Australian National Intelligence Community is waiting for reforms

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) has initiated a review of proposed intelligence reforms embodied in the National Security Legislation Amendment (Comprehensive Review and Other Measures No.3) Bill 2023. The Bill aims to enhance oversight of the national intelligence community by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) and this Committee (PJCIS).

PCJIS has commenced the review at the request of the Minister for Home Affairs. The bill addresses twelve recommendations stemming from the 2020 Comprehensive Review of the Legal Framework of the National Intelligence Community, also known as the Richardson Review. It also seeks to implement additional amendments deemed necessary by the intelligence community.

 The Australian National Intelligence Community (NIC), include the

six agencies:

• Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO)
• Australian Signals Directorate (ASD)
• Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS)
• Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation (AGO)
• Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO) and
• Office of National Assessments (ONA, now the Office of National Intelligence (ONI)).
• Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) and
• relevant parts of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP, now the Department of Home Affairs (DoHA)).

The intelligence bureaucracies established during the Cold War have undergone several rounds of reform. These have grappled with different mani- festations of the secrecy problem. Australian intelligence reform has been shaped by a series of domestic reviews and greatly influenced by developments in the US.

In May 2022 to the head of Australia’s main foreign intelligence agency. Paul Symon, director of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service said that Australian intelligence must recruit foreign spies with more urgency than at any time since the opening years of the Cold War.

A growing number of pressing concerns made “the need to recruit new spies” more essential than ever before. According to Symon, ASIS needs to recruit and work with even more vigor and urgency than at any other point in our 70-year history. In this task, China remains a strategic focus for ASIS, given its role in the region. Symon claimed there were signs that increasing numbers of Chinese state “officials [and] individuals” were “interested in a relationship” with ASIS. This was because many Chinese are becoming concerned about what he described as the rise of “an enforced monoculture” in China, and wish to stop it, said Symon.

The current Australian security environment has led to increased collaboration and engagement with agencies across government. The six intelligence and security agencies are increasingly partnering with an additional four agencies: the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre and the Intelligence Division of the Department of Home Affairs to counter security threats. 

However, the oversight and accountability framework for the National Intelligence Community is not uniform, nor has it been reformed since the formation of the community.

Under existing legislation, oversight of Australia’s six intelligence and security agencies is provided by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security and the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor.

Key amendments proposed by the Bill seek to:

• strengthen protections around the identity of employees of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS)
• improve the ability of ASIO to communicate information, and provide additional protections for individuals communicating certain information
• increase operational flexibility through updated approval processes for certain intelligence activities
• clarify provisions relating to the authorisation of certain intelligence activities
• provide for quicker processing of non-prejudicial security clearance suitability assessments
• require ASIO to notify the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security when certain security assessments, security clearance decisions, and security clearance suitability assessments have not been made or furnished within 12 months
• clarify that only the Attorney-General, and not junior ministers, can exercise certain powers relating to ASIO and to telecommunications.

Mr Peter Khalil MP, Chair of the PJCIS, said: “The Committee looks forward to receiving the views of interested parties on the reforms proposed by the Bill, which aim to further refine and enhance the legal framework governing Australia’s intelligence agencies.”

The proposed changes include updates to approval processes for certain intelligence activities to enhance operational flexibility and clarify provisions related to the authorisation of such activities. The new legislation will also require the ASIO to notify the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security when certain security assessments, security clearance decisions, and security clearance suitability assessments have not been made or furnished within 12 months.

The bill specifies that only the Attorney-General, and not junior ministers, can exercise certain powers relating to ASIO and telecommunications.

Peter Khalil MP, Chair of the PJCIS, emphasised the importance of receiving input from stakeholders, stating, “The Committee looks forward to receiving the views of interested parties on the reforms proposed by the bill, which aim to further refine and enhance the legal framework governing Australia’s intelligence agencies.”

The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security is Australia’s dedicated intelligence oversight body, providing independent assurance to parliament and the public that the agencies within its jurisdiction act lawfully, with propriety and consistently with human rights.

The bill strengthens the relationship between the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security and the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor. The bill provides that the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security may request the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security conduct an inquiry into matters within the inspector-general’s jurisdiction. This will ensure that areas of concern identified by the committee can be brought to the inspector-general’s attention as appropriate.