Mr. Michael Shoebridge has worked in policy, intelligence and project delivery in Defense.  He headed the Defense, Intelligence and Research Coordination Division in the Prime Minister’s department.  Michael also started a new Defense Capability Assessment Branch in the Department of Finance, which provided the Finance department’s assessment of all major Defense capability investment proposals to inform Cabinet decision making.

Michael led the Defense team that wrote the 2013 Defense White Paper when he was head of Defense’s Strategic Policy Division.  He has worked as the Deputy Director of Australia’s Defense Intelligence Organization (one of two assessment agencies in Australia’s intelligence community and partner to the US DIA) and as one of the four deputies in the Australian Signals Directorate (partner to the US NSA).

He was the Senior Defense Civilian in the Australian Embassy in Washington during the time of the Iraq surge and the return of the Australian SAS to Afghanistan.  He has worked in two Commonwealth Ministers’ offices.

His role before joining ASPI was as the head of Defense’s Contestability function, providing critical but constructive analysis of the projects and programs in the Government’s $200 billion integrated investment program for Defense, which is the investment element of the 2016 Defense White Paper.