2.1
This chapter considers the performance of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) against its outcome in the Home Affairs Portfolio Budget Statements (PBS) 2019–20 and its key performance criteria as outlined in the ACIC Corporate Plan 2019–20.
Portfolio Budget Statement Outcome 1
2.2
The 2019–20 PBS outlines the ACIC's single outcome (Outcome 1):
To make Australia safer through improved national ability to discover, understand and respond to current and emerging crime threats, including the ability to connect police and law enforcement to essential criminal intelligence, policing knowledge and information through collaborative national information systems and services.
Performance criteria
2.3
The annual report explains that the ACIC performance criteria for 2019–20 are linked to its PBS outcome through the Corporate Plan 2019–20 (Corporate Plan) and Strategic Plan 2018–23 (Strategic Plan). At the time of writing, the Strategic Plan was not available on the ACIC's webpage, although the ACIC Annual Report 2019–20 (annual report) does show how the Strategic Plan fits within the ACIC's portfolio, corporate and strategic performance framework. The Corporate Plan categorises the ACIC's approach to its work and related performance criteria into four themes:
(1)
Discover (Discover 1);
(2)
Understand (Understand 1 & 2);
(3)
Respond (Respond 1, 2 & 3) and,
(4)
Connect (Connect 1, 2 & 3).
2.4
Table 3.1 outlines the ACIC performance criteria and overall result for each criterion for the 2019–20 year.
Table 2.1: ACIC performance criteria results
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The picture of crime impacting Australia is improving because the
ACIC is discovering crime threats, vulnerabilities, patterns, methods and trends previously unknown.
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Met
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Understand 1: The understanding of the picture of crime impacting Australia is increasingly more comprehensive, integrated and relevant.
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Met
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Understand 2: The understanding of the picture of crime impacting Australia is increasingly used to influence strategies and responses to crime.
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Met
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Respond 1: The ACIC better informs and influences collaborative efforts to harden the environment against crime
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Met
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Respond 2: The ACIC is conducting collaborative investigations and intelligence operations, and producing intelligence with and for partners that is effective in disrupting, disabling and dismantling serious and organised crime.
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Met
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Respond 3: ACIC partners are better informed and enabled to undertake policing and community safeguarding activities through access to national information systems and services.
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Met
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Connect 1: Existing ACIC systems and services are accessible, used and reliable.
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Met
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Connect 2: Through effective collaboration, enable the delivery and implementation of new and enhanced ACIC systems and services that satisfy the needs of stakeholders and users.
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Partially met
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Connect 3: The ACIC is sharing increasing volume, breadth and formats (mediums, platforms) of criminal intelligence and information, police information, and other relevant information.
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Met
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Source: ACIC, Annual Report 2019–20, pp. iii and 18–69.
2.5
The annual report provides an analysis of the ACIC's performance against each performance criterion. The annual report explains that the ACIC uses both quantitative and qualitative information, including the results of its annual stakeholder survey, and provides up to five years of data where possible to enable a comparative assessment of performance.
Analysis of performance results
2.6
As noted in Table 3.1, the ACIC met eight of its nine performance criteria in full for the 2019–20 year, and partially met the remaining criterion. The ACIC reported that this is a particularly positive result as it is an improvement on the previous reporting year's performance, even with the significant impacts of COVID-19 coming into play late in 2019–20.
2.7
The annual report identifies three areas of focus for the 2020–2021 reporting period:
(1)
continued production and sharing of high-quality intelligence products;
(2)
continued, proactive engagement with domestic and international partners and strengthened opportunities for collaboration between agencies; and
(3)
delivery of IT projects.
2.8
Overall, the ACIC's general performance was rated by stakeholders as 7 out of 10. This result is comparable to the 2018–19 result of 6.9.
