The Business – Government Advisory Group on National Security (BGAG) was formed as a result of the Business – Government Ministerial Forum on National Security in June 2004.

The group gives business leaders the opportunity to advise the Government on a broad range of national security issues and gives the Government a forum to discuss proposed new security initiatives and developments with the business community.

The group is chaired by the Australian Government Attorney-General and has a number of other senior Ministers also representing the Australian Government. Industry members are drawn from major business leaders whose companies or organisations are responsible for significant infrastructure assets.

The work of the BGAG complements the strategic objectives of the Critical Infrastructure Advisory Council and the Trusted Information Sharing Network.

Among the issues the group discussed at its inaugural meeting in Canberra on 10 December 2004 were:

• voluntary security standards for business
  
• support for the Attorney-General’s Department’s work on examining interdependencies in critical infrastructure and analysing the impacts of infrastructure failure, and
  
• identifying common interests in, and approaches to, identity security.