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Threats to Australia
For the third year in a row, cyberattacks from other countries is the leading threat to Australia, according to respondents asked about a range of possible ‘threats to the vital interests of Australia in the next ten years’. Almost two-thirds (65%) see cyberattacks from other countries as a ‘critical threat’, although this is down five points from 2024.
The next highest ranked threat — a military conflict between the United States and China over Taiwan — remained roughly steady, with 61% seeing this potential conflict as a critical threat. Fewer Australians saw the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine (47%) and the Middle East (34%) as critical threats.
Meanwhile, concern about ‘a severe downturn in the global economy’ rose by four points to 58%. While fears of a global economic downturn have increased, the change is much less pronounced than in 2020, at the start of the Covid pandemic, when a spike in economic concerns saw seven in ten Australians (71%) rate a downturn as a critical threat.
More than half of Australians (54%) believe climate change is a critical threat to the nation, roughly steady on last year. Concerns about North Korea’s nuclear program (54%), international terrorism (53%), and the spread of infectious diseases internationally (51%) also held roughly steady. A substantial minority of 46% see artificial intelligence — added to this list for the first time this year — as a critical threat.
Despite Australians’ strong disapproval of Donald Trump’s use of tariffs, only three in ten (29%) view ‘tariffs on Australian exports to the United States’ as a critical threat to the national interest. Fieldwork was completed before Trump’s 2 April ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs on countries around the world.
There are clear demographic differences in how Australians respond on this matter — far fewer younger Australians (34% of 18 to 29 year olds) are supportive of increasing defence spending than older Australians (71% of those older than 60). As a group, females (46%) are less supportive than males (58%), and those who lean towards Labor (50%) are less supportive than those who prefer the Coalition (72%).