Notable results
Performance criteria theme 1: Discover
2.9
The ACIC collects and combines information to build a picture of crime in Australia and discover new areas of national focus. The ACIC reported that it met this criterion for the 2019–20 period. The annual report states that the ACIC has identified new criminal methodologies through intelligence gathering and analysis to discover and disrupt previously unknown criminal threats. In the 2019–20 period, the ACIC identified 208 previously unknown targets (over double the 2018–19 figure), as well as 29 known targets in new areas of criminality. The annual report does not, however, explain what area(s) of crime these previously unknown targets were identified from. However, at the April 2021 public hearing, Mr Michael Phelan, Chief Executive Officer at the ACIC, advised that cybercrime has become a new vector for crime, and that the ACIC's 'focus is moving towards the facilitators and enablers' of crime, such as logistics experts, lawyers, accountants, and people helping criminal organisations set up and use encrypted communications.
Committee comment
2.10
The committee commends the ACIC for its continued high standards in intelligence gathering and analysis to disrupt previously unknown criminal threats. The committee suggests that it may be useful for the annual report to outline what area(s) of crime these previously unknown targets were identified from, as this may assist the committee and other report readers in understanding the areas of highest vulnerability or of increasing concern.
Performance criteria theme 2: Understand
2.11
Through analysis of collected criminal intelligence from partner agencies, the ACIC improves the understanding of crimes that are impacting Australia to influence a better response. In the 2019–20 reporting period, the ACIC increased the amount of finalised intelligence products from the previous reporting period. Products relating to drugs, financial crime, gangs and firearms saw significant increases, while cybercrime and national security‑related products decreased. Mr Phelan, in the public hearing, alluded to the fact that cybercrime intelligence is largely undertaken or led by the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), while noting that the ACIC works closely with the ACSC to understand trends in this area.
2.12
The picture of crime that the ACIC creates has been identified in the stakeholder survey as a valuable tool in informing policy and legal responses to crime threats in Australia (84 per cent in agreement with this statement). Key examples of this include the serious and organised crime risk assessment, which provides an overall risk rating for a range of crime types and markets, along with an outlook for the next three years; and the Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program, used by state police forces to understand the relationship between drug consumption and other types of crime. Overall, the ACIC results for this performance criterion have steadily increased from previous reporting periods.
Committee comment
2.13
The committee is pleased to note the ACIC's positive result and continued improvement in relation to this performance criterion.
Performance criteria theme 3: Respond
2.14
The ACIC distributes its intelligence and information to better inform policy and legal responses to the threat of criminal activity in Australia. In the
2019–20 period, the ACIC had direct input in a number of areas of national policy, including providing submissions to the Comprehensive Review of the Legal Framework Governing the National Intelligence Community and providing a submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security's review of the mandatory data retention regime.
2.15
The ACIC contributed to reviews or inquiries on a number of items of legislation in the reporting period, including the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor's review of the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Act 2018; the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee's inquiry into the Transport Security Amendment (Serious Crime) Bill 2019; and working with the Department of Home Affairs to develop amendments to the Australian Crime Commission Amendment (National Policing Information) Act 2016 (ACC Act).
2.16
The ACIC works collaboratively with other organisations to conduct investigations and intelligence operations, and produce intelligence that is effective in disrupting, disabling and dismantling serious and organised crime. The ACIC met this criterion based on statistics on entities disrupted, apprehensions and convictions, seizures and confiscations of drugs and cash, and tax assessments and recoveries of assets.
2.17
The ACIC classifies a 'severe' disruption as the complete dismantling of an entity, and a 'significant' disruption as one that has a large impact on an entity without complete disruption. In 2019–20, there was an increase in significant disruptions from the previous reporting year from 27 to 33, with one severe disruption (a figure consistent with the last three reporting periods). In addition, Australian law enforcement and offshore partners disrupted five Australian Priority Organisation Target (APOT) networks to the point that they are no longer considered APOT-level threats. A further 14 APOT networks were also significantly disrupted.
