Roundtable with Greg Moriarty

On Tuesday, 4 July 2023, the Perth USAsia Centre was honoured to host a private roundtable with Greg Moriarty, Secretary of the Australian Department of Defence.

Representatives of Western Australian defence, industry, government, and academia discussed Australia’s challenging strategic environment, as outlined in the recent Defence Strategic Review.

WA serves as the national gateway to an increasingly economically and geopolitically important Indian Ocean region. It also maintains important links to Southeast and Northeast Asia.

The state will play a key role in Defence responses to rising regional challenges, most prominently through hosting new nuclear submarine capacity at HMAS Stirling naval base under the AUKUS pact.

Roundtable participants heard Mr Moriarty’s perspectives on evolving Defence priorities and the challenges and opportunities for WA to respond to them.

Mr Moriarty commenced as Secretary of the Department of Defence in 2017 and was reappointed for another 5-year term in 2022.

Mr Moriarty previously held senior roles in the Prime Minister’s office, first as the International and National Security Adviser and then as Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.