He said he wanted to have a “more frank discussion with the public” about China’s intentions.
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However, former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd said “the public language of Morrison, Dutton and Pezzullo on China, Taiwan and the possibility of war in the last week serves zero national security purpose”.
“Australia already has a highly problematic relationship with China,” Mr Rudd said.
“Much of this is because of changes in Chinese policy and posture under a much more assertive Xi Jinping. But it is also because Morrison et al. are addicted to the drug of ‘standing up to China’ every day of the week because of its perceived domestic political utility. ”
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Mr Dutton said he would not rule out naming the countries behind cyber attacks if the government was certain and doing so didn’t reveal any previously secret capabilities of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD).
“Where it’s in our interests to call out – whether it’s Russia or China or North Korea or somebody else – we will call them out,” he said. “There’s a lot of capacity that Australia has in the cyber space that clearly we wouldn’t talk publicly about, but gives us a very significant edge over many adversaries, even sophisticated adversaries.”
He said the ASD was “quite remarkable and world-leading” but “there’s more that we need to do”.
Australian military planners have been increasingly concerned about the threat of “grey zone” warfare, which refers to aggressions that fall somewhere between what we traditionally view as war and peace. It includes cyber attacks, disinformation campaigns, intellectual property theft and propaganda.
A state actor, believed to be China, was last year behind a series of dutton beijing declares everyday australians government
