Uploaded August 2023 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
Presented by The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre
Professor John Blaxland, an international security and intelligence services expert from the Australian National University, and Clare Birgin, a former Australian diplomat are in conversation with Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington AO, Deputy Vice Chancellor: Research and Enterprise at the University of South Australia. The discussion revolves around their book, Revealing Secrets: An Unofficial History of Australian Signals Intelligence & the Advent of Cyber.
For a long time, the Australian Signals intelligence (or Sigint) story has been kept secret. Until now…
Why does Australia have a national signals intelligence agency? What does it do and why is it controversial? And how significant are its ties with key partners, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand, to this arrangement?
Revealing Secrets is a compelling account of Australian Signals intelligence, its efforts at revealing the secrets of other nations, and keeping ours safe. It brings to light those clever Australians whose efforts were for so long entirely unknown or overlooked. Blaxland and Birgin traverse the royal commissions and reviews that shaped Australia’s intelligence community in the 20th century and consider the advent and the impact of cyber. In unearthing this integral, if hidden and little understood, part of Australian statecraft, this book increases our understanding of the past, present and what lies ahead.
www.hawkecentre.unisa.edu.au
Presented by The Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Centre
Professor John Blaxland, an international security and intelligence services expert from the Australian National University, and Clare Birgin, a former Australian diplomat are in conversation with Professor Marnie Hughes-Warrington AO, Deputy Vice Chancellor: Research and Enterprise at the University of South Australia. The discussion revolves around their book, Revealing Secrets: An Unofficial History of Australian Signals Intelligence & the Advent of Cyber.
For a long time, the Australian Signals intelligence (or Sigint) story has been kept secret. Until now…
Why does Australia have a national signals intelligence agency? What does it do and why is it controversial? And how significant are its ties with key partners, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand, to this arrangement?
Revealing Secrets is a compelling account of Australian Signals intelligence, its efforts at revealing the secrets of other nations, and keeping ours safe. It brings to light those clever Australians whose efforts were for so long entirely unknown or overlooked. Blaxland and Birgin traverse the royal commissions and reviews that shaped Australia’s intelligence community in the 20th century and consider the advent and the impact of cyber. In unearthing this integral, if hidden and little understood, part of Australian statecraft, this book increases our understanding of the past, present and what lies ahead.
www.hawkecentre.unisa.edu.au
