Well, there is really only one rule in intelligence, don't get caught or found out!
Every country watches other countries! Only a complete fool would chose to do otherwise.
Which is why few if any countries were properly prepared for the second world war!
Which could have been nipped in the bud and terminated, with a shock and awe, show of force, along with implacable resolve, not to let a psychopath, start a war, that eventually killed millions.
The next war is not likely to be fought on some front, but on civilian populations, and where only superior intell will change or shorten the odds!
And the best place to fight an enemy is on his turf not yours, and where it is his civilian populations become the so-called, collateral damage!
And the best weapon will be superior intell!
This is where quantum computing and communication, along with stealth surveillance really does come into it's own.
Nothing however, can prepare us for the still rare and devious traitor, ready to spill essential state secrets, for a few dollars or sexual favors; or, thoroughly misguided idealistic ideology?
That said, much better integrity testing that includes the right questions, biannual examinations, replete with thermal imaging, computer assisted voice stress recognition and computer facial recognition, just might!
Currently, I believe, we place far too much reliance on increasingly fallible, over rewarded senior human resources, and their often overblown egos and subsequent highly flawed estimations of their own abilities?
President Roosevelt was right when he said, wear a velvet glove, but carry a big stick!
Rhrosty.

I can't help but appreciate the state-of-art hypocrisy in our former and current governments waxing indignant at the mere thought that the Chinese company Huawei would be allowed to participate in the roll-out of our National Broadband Network. It seems there are concerns they may build a back-door or two and indulge in a spot of spying!
Better we stick with American and European companies, ones we know we can trust.
The damage these revelations have done to our standing in our neighbourhood are incalculable. We may never regain our neighbours' trust. We better hope the US doesn't pivot out of Asia. Abandoned stooges can be treated harshly.

Well, do we really care if 'we miss the boat'? Who is to say the 'Asian Century' will actually eventuate the way the optimists say it will? What if the 'Asian Century' simply deteriorates into asian nationalism and territorial conflict? Would we have missed 'the boat' if that occurs? At the moment we have the mineral resources that developing nations need, and that is the beginning and the end of any asian interest in us. We do not have asian values in Australia and we most certainly don't want them.

As far as that boat we might end up missing is concerned, it seems as if we're damned if we do and damned if we don't. If we DON'T spy on our neighbours, those potential crazy dictators that Rhrosty is warning us about will swoop down on us with their potential crazy armies and kill us all in our beds. If we DO spy on our neighbours, they'll get all huffy and won't invite us to their free trade agreements.

As Rhrosty warns, best to stay on the safe side, and if our neighbours want our trade, then a bit of NSA Keystone-spookery is not going to make much difference. I mean, we've spent hundreds of billions of dollars on our spooks industry, so we may as well use it.

So ... let's just keep on building billion dollar buildings to house tens of thousands of overpaid spooks and keep throwing billions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art techie stuff at them, so they can keep on finding out about what the overpaid spooks in other countries in their billion dollar buildings with billions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art techie stuff are finding out about us.

And if you're reading this, NSA, Hi there! Any news on that boat we might have missed?

Australia's love affair with the Yanks could come at a heavy price. We have shown ourselves to be pawns of America, a nation with ambitions to control the world.

Our leadership has let us down in their rush to appease and please the Yanks. Any thought of Australia being neutral has been thrown out the window. We are seen as an American bastion floating in a South-East Asian ocean.

It is not too late for us to change. Let's get rid of the U.S.A. from Australian soil lock, stock and barrel. Let's divorce ourselves from the most hated nation on Earth. Let's create strong partnerships with nations in our region using friendship and mutual caring.

The U.S. is a spent force in the world. Its greed and hubris made it over-reach. It is broke. Its society is fragmenting. Its Government is a joke.

The U.S. is an anchor around our necks! And sea levels are rising!

David G, do you seriously think the chinese would be any better than the USA?