Michael Shoebridge

Michael joined ASPI in February 2018 as the Director of the Defence & Strategy program. Michael has worked in policy, intelligence and project delivery in Defence.

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

Michael led the Defence team that wrote the 2013 Defence White Paper when he was head of Defence’s Strategic Policy Division. He has worked as the Deputy Director of Australia’s Defence Intelligence Organisation (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 Defence 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 Defence’s Contestability function, providing critical but constructive analysis of the projects and programs in the Government’s $200 billion integrated investment program for Defence, which is the investment element of the 2016 Defence White Paper.