Politicians are ready to level with the public about how Australians should prepare for military conflict after years of mounting frustration from the Defence community over the government’s refusal to discuss risks to the country candidly.

The National Defence Strategy released on Thursday for the first time lists “national civil preparedness” as a key priority.

“Whole-of-nation support is key to Defence preparedness in a crisis or conflict,” it stated.

It committed the Commonwealth to working with lower levels of government, the private sector and the broader Australian community to make sure everyone is better prepared for a potential conflict.

RSL president Peter Tinley said it was a shift well overdue.

He believed community resilience would only be built through transparent education and preparation, based on a national strategy that matched the threat.

“We need to be building confidence in the community that we have a plan and that we are prepared to engage that plan. It’s not about doing secretive things or scaremongering at all,” he said, citing the example of chief health officers giving regular updates during COVID.

“We owe it to the population of Australia that we tell them, in the plainest terms possible, what the nature of the threat is, and that’s that an expanding China and making room for another great power is always going to have friction.”

The government asked Stephen Smith and his team to look at mobilisation as part of the 2023 Defence Strategic Review that has underpinned all of Labor’s planning in this space.

Despite Mr Smith meeting the full request, the DSR’s public version mentions “mobilisation” only once — in the terms of reference — and doesn’t discuss civil preparedness.

The defence strategy released on Thursday references Sweden and Finland’s Ukraine-war-inspired investment in “total defence” that emphasises the need for society and industry to be prepared, alongside the military, as one of the lessons Australia is examining.

The Swedish government sends an information pamphlet to every household with practical tips on preparing for times of crisis — even down to how to stop bleeding.

Outgoing Defence Force chief David Johnston drew headlines last year when he warned Australia had to start preparing for combat operations on its territory.

A series of security figures, including former minister Joel Fitzgibbon and Mr Tinley’s RSL predecessor Greg Melick, have since warned of complacency and a lack of preparedness.

Many believe there’s an assumption from politicians that people will freak out if they’re told too much about the risks.

But ANU’s National Security College head Rory Medcalf said the need for an informed and prepared public wasn’t about panicking anyone.

“It’s just normalising a confident conversation with the community … What we need is a situation where households have the information they need, and the Government is striking the right balance between alertness and reassurance,” he said.

“Nationally, we are still a long, long way away from that.”

Defence Minister Richard Marles insisted the Government was already levelling with people.

“There is an important path to walk in terms of civil preparedness. But, you know, I actually think when you go out — at least when I go out and speak to ordinary voters, certainly in my electorate — people have, I think, a reasonable sense of what’s going on in the world today,” he said at the NDS launch.

While bureaucrats have been working on behind-the-scenes coordination, Australians largely feel the country is not ready for conflict.

Nor do they know where to find the information they want about the risks, according to National Security College research, with just over half saying the Government shared too little.

The survey of thousands of Australians found just one in 10 thought the country was prepared for a military conflict, despite a large majority rating an attack on home soil as the most catastrophic threat, and anticipating conflict overseas within five years.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s defence program deputy director Courtney Stewart said the Government had “done a solid job in trying to communicate better” what the threats were and the Defence capabilities needed.

But it was yet to nail the social license to back the required multi-generational investments.

“You can’t achieve that unless you have a clear narrative to your public about what the actual threat environment is that we’re facing, and how that relates to the common Australia,” Ms Stewart said.

Greens Defence spokesman David Shoebridge said the shift towards preparing Australians for conflict offered “an accidental glimpse into the true cost of Labor’s love affair with AUKUS” and the risk posed by hosting US bases and assets.

“People in the Gulf states have had a frightening lesson in how allowing US bases on their soil makes them a target, whenever the US chooses to go to war in their part of the world,” he said, calling for Australia to abandon AUKUS and close American bases.