Today, Dr Shergold, the Secretary of my Department and Assistant Secretary of Defence Thomas O'Connell signed a Memorandum of Understanding between their departments to facilitate collaborative research and development for counter-terrorism between Australia and the United States.
This arrangement will allow the Australian research community to collaborate with the US through the Technical Support Working Group. The objective of the arrangement will be to develop counter-terrorism technology, eliminate unnecessary duplication of work and obtain the most effective outcomes through research and development. Australian and US researchers will test and evaluate existing and newly developed prototype technology in the laboratory and in operational settings.
Joint collaborative activities will focus on developing technologies and capabilities that will help deter, detect and identify terrorists, neutralise their weapons and reduce the probability of terrorist incidents.
The arrangement will be managed in Australia through the National Security Science and Technology Unit within my Department.
The arrangement is in addition to the Agreement between the Government of Australia and the Government of the United States of America on Cooperation in Science and Technology for Homeland/Domestic Security Matters that was signed on 21 December 2005.