The Independent Intelligence Review, led by Dr Heather Smith and Richard Maude, has found Australia’s national intelligence community is highly capable and performing well. The unclassified report of the 2024 review was released on March 21, 2025.
The government announced an Independent Intelligence Review in September 2023 to ensure Australia’s intelligence agencies are best-positioned to continue to serve the country’s national interest.
I welcome this review,” said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Our hardworking intelligence agencies are crucial in safeguarding Australia’s national security, and we have full confidence in their capacity.”
“We will continue to invest in capability to ensure Australia’s intelligence community can deal with emerging threats and challenges,” he added. “I would like to thank Dr Smith and Mr Maude for their work on this review, which will ensure our intelligence community continues to protect our national interest.”
The review found agencies have been successful in protecting Australia’s national interest. However, the review also recommends investing in further capability to ensure the intelligence community maintains its high performance across various fronts, including economic security, crisis warning and preparedness, and open-source intelligence.
The government will invest AUD44.6 million over four years from 2025-26 in the Office of National Intelligence to support initial implementation of key priorities identified in the response to the review.
This new investment builds on a significant increase in funding for national security over the past three years. Since May 2022, the Australian Government says it has increased national security funding over the forward estimates by AUD53 billion, or 20%. National security funding has increased from AUD265 billion over four years from 2021-22, to AUD318 billion over four years from 2024-25.
The 2024 Independent Intelligence Review found significant progress had been made since the last Independent Intelligence Review in 2017.
This progress includes establishing the National Intelligence Community and creating the Office of National Intelligence to lead and coordinate the community.
Consistent with the approach to past independent intelligence reviews under successive governments, details about the proposed approach to specific recommendations will remain classified.
Independent reviews of Australia’s intelligence community have been commissioned periodically since 2004 to ensure Australia can effectively meet and respond to future challenges.
The unclassified report can be found on the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s website.
