Amid rising security concerns, Australians prioritise safe and peaceful communities

‘Ensuring peaceful and safe communities’ is the top priority for Australians across a wide range of demographic groups, providing a unifying national focus in an uncertain world.

At the same time, public concern is rising across a broad spectrum of threats, especially emerging risks related to technology, disinformation, economic security and foreign interference, according to landmark research conducted by the ANU National Security College (NSC).

A preview of selected findings has now been released ahead of a full report, to be published early next year, which will frame a major national conference on preparedness and resilience.

Emerging risks overshadow traditional security issues – and concerns are rising

Risks related to technology, disinformation, economic security and foreign interference dominate public concerns, in data collected in November 2024 and July 2025.

Across the two nationally-representative surveys, more than 12,000 Australians were asked to rate the seriousness of 15 potential threats over the next decade.
When combining the categories of ‘major’ threat and ‘moderate’ threat, the five most serious concerns were rated in July 2025 as:

• The use of artificial intelligence to attack Australian people and businesses (77%)
• A severe economic crisis (75%)
• Disruption to critical supplies due to a crisis overseas (74%)
• The deliberate spread of false information to mislead the Australian public and harm their interests (73%); and
• A foreign country interfering in Australia’s politics, government, economy or society (72%).

The impact of climate change was rated sixth overall (67%), although a particularly high proportion of respondents (38%) rated it as a ‘major threat’, second only to threats involving artificial intelligence (40%).
The possible threat of Australia being involved in military conflict with another country was rated seventh in seriousness, with 64% of respondents assessing it as either a major threat (21%) or a moderate threat (43%).

The Head of the ANU National Security College, Professor Rory Medcalf, said the findings indicated that Australians are attuned to fast-evolving global risks.

“Our research suggests that Australians generally have a sound and responsive understanding of the worsening security landscape we find ourselves in,” he said.

Anxiety about security issues is measurably on the rise. In July 2025, half of the respondents agreed (36%) or strongly agreed (14%) with the statement: “I am worried about Australia’s national security”. This represents an 8% increase between November 2024 and July 2025.

Over the same period, threat perceptions increased across every one of the 15 possible security threats included in the survey. The following table sets out threat perceptions from a sample of about 6,000 Australians in July 2025.

Other issues on which perceptions were sought were: animal/plant disease outbreak, global pandemic, terrorist attack, unprecedent natural disasters, violent unrest in Australia, critical infrastructure attack, a crime wave, and foreign military attack on Australia.

Of these, only a foreign military attack on Australia registered as a major (13%) or moderate (29%) threat to less than half of respondents. Even so, the data suggests that 42% of Australians consider this possibility to be a moderate or major threat within the next ten years.

A number of other prominent risks have been canvassed in interviews throughout the Community Consultations research, notably cyber threats, transnational crime and political extremism. These were not treated as discrete issues in the survey, given that they were deemed to be present across many of the other threats identified.

Safe and peaceful communities: Australians’ top national priority

The research also examines what Australians want the nation to prioritise over the next five years.
Safe and peaceful communities emerged as the leading priority, selected by more than one in three Australians (35%). When second preferences are included, support rises to nearly two-thirds (64%).
This priority ranked first across a wide range of demographic groups, including age, gender, cultural background, education, income and location.

The survey offered three other national priorities:

• ‘increasing Australia’s economic prosperity’ (26%)
• ‘upholding Australia’s democratic rights and freedoms’ (23%); and
• ‘strengthening Australia’s security’ (15%)

The following table sets out the first and second choices from the four national priorities offered. This question was asked in the first survey, in November 2024, and was not rerun in July 2025.

This localised and human-centred conception of security was reinforced in many of the more than 300 interviews conducted across Australia – in major cities, regional centres, rural communities and remote locations. National security was consistently framed as being about the peaceful continuity of everyday life.

“We’ve spoken to hundreds of Australians – from Broome to Burnie and Bunbury to Brisbane – about how they see national security, risk and resilience,” said Tim Wilford, Director of NSC Community Consultations.

A consistent theme is the desire for place-based and people-first solutions. Australians relate much more to security issues when they see how those connect with their daily lives.

“Communities are the building blocks of the nation, and Australians increasingly see communities as central to national security too.”

According to NSC Head Professor Medcalf:

“The priority of peaceful and safe communities provides a valuable point of national convergence in confronting times.

On the one hand, Australians know what they want to protect, especially in terms of peace, safety, community, democracy and prosperity. On the other hand, they recognise that a complex set of rapidly emerging threats can put these cherished priorities at risk.

“Across the country, we’ve encountered a real readiness to engage in conversation about risks, resilience and preparedness.

We look forward to releasing a lot more insight about those issues in our final report in March 2026, to help inform a truly national conversation on Australia’s future security.”