Turnbull slams 'directionless' Govt security statement
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Mr Turnbull says Mr Rudd's national security statement is lengthy but short on detail. (AAP: Alan Porritt, file photo)
Federal Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull says the Government's first National Security Statement is lacking in detail and coherence.
In the statement, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd confirmed plans for a Department of Homeland Security have been scrapped.
He has created a new position of National Security Adviser and announced the Government would develop a white paper on counter-terrorism.
Mr Turnbull says Mr Rudd's national security statement was lengthy, but without any clear direction.
"The statement does not adequately and unequivocally describe what the Government intends to do about the main security challenges facing us in the years ahead," he said.
"So much of it is thrown into the future - into new structures, new reviews, new reports."
But defence analyst Professor Hugh White says the Government has made the right move by abandoning plans to set up a Homeland Security department.
"The idea of a Department of Homeland Security was always a dumb idea," he said.
"The Americans showed it - that however else you respond to the threat of terrorism, a Department of Homeland Security is not a smart idea.
"I think Rick Smith's review would have gone through that issue with great care and made it quite clear that setting up a whole new bureaucracy on top of the structures we've already got would not make a lot of sense."
In his first national security statement to Parliament, Mr Rudd reiterated the Government's commitment to the US alliance and regional partnerships.
Earlier, former SAS Commander Duncan Lewis was appointed as the Government's National Security Adviser.
Mr Rudd told Parliament a review of national security by a former Defence Department secretary, Rick Smith, has found that one big department runs the risk of becoming less adaptable.
"The Government has therefore concluded that the best solution for Australia is not another agency, but a new level of leadership direction and co-ordination amongst the agencies we already have," he said.
"We'll therefore build on the existing community of relatively small separate agencies, ensuring they remain nimble accountable and above all, properly joined up."
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