The Southeast Asia Centre of Asia-Pacific Excellence, in collaboration with Asia Forum, invites you to attend this upcoming session at Victoria University of Wellington (Pipitea Campus), featuring guest speaker Tony Lynch, Deputy Chief Executive, National Security Group at Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

The in-person option for this event will be preceded and followed by refreshments and networking.

Synopsis

“Public conversations about national security matter.”

New Zealand’s national security is impacted by global trends and an increasingly complex international environment.

Tony’s presentation will draw on the recently published national security Long Term Insights Briefing (LTIB) – which considers “engaging an increasingly diverse Aotearoa New Zealand on national security risks, challenges and opportunities”.

This work was informed by a first national security Public Survey (2022), which highlighted the national security concerns New Zealanders are most worried about. A second survey earlier this year updates these concerns – with the top five including natural disasters, organised crime, hacking into information systems, disinformation, and nuclear/biological/chemical attacks somewhere in the world.

A clear message from this work is that New Zealanders want to be better informed about the range of threats we face as a nation.

The better informed we are as a society, the better we will be at protecting New Zealand from threats that would do us harm.

Keynote speaker

Tony Lynch leads the National Security Group in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. His direct responsibilities include the architecture of the national security system, National Intelligence Assessments, Intelligence Coordination, National Security Policy including Cyber Security, Emergency Management, and Security and Intelligence Policy. Tony took up his role in August 2019.

Prior to his current role, Tony was Deputy Secretary of Defence at the New Zealand Ministry of Defence from June 2014. His immediate previous assignment was as New Zealand’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand with cross-accreditation to Lao PDR, Cambodia and Myanmar. Other diplomatic assignments have been to New Zealand’s Mission to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva, the New Zealand Embassy in Jakarta and the New Zealand High Commission in Canberra.

Prior to his assignment in Thailand, Mr Lynch served as Foreign Policy Advisor on secondment to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Tony has a Master of Arts degree in History from the University of Otago, Dunedin. His interests include cricket, rugby, swimming and cycling, as well as food and wine.