2.18
No individuals who were classified as head of an APOT organisation were arrested in 2019–20, compared to three in 2018–19. The annual report explains that this is consistent with a change in law enforcement strategy where the focus is on disrupting multiple elements of an APOT organisation rather than an individual. The ACIC explained that this change in focus delivers more long-term and disruptive effects. As Mr Phelan explained:
I would much rather have a serious and organised criminal on our list who is operating offshore who all of a sudden has no money, no communications, no wealth—nothing—who is too scared to travel outside the country they are in because somebody is going to extradite them back to Australia, the United States, the UK or somewhere else. That's the environment we are trying to run here—to make it so hostile for them that they simply can't operate in the environment they are in.
2.19
This shift has resulted in the number of arrests and convictions in 2019–20 being lower than in earlier reporting periods, although the annual report emphasises that this result was not unexpected. The annual report explains that to 'prioritise performance measures that more clearly reflect the performance of the ACIC', these numbers will not be reported in future annual reports. However, the ACIC will continue to provide these numbers to the ACIC Board as required under the ACC Act.
2.20
The ACIC provides systems and services to its partners to keep them better informed when undertaking policing and community safeguarding. This includes biometric services such as DNA and fingerprint systems, services to assist in missing persons and disaster victim cases, and systems to manage child offenders and identify child exploitation. A number of systems were upgraded in the 2019–20 reporting period, including the National Names Index, which was replaced with the National Police Reference System; and the National Firearms Licensing and Registration System, which was replaced with the Australian Firearms Information Network. The National Automated Fingerprint Identification System (NAFIS) will be supported by refreshing contemporary technology and hardware until its upgrade with NAFIS NextGen in 2024.
2.21
The National Criminal Intelligence System (NCIS) has been an ongoing project of high importance for the ACIC. The system is designed to give Australia's law enforcement and intelligence agencies the first truly national and unified picture of criminal activity by providing targeted, timely, relevant, prioritised national policing information across agencies. However, the pilot system was shut down due to out-of-date data and the number of users declining within its final months. The annual report stipulated that the ACIC is working towards having a production-ready service by the end of 2020. However, at the time of the public hearing on 12 April 2021, Mr Phelan disclosed that due to COVID-19, the system had been delayed by eight months. Mr Matthew Rippon, Executive Director of Intelligence Operations at the ACIC, advised the committee that the ACIC expected the NCIS system would be ready by September 2021, (advice provided, it might be noted, prior to recent lockdowns and other disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic). At the time of writing, the ACIC website indicates that agencies will be 'progressively onboarded [to the NCIS] during 2021'.
Committee comment
2.22
The committee is in agreement with the ACIC's new approach of disrupting APOT organisations rather than individuals to produce better long term results. For this reason, the committee is at this point comfortable with the ACIC's decision not to provide figures on persons charged, charges laid and convictions in future annual reports. The committee is interested to see how the ACIC measures the effectiveness of the shift in its focus in future annual reports.
2.23
The committee also looks forward to assessing the NCIS, including the methodology and the robustness of the testing phase.
Performance criteria theme 4: Connect
2.24
The ACIC provides its partners with systems and services, shares criminal intelligence and information, and connects partners with the ACIC and each other. The ACIC met two of its three criteria for the connect performance criterion.
2.25
The ACIC reported that it has delivered on ensuring that its existing systems are accessible, reliable and being regularly used by its clients. The annual report confirms that all systems were available close to 100 per cent of the time, and while the number of bodies using the systems declined slightly due to stricter contractual obligations and increased compliance activities, this measure stayed within the four-year historical average.
2.26
The total number of searches conducted on ACIC systems was affected by transitions between systems within the reporting period. For example, the Australian Firearms Information Network (AFIN) replaced the National Firearms Licensing, and the ACIC undertook a number of activities to promote the new system as well as its use in assisting New Zealand's firearm buyback scheme. The nationally coordinated policing checks conducted through ACIC systems rose slightly in the 2019–20 reporting period; however, as noted in the previous chapter, these checks decreased significantly from March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The ACIC did not meet its benchmarks for police history checks completed on time, which it explained was due to policing processes outside the system's control.
