A massive cyber attack against Australia or New Zealand will invoke a mutual defence pact, leaders say, as the trans-Tasman partners work to bolster security.
Such an incident “could constitute an armed attack” under the ANZUS treaty, the Australian and New Zealand prime ministers have determined.
“The way we have viewed warfare is changing, an attack on the economy can bring down the operation of an entire society,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in Canberra after meeting with his Kiwi counterpart on Friday.
Standing alongside Mr Albanese, New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Luxon said the alliance would come into play following “a sufficiently severe cyber attack”.
“Modern warfare has moved into the cyberspace,” he said.
“It’s important we have that covered.”
Australia is working to bolster cyber security throughout the Pacific, most recently pumping $16.7 million to modernise hardware and software to better protect against online threats.
The head of the Oceania region at Swift – the technology that underpins financial transactions between 20 Pacific island countries – said the company was working to bolster cyber security in the sector and target transnational crime.
“Attacks always happen, we cannot avoid that, but we are working on protecting ourselves,” Suresh Rajalingam told AAP.
On top of banks, the company is working with Australia’s central bank and financial watchdog APRA as well as public bodies across New Zealand and the Pacific, he said.
Security in the Pacific was also canvassed by the two prime ministers during the annual leaders’ dialogue, with a policing initiative set to come before the Pacific Islands Forum for endorsement in late August.
The forum’s foreign ministers backed the proposal at a meeting on August 9, but Solomon Islands raised concerns it was being rammed through.
The Solomons struck a security pact with China, prompting an Australian retort that Beijing had no role in policing the region.
Without specifically addressing the Solomons’ concerns, Mr Albanese said the policing initiative was consistent with Pacific countries agreeing “security in our region is primarily the responsibility of our family”.
A joint communique noted, “Pacific countries had the will and capability to address shared security concerns from within the region”.
Mr Luxon added his support to the policing pact as he pointed to transnational organised crime and drug trafficking as pertinent issues.
“Within the Pacific, I think it would be well received,” he said.
Despite the leaders’ cordial handshakes, criminal deportations continued to cause friction.
The issue has become a political minefield in Australia after the conservative opposition seized on a ministerial direction that allowed courts to consider a criminal’s ties to the nation before deportation
A number of deportees who won the right to stay in Australia committed heinous crimes and prompted a reversal of the concession.
Mr Luxon said while he respected Australia’s laws, there had to be a focus on the common-sense approach that addressed people whose formative experiences were nearly all in Australia.
“Prime Minister Albanese and I agreed to engage closely on this,” he said.
Mr Albanese said community safe was Australia’s “number one consideration” but reiterated a common-sense approach.
Australia will work with New Zealand’s defence forces to streamline co-operation and provide input where necessary to Wellington’s assessment of its military after a similar defence review in Canberra.
“We want to be fully interoperable with Australia’s defence forces, we want to be a force multiplier for Australia,” Mr Luxon said.
He received a ceremonial welcome at Parliament House before signing the official visitor’s book.
