Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and
related intelligence issues
Nigel
Brew
After several years of receiving regular annual increases to its
budget and experiencing rapid, significant growth in staff numbers
under a planned expansion program stemming from the 2005 (Taylor)
Review of ASIO Resourcing, ASIO’s overall budget has
again increased (from $427 million in 2009–10 to a total of
some $717 million this year) as the program enters its final
phase.[1]
This is despite the fact that ASIO has this year suffered what
is effectively a budget cut of $15.1 million in the form of money
clawed back from the forward estimates. These ‘savings’
are described in Budget Measures: Budget Paper No. 2:
2010–11 as being the result of ‘increased
efficiencies’, achieved through ASIO adopting
‘strategic work practices that will ensure that it operates
more effectively and efficiently’ (ASIO is one of a number of
agencies subject to ‘increased efficiencies’ this
year).[2] Although
there is no detail provided as to how the $15 million cut and the
resulting changes enable ASIO to operate more efficiently,
Budget Paper No. 2 assures that the cut ‘will not
impact on ASIO’s operational activities, nor affect service
delivery to operational areas’.[3] In all likelihood, ASIO has indeed
simply streamlined some of its operating procedures as it moves
through the final stages of a period of dramatic growth. Indeed, as
some commentators have suggested, after nearly a decade of
increased spending on the intelligence agencies (‘tenfold
since 2001’ in some cases), some of them may now be
over-resourced.[4]
ASIO is also expecting an increase of 89 to its Average Staffing
Level (ASL) this coming financial year, bringing the agency’s
ASL to a total of 1800.[5] This is in line with ASIO’s ongoing five-year
growth program and keeps it on track to meet its objective of 1800
staff by 2010–11, consistent with the recommendations of the
Taylor Review.[6]
ASIO staff numbers have been steadily increasing every year now for
some time.[7]
Evidence exists that ASIO has begun expanding its focus beyond
counter-terrorism, which necessarily stemmed from the terrorist
attacks of 11 September 2001, and is making a return to dealing
with re-emerging traditional national security threats by actively
enhancing its counter-espionage capabilities.
In his inaugural National Security Statement to Parliament in
December 2008, the Prime Minister highlighted the threat of
increased espionage and foreign interference targeting Australian
military, diplomatic, and intelligence institutions, describing it
as ‘inevitable’.[8] In a farewell address to staff in February 2009, the
former Director-General of ASIO, Paul O’Sullivan, stated:
We’ve broadened and strengthened our
human and technical collection, and our investigative and strategic
analysis, not only in counter-terrorism, but across all areas of
security concern. We have responded proactively to the evolution of
espionage in the 21st century, and the accumulation of challenges
this presents, by boosting our counter-espionage and foreign
interference capability.[9]
Similarly, in ASIO’s 2008–09 annual report, the
current Director-General, David Irvine, noted that 2008–09
‘saw the most intense period of operational activity since
2005’.[10]
All of this suggests that ASIO is busy addressing a range of
ongoing and re-emerging threats to security while continuing to
manage significant growth in both the numbers and capabilities of
its personnel. Indeed, as ASIO’s Portfolio Budget
Statements 2010–11 note, ‘ASIO continues to build
capability and operational momentum against counter-espionage and
foreign interference targets, which includes a focus on electronic
espionage’.[11]
Also announced in the Budget is the fact that over the next 18
months, ASIO and its five partner agencies, which together comprise
the Australian Intelligence Community, will be subject to an
Independent Review.[12] This proposal is consistent with a recommendation of
the (Flood) Inquiry into Australian Intelligence Agencies
that external reviews of the Intelligence Community be conducted
every five to seven years.[13] Given that the Flood Inquiry conducted in 2004 was the
last major review of the intelligence agencies, that traditional
security threats appear to be re-emerging with a modern twist, and
that both the staffing and funding of the intelligence community
have increased dramatically over the last decade, it is indeed
timely that a full-scale systemic review of the intelligence
community be carried out to determine and ‘ensure its
effectiveness in supporting the policy and operational needs of the
Government’.[14] The Government is providing $3 million over two years
to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to undertake
the review, and the overall cost will be offset by savings from
ASIO in 2009–10.[15]
Although the terms of reference or any other details of the
Independent Review are yet to be released, there has been some
speculation in the media as to what it might involve. Two weeks
before the review was announced in the Budget, a report in The
Sydney Morning Herald cited ‘intelligence sources’
who claimed that a secret review of the intelligence community was
underway and that its recommendations proposed major changes to
long-standing limitations on the powers and activities of
Australia’s intelligence agencies, such as allowing:
- ASIO officers to carry weapons for self-defence
- officers of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS)
to carry weapons more freely and initiate and engage in
paramilitary-style activities overseas (bringing it into line, it
is claimed, with the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service [MI6],
and the CIA) and
- the Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) to intercept
communications within Australia.[16]
The Government denied the review existed. Following the
announcement of the Independent Review in the Budget, The
Sydney Morning Herald took up the story again and linked its
earlier claims to the Budget announcement, claiming that it had
‘broken the story’ back in April.[17] The Government again refused to
comment in any detail and certainly did not confirm a connection.
