Terms of reference

Pursuant to section 29 of the Intelligence Services Act 2001, the following matter be referred to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on ASIO, ASIS and DSD for inquiry and report by 2 December 2003:

a) the nature and accuracy of intelligence information received by Australia's intelligence services in relation to:
(i) the existence of,
(ii) the capacity and willingness to use, and
(iii) the immediacy of the threat posed by, weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

b) the nature, accuracy and independence of the assessments made by Australia's intelligence agencies of subparagraphs (a)(i), (a)(ii), and (a)(iii) above;

c) whether the Commonwealth Government as a whole presented accurate and complete information to Parliament and the Australian public on subparagraphs (a)(i), (a)(ii) and (a)(iii) above during, or since, the military action in Iraq; and

d) whether Australia's pre-conflict assessments of Iraq's WMD capability were as accurate and comprehensive as should be expected of information relied on in decisions regarding the participation of the Australian Defence Forces in military conflict.