Ex-military cyber specialist to speak at Carrington Broad Left dinner

Even if Morrison's instincts are correct, there are still plenty of people on either side of politics who are anything but quiet, and who care how Australia conducts its politics, domestically and on the international stage.

The Hunter Broad Left is full of them.

On Saturday night, the group is hosting a dinner at Carrington Bowling Club - all comers welcome - with national security specialist Clinton Fernandes from the University of NSW as guest speaker.

Based in Canberra, Fernandes is Professor of International and Political Studies across two UNSW bodies; its School of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Australian Centre for Cyber Security.

The subject matter of Saturday night's speech - 'Whistle Blowers and the National Security State' - would be apposite at any time, but is all the more so now given the pursuit of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who faces life in jail for espionage if the US can extradite him from England.

Last year's speaker was Macquarie University academic Vince Scappatura, who said that while people were worrying about Chinese infiltration of our politics, the greatest foreign influence, that of the US, went almost "unmentioned".

Scappatura's new book, The US Lobby and Australian Defence Policy, is built around his 2016 PhD thesis and was published last month by Monash University Publishing.

I can't agree with all of his conclusions, but Scappatura looks hard at the costs, as well as the benefits, of our alliance with the US.

Fernandes, too, takes aim at the established order, and from an insider's perspective.

Dissenting from the official line during his time with the Australian Army Intelligence Corps, Fernandes was targeted by the Howard government. He was later cleared and promoted to major.

As an academic, his research into cyber security looks at "Australia's place in a changing world".

"We are heading for a Cold War 2.0 - a technology cold war that splits the globe into US and Chinese technological zones," Fernandes said yesterday.

"The new 'digital iron curtain' that separates them runs through Australia. We are being asked to choose between our greatest military ally and our greatest trading partner.

"If the US insists that Australia must fight alongside it in a war against China, is the US alliance worth preserving?

"There may be a need for parliament to make this decision, not the prime minister."

Nothing quiet about that, Scott.