Critical Infrastructure Resilience: Resilience Thinking in Australia’s Federal Critical Infrastructure Protection Policy

Authors

Keywords:

counterterrorism, critical infrastructure, infrastructure protection, resilience, policy

Abstract

Australia’s national security policy is set out in a number of complex and interrelated policy documents that span multiple agencies, impact all levels of government (federal, state and local) and require strong partnerships with the private sector. This study examines the emergence of the term and concept of critical infrastructure (CI) in modern policy and its development in Australia’s national security policy. Since its emergence in Australian federal policy, the term CI has evolved and stabilised. Yet, in the last decade CI policy has expanded to incorporate resilience thinking and the concept of critical infrastructure resilience (CIR) is now at the core of Australia’s federal CI policy. This study identifies the emergence and development of federal policy focused on protecting Australia’s most vital assets in peacetime. In doing so, it highlights that in Australian federal policy, CIR has been conceptualised in four distinct ways. However, resilience as a body of knowledge is still evolving. Articulating and analysing how resilience thinking has been incorporated into Australia’s federal CI policy, is an important next step in assessing policy focused on the protection Australia’s most vital and iconic assets.

Author Biography

  • Kate O’Donnell, Griffith University

    Kate O’Donnell holds the degrees of Bachelor of Business, Master of Arts, and Master of Criminology and Criminal Justice (Hons). She is presently a candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). Her research currently focuses on the policing of disruptions to critical infrastructure by issue motivated groups (IMG). Before commencing her doctoral studies, Ms O’Donnell was a senior officer in the transport sector of the Queensland State Government who in 2011 was seconded to Center of Excellence in Policing and Research (CEPS) as a Practitioner-in-Residence. In this role Ms O’Donnell worked to include transport security as part of the CEPS research agenda, building strong linkages with the transport sector and undertaking research into Australia’s critical infrastructure protection policies. In a career spanning almost thirty years in the Queensland Public Service, Ms O’Donnell has held senior roles in human resource management and industrial relations, health administration, ministerial and parliamentary liaison, as well as transport security.

References

Downloads

Published

2013-03-01

Issue

Issue 1, Number 3, 2013

Section

Research Articles

License

Authors retain copyright in their articles and grant SALUS the right of first publication. The work is simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as appropriate credit is given to the author(s) and the journal, a link to the license is provided, and any changes made are indicated.

How to Cite

Critical Infrastructure Resilience: Resilience Thinking in Australia’s Federal Critical Infrastructure Protection Policy. (2013). Salus Journal, 1(3), 13-32. https://journals.csu.domains/index.php/salusjournal/article/view/issue-01-number-03-odonnell