Anthony Byrne (Holt, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I will deal with the issue of strategic policy first and then move on to the issue of the Office of National Security. The question I think that the honourable member asked was: what is the role of the strategic policy unit? The unit will provide advice of a forward-looking strategic nature to the Prime Minister and the government. The unit will oversight and manage project teams engaged in strategic policy development and setting strategic directions. Teams will be variously comprised of staff from the unit, policy divisions and other agencies and external sources such as academics and members of the business and community sectors.

It is expected that the unit will also assist the government to set the strategic policy agenda through sectoral scans to identify needs in areas of future policy development. The unit will form a knowledge hub in relation to strategic thinking and policy development and, in time, disseminate information on strategic thinking within PM&C and the broader Australian Public Service. In full operation, the unit will require about 30 or 40 staff, comprising a core staffing of roughly 20 officers and others drawn—

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