National Security Committee (Australia)
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| Committee overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1996 |
| Headquarters | Parliament House, Canberra |
| Committee executive |
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| Parent department | Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet |
The National Security Committee of Cabinet (NSC) is the peak decision-making body for national security of the Commonwealth of Australia. It is a committee of the Australian Government Cabinet of Ministers though decisions of the NSC do not require the endorsement of the Cabinet.
The NSC has similar but not analogous functions as the United States National Security Council and the United Kingdom National Security Council.
The origins of the National Security Committee stem from the 1977 tabled recommendations of the Royal Commission on Intelligence and Security, established on 21 August 1974 by Australia's Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and led by Justice Robert Hope, for the creation of a "ministerial committee on intelligence and security to give general oversight and policy control to the intelligence community".
Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser consequently established the National and International Security Committee in 1977. Prime Minister Bob Hawke also continued the format of the National and International Security Committee as a subcommittee of the Defence and External Relations Committee to consider and report on national security, defence and international relations.
The current format of the National Security Committee of Cabinet was created by Prime Minister John Howard in 1996 with a broad national security mandate including foreign policy and international economic issues. Under Howard the NSC also played a central role in the led up and during the International Force for East Timor deployment, the formulation of Defence White Papers, and the Australian involvement in the War in Afghanistan and the Australian involvement in the Iraq War.
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