Cricket Australia's chairman has been sounded out by Malcolm Turnbull for advice on who should be the country's next defence boss as the Prime Minister contemplates a wide-ranging shakeup of security and intelligence agencies.

More than two months have passed since widely respected and long-serving bureaucrat Dennis Richardson stepped down as Defence Department secretary, and there is growing anticipation in military ranks over who will replace him.

Immigration Department Secretary Mike Pezzullo and Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings are widely considered the current favourites for the prized position.

Other candidates believed to be in the running are Department of Human Services Secretary and Army Reserve Officer Kathryn Campbell, Department of Health Secretary Martin Bowles or even the acting Defence Department Secretary Brendan Sargeant.

However Mr Turnbull is understood to be underwhelmed by current options in the public service and keen to find someone with private sector experience.

The ABC can reveal he has recently turned to former Rio Tinto managing director and current Cricket Australia chairman David Peever for guidance.

In 2014, the former mining boss led a sweeping examination of the Defence Department known as the First Principles Review, and until last month was still chairing the oversight committee charged with implementing its recommendations.

Review of intelligence community released next week

In London this week, Malcolm Turnbull signalled the UK model could be adopted. ( Reuters: Hannah McKay )

Mr Turnbull has also been busy grappling with a possible restructure of Australia's major security and intelligence agencies which could soon be brought together as part of a new, super-ministry modelled on the United Kingdom's Home Office.

Speaking alongside British Prime Minister and former Home Secretary Theresa May in London this week, Mr Turnbull signalled the UK example could be adopted.

"The UK has an integrated Home Office and, in fact, Theresa was the Home Secretary and they have all their domestic security agencies, MI5, police and border protection, as all part of that," he said.

"We have to be dynamic, agile — constantly asking can we improve the way our agencies are keeping Australians safe and will always continue to seek to improve them."

The prospect of a new homeland security super-ministry based around the existing Department of Immigration and Border Protection, while absorbing ASIO and the Australian Federal Police, has sharply divided the Turnbull cabinet.

Ministers who are critical of the idea, including Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Attorney General George Brandis and Justice Minister Michael Keenan, believe federal agencies are currently working well together and argue: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

A new mega portfolio would see ASIO transferred from the Attorney General, and the AFP moved from the Justice Minister, to be overseen by a new homeland security minister who would almost certainly be the current Immigration Minister and leading conservative cabinet figure Peter Dutton.

Putting Mr Dutton in charge of a new homeland security department would help quell anger from some of the Government's internal conservative critics, but would also likely to be the trigger for a wider ministerial reshuffle.

Next week is likely to provide further clues of the Government's thinking when a summary of a wide ranging review of Australia's intelligence community is publicly released.

A senior Government source insists the report by former public officials Michael L'Estrange and Stephen Merchant makes far broader recommendations than simply how security agencies should be administered in the future.

Senior Defence figures have told the ABC they are not overly bothered over whether national security agencies are brought under a new umbrella organisation.

Homeland security department push splits Labor

The fierce tussle over how national security agencies should be managed has not just played out in government ranks, with opinions also split among opposition frontbenchers on whether a new homeland security department is needed.

Several Labor party sources have confirmed Shadow Cabinet members "robustly" debated whether to support a new homeland security mega-portfolio if the Government chooses to establish one.

The ABC has been told Shadow Attorney General Mark Dreyfus and Shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong, like their Government counterparts, are staunchly opposed to the idea.

Labor's Defence spokesman Richard Marles is said to have been more open to the idea, but has now accepted his party's official position that "the bar for change is high — our intelligence and enforcement agencies already work very well together".

Putting Peter Dutton in charge of a new department would quell anger from internal critics. ( ABC News: Matt Roberts )

In a statement to the ABC, Mr Dreyfus said: "Labor will always listen to the advice of the security agencies and the experts.

"There are clearly concerns from Peter Dutton's Cabinet colleagues — including Ms Bishop, Senator Brandis and now Michael Keenan — that this is just a power play from him.

"We'll support what's best for the country, not what's best for Peter Dutton.

"The ability of our security agencies to do their job should not be compromised because of the division and dysfunction within the Turnbull Government."