Australia's intelligence agencies are working to defend AUKUS security pact secret technology from being stolen by malicious actors.
ASIO boss Mike Burgess has spoken of the need to fiercely protect those secrets so key allies such as the US and UK can trust Australia.
"People are already coming after those secrets and looking to interfere with this (AUKUS)," he said in a podcast by the ANU's National Security College.
"For me, the security of that is absolutely important.
"Nation states will seek to have a crack at us and pick at it and use our open system of justice against us."
Asked if efforts were under way to disrupt AUKUS, Office of National Intelligence director-general Andrew Shearer said they were.
He told the podcast his organisation was working "incredibly hard" with Defence and the government for Australia's benefit.
"This is happening - it is real ... there is a role for intelligence," he said.
"Then there's the defensive part of the AUKUS agenda, which is obviously protecting that technology."
Australia's pathway to acquiring nuclear-powered submarines under the security pact is expected to cost $368 billion across the next three decades.
Opposition defence spokesman Andrew Hastie said Australia would grow a workforce of more than 20,000 with a "massive transfer" of national secrets between the US, the UK and Australia.
"It's really, really important for our credibility as a partner in AUKUS that we have modernised our (security) vetting processes and we can demonstrate to the US and the UK that we can be trusted with their secrets," he told parliament on Thursday during a debate on new national security laws.
A number of Labor branches have been agitating for the government to dump its support for nuclear-powered submarines and AUKUS.
But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government remained committed.
"The view of my government is very, very clear and is unwavering in its support for AUKUS, in its support for issues about our national security and about our interests in the defence of this nation," he told reporters on Thursday.
"The Labor Party is a democratic party, and it's one in which people engage in debates."
