Australia has fallen behind many other countries by failing to adopt an integrated approach to e-government that joins up all government services across the three tiers of government. For citizens, this makes life harder than it needs to be and consumes time that could be spent on other things.

Another major government digitisation scheme - digital identity - is set to cause controversy and risk further disempowering Australians in the absence of clearer policy and legislative controls.

Australia’s 5G network is critical national infrastructure and this was one of the most important policy decisions the government had to make this year.

For at least a decade and a half, Chinese hackers have conducted a widespread campaign of industrial cyber espionage, targeting private sector companies in an effort to steal intellectual property, trade secrets and other information that could help China become economically more competitive.

For Australia, both defensive and offensive cyber capabilities are now an essential component of our nation’s military arsenal, and a necessary step to ensure that we keep up with global players.