our watch across a broad range of threats and opportunities in our region and wider geopolitics. This includes the promise and the risk of new technologies (including artificial intelligence), evolving terrorist and transnational criminal threats, and global economic shifts. And we continue to monitor tensions in the South China Sea, pressures around Taiwan and military modernisation in and beyond our region, as well as Russia’s war on Ukraine.
All of this is against the backdrop of the broad trends I spoke about in February to this Committee: uncertainty and disorder being more prevalent; international crises happening more often and being felt more quickly in Australia and by Australians; and complex risks overlapping and manifesting in new ways. Surprise and rapid change is becoming more common as the international order comes under greater strain. As the National Defence Strategy noted, ‘we have entered a more dangerous and unpredictable era’.
In this era, the National Intelligence Community and this Office of National Intelligence will remain focused on providing clear, rigorous and actionable insight, and on protecting and advancing Australia’s prosperity and our security.
25 May 2026