Another media report cited ‘intelligence and security
insiders’ in suggesting that the former Inspector-General of
Intelligence and Security, Ian Carnell, would be a likely candidate
to lead the review.[18]
Funding of $9.1 million (over four years) has been allocated in
the Budget to the establishment of a multi-agency Counter-Terrorism
Control Centre inside ASIO to improve the integration and
coordination of counter-terrorism capabilities across relevant
government agencies.[19] The concept was originally announced in the
Counter-Terrorism White Paper of February 2010 and the cost of the
measure will be met from within ASIO’s existing
resources.[20]
The Government has also provided $10.1 million over two years
(including $0.3 million in capital funding) to ASIS to enhance its
intelligence gathering capability, although $8.3 million of this
has already been included in the forward estimates.[21]
In another intelligence-gathering measure funded from the
forward estimates, the Government is providing $101.6 million over
four years (including $9.5 million in capital funding) to ASIO, the
Attorney-General’s Department, the Australian Crime
Commission and the Australian Federal Police for the maintenance
and further development of telecommunications interception
capabilities and delivery systems.[22]
The combined effect of the intelligence-related measures
announced in the 2010–11 Budget is to underpin the
Government’s public recognition of the growing need to deal
with the re-emergence of traditional security threats in a
technology-enabled world, and to plan for the long-term strategic
security implications of modern shifts in geopolitics. The proposed
Independent Review of the Intelligence Community is an important
opportunity to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the
intelligence agencies in a burgeoning and possibly over-resourced
security environment, to ensure the overall balance is right and
that they are in the best position possible to address such
challenges. It should be money well-spent.
[1].
Includes both departmental income and equity injections. See
Australian Government, Portfolio budget statements
2010–11: budget related paper no. 1.2:
Attorney-General’s Portfolio, Commonwealth of Australia,
Canberra, 2010, p. 245, viewed 14 May 2010,
http://www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/rwpattach.nsf/VAP/(3A6790B96C927794AF1031D9395C5C20)~12+PBS+10_11+ASIO+web+FINAL.pdf/$file/12+PBS+10_11+ASIO+web+FINAL.pdf
[2].
Australian Government, Budget measures: budget paper no. 2:
2010–11, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 2010, p.
95, viewed 13 May 2010,
http://www.aph.gov.au/budget/2010-11/content/bp2/html/bp2_expense-03.htm
[3].
Ibid.
[4]. J
Kerin, ‘Review more tinker than tailor’, Australian
Financial Review, 14 May 2010, p. 21, viewed 14 May 2010,
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22media%2Fpressclp%2FM8PW6%22
[5].
Australian Government, Budget strategy and outlook: budget
paper no. 1: 2010–11, Commonwealth of Australia, 2010,
Table C5, p. 6–68, viewed 13 May 2010,
http://www.aph.gov.au/budget/2010-11/content/bp1/html/bp1_bst6-06.htm
[6].
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, ASIO report to
parliament 2008–09, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra,
2009, p. 43, viewed 14 May 2010,
http://www.asio.gov.au/img/files/ASIOsReportToParliament08-09.pdf
[7].
According to the ASIO report to parliament 2008–09,
staff numbers have increased by 735 people between 2004–05
(955) and 2008–09 (1690)—ibid., p.113.
[8]. K
Rudd (Prime Minister), The First National Security Statement to
the Parliament, 4 December 2008, viewed 13 May 2010, http://www.pm.gov.au/node/5424
[9]. P
O’Sullivan, Director-General’s farewell address to
staff, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, 26
February 2009, viewed 13 May 2010,
http://www.asio.gov.au/Publications/Public-Statements/2009/Director-General-farewell-address-to-staff.html
[10]. Australian
Security Intelligence Organisation, op. cit., p. vii.
[11]. Portfolio
budget statements 2010–11: Attorney-General’s
Portfolio, op. cit., p. 243.
[12]. The other
agencies are the Office of National Assessments, the Australian
Secret Intelligence Service, the Defence Signals Directorate, the
Defence Intelligence Organisation, and the Defence Imagery and
Geospatial Organisation.
[13]. P Flood,
Report of the inquiry into Australian intelligence
agencies, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, July 2004, p.
185, viewed 14 May 2010,
http://www.dpmc.gov.au/publications/intelligence_inquiry/docs/chapter8.pdf
[14]. Australian
Government, Budget measures: budget paper no. 2:
2010–11, op. cit., p. 286.
[15]. Ibid.
[16]. D Oakes,
‘Secret plan gives spies huge boost in powers’,
Sydney Morning Herald, 28 April 2010, p. 1, viewed 14 May
2010,
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22media%2Fpressclp%2FMZIW6%22
[17]. T Lester,
‘New phone tap powers planned for spy review’,
Sydney Morning Herald, 13 May 2010, p. 6, viewed 14 May
2010,
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22media%2Fpressclp%2F6XOW6%22
[18] P
Dorling, ‘Spy agencies probe to cost $3m’, Canberra
Times, 13 May 2010, p. 3, viewed 14 May 2010,
http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22media%2Fpressclp%2FSPOW6%22
[19]. Australian
Government, Budget measures: budget paper no. 2:
2010–11, op. cit., p. 107.
[20]. Department of
the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Counter-terrorism white
paper—securing Australia, protecting our community,
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Canberra, (February)
2010, p. 28, viewed 17 May 2010,
http://www.dpmc.gov.au/publications/counter_terrorism/docs/counter-terrorism_white_paper.pdf.
See also, K Rudd (Prime Minister), Securing Australia,
protecting our community, media release, 23 February 2010,
viewed 12 May 2010, http://www.pm.gov.au/node/6497
[21]. Australian
Government, Budget measures: budget paper no. 2:
2010–11, op. cit., p. 198.
[22]. Ibid., p. 110.