Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1
Under Section 29 of the Intelligence Services Act 2001 (the Act),
the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has an
obligation to review the administration and expenditure of ASIO, ASIS, DSD,
DIGO, ONA and DIO, including their annual financial statements.
1.2
This is the report of the Committee of the 43rd Parliament’s
Review of Administration and Expenditure No. 9 – Australian Intelligence
Agencies.
1.3
Submissions were sought from each of the six intelligence and security
agencies, from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) and from the
Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) (see Appendix A).
1.4
The submissions from ANAO and the six intelligence agencies were all
classified Confidential, Restricted or Secret and are therefore not available
to the public. As has been its practice for previous reviews, ASIO provided the
Committee with both a classified and an unclassified submission. The
unclassified version is available on the Committee’s website.
1.5
The Committee also received a submission from the ANAO and from the
IGIS. The IGIS’ submission was made available on the Committee’s website. More
comment in relation to the ANAO is contained in Chapter 3 on Expenditure.
1.6
Each of the Defence intelligence agencies provided the Committee with a
classified submission. The agencies marked each paragraph with its relevant
national security classification. This has enabled the Committee for its 2009-10
review to directly refer to unclassified information provided in the Defence
agencies submissions.
1.7
The Committee also received five submission from members of the public
or public organisations which included:
n Asylum Seeker
Resource Centre
n Brigidine Asylum
Seekers Project
n R.I.S.E.
n Refugee Council of
Australia
1.8
These submissions all dealt with ASIO security assessments of refugees.
1.9
The Committee is grateful to ASIO for providing an unclassified
submission and the Defence intelligence agencies for providing unclassified
paragraphs within their classified submissions. This has been very helpful in
the writing of this report. It means, however, that ASIO and the Defence intelligence
agencies are mentioned quite often in the subsequent chapters of this report
while the other agencies are generally not referred to by name. This should not
be taken to imply that the inquiry focused primarily on ASIO or the Defence intelligence
agencies or that they were scrutinised more than other agencies. It merely
reflects the amount of unclassified information on which the Committee was able
to draw and incorporate directly into its report to support its findings.
1.10
In November 2010, the Committee wrote to the agencies seeking
submissions and outlining the issues it would like to see addressed.
1.11
On 25 March 2011 the Committee held a private hearing at which ASIO,
ASIS, DSD, DIGO, ONA and DIO appeared before the Committee. The Committee
appreciates the commitment of time each agency made to this process (see
Appendix B).
1.12
On 16 June 2011 the Committee held a public hearing — its first since
July 2006[1] — and heard from
representatives of the Refugee Council of Australia, RISE (Refugees, Survivors
and Ex-Detainees), the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and ASIO in relation to
visa security assessments. The Committee thanks all attendees, particularly
those from organisations providing support to refugees, for the time and effort
they took to put their views to the Committee.