2.27
The ACIC has delivered on sharing criminal intelligence information, police information and other relevant information. The ACIC has increased the number of tactical and analytical products disseminated, as well as increased the number of completed requests for information, although the number of alerts disseminated has been in decline for the last three reporting periods. The ACIC has continued to provide an increase in data on all of its systems, except for the National Target Scheme due to records updates. The ACIC continues to publicly make available a number of its reports, such as the Illicit Drug Data report, the Methylamphetamine supply reduction—Measures of effectiveness report, and the National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program reports.
Partially met criteria
2.28
The ACIC noted that it failed to meet the second criteria for the 'connect' theme for the fourth consecutive reporting period. This criterion measures the ACIC's ability to deliver and implement new and enhanced systems and services that satisfy the needs of stakeholders.
2.29
In the 2019–20 reporting period, the ACIC successfully delivered AFIN and will keep the data from its legacy systems updated until all partners are directly integrated with the system. Two other systems were partially delivered. These were the first component of the Australian Law Enforcement Intelligence Network whilst the other components have been postponed due to lack of funding; and the Working with Children Checks National Reference System has been completed; however, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been delays on state agencies joining the system. At the time of writing, the ACIC told the committee that:
Currently, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory have joined the system. It is anticipated that Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales will have joined the system before the end of 2021. The ACIC is working with the Northern Territory to assist their progress towards joining the system, however, notes the required legislative changes are yet to be progressed.
2.30
Mr Phelan explained to the committee that, despite their being a combined will across jurisdictions to introduce national databases, delivering on this can prove challenging given each state and territory has its own processes and legislative requirements to work through.
2.31
To assess whether the ACIC's systems and services meet the needs of stakeholders, survey respondents were asked to what extent they agreed with the following three statements:
(1)
'New and enhanced ACIC national policing and intelligence systems are being developed and improved to meet their organisation's needs;
(2)
The ACIC systems meet the criminal information and intelligence needs of their organisation; and
(3)
The ACIC information and technology projects are of value or great value to their role.'
2.32
The results of the survey show a decline in the outcome of each of these statements since the 2018–19 reporting year. Most significantly, the results to the first question have been in decline for the last four reporting years, falling from 65 per cent in 2016–17 to 61 per cent in 2017–18, to 57 per cent in 2018–19 and the most significant drop to 43 per cent in 2019–20.
2.33
The annual report acknowledges this dissatisfaction with stakeholders and notes that responding to the feedback of wanting more intelligence products than the ACIC produces can be difficult, as 'the number of products is directly related to the ACIC's capacity to collect and analyse information.'
2.34
When asked by the committee at the public hearing what the specific catalyst was for the decline in survey results, Mr Phelan responded that:
[He] formed the view that during that particular period, between 2019 and 2020, we actually had very few investments in new systems inside the commission, mostly as a result of the reduced income due to COVID.
2.35
Mr Phelan also suggested it was likely relevant to stakeholders response to this criterion that the ACIC had put a number of new systems on hold pending the development of the new NCIS. This was a deliberate decision by the ACIC, Mr Phelan explained, as it would mean any new enhancements and new systems being built can be directly integrated within the NCIS, rather than building those enhancements and systems outside of the NCIS and then having to integrate them at a later stage.
Committee comment
2.36
The committee is disappointed that the ACIC has failed to fully meet this performance criterion for the fourth consecutive reporting period. At the same time, the committee acknowledges the difficulty in satisfying the needs of all stakeholders, particularly when those stakeholders may not always fully appreciate the competing strategic priorities driving investments in systems at the ACIC.
2.37
The committee also acknowledges that COVID-19 may have had an impact on the criterion as the investment in new systems declined.
2.38
The committee is disappointed that some jurisdictions have yet to progress the legislative changes required to implement the Working with Children Checks National Reference System. The committee encourages the ACIC, the Minister for Home Affairs, and the Department of Home Affairs to take this up directly with the relevant State Ministers.
2.39
The committee is pleased that the ACIC has identified areas for improvement and may follow up on these in its examination of the 2020–21 annual report.