Neither Confirm Nor Deny: National Security Secrecy and Australia's Liberal Democracy

Since the 1940s, the often-controversial policy of successive Australian governments has been to ‘neither confirm nor deny’ (NCND) certain matters of national security. This presentation examines the history of the NCND principle in Australia and its role in Australian liberal democratic governance. Using archival sources, it charts the adoption and gradual formalisation of NCND as official secrecy policy; the interaction of NCND with bipartisanship on national security; and the evolution of Australian governments’ use of NCND in changing security contexts and international partnerships. In so doing, it develops an analysis of the historical role of NCND in navigating the ‘permanent tension’ between secrecy and transparency within Australia’s liberal democracy.


About the Speaker
Emily Hitchman is a Sir Roland Wilson Scholar at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. Emily’s research examines the strategic function of the Neither Confirm Nor Deny principle, and how its use in the security and intelligence context has evolved in Australia. In so doing, Emily’s research will develop a conceptual understanding of the Neither Confirm Nor Deny principle to support an analysis of how official secrecy can be navigated in the contemporary security context. Emily has appeared on the National Security Podcast examining secret statecraft (June 2022), and as a panel member speaking about the future of intelligence as part of the Australian Crisis Simulation Summit (December 2022). In addition to her doctoral research, Emily is Research Officer on the Defence Strategic Policy Grant project 'Anticipating the Future of War: AI, Automated Systems, and Resort-to-Force Decision Making', led by Professor Toni Erskine.


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