Australian federal agencies

As with most nations, internal surveillance in Australia and external espionage involves a range of agencies - clandestine and otherwise. This page highlights some of the federal government agencies.

It covers -

• introduction
• ASIO
• ASIS and AIC
• DSD
• DIGO
• assessment and coordination
• other federal agencies

     introduction

Christopher Tayler commented that

Ends and means become confused for spies, who, in extreme cases, start to take it for granted that thriving espionage agencies are 'the only real measure of a nation's political health'. Communists and capitalists use similar methods, and their operations are equally likely to destroy any innocents or idealists unlucky enough to figure in their calculations.

Regrettably there is no major academic study that offers a comprehensive map of the plethora of surveillance agencies in Australia and New Zealand, covering bodies such as ASIO, ASIS, DSD, GCSB, NCA, NZIS and ACS.

How much does it cost to run the intelligence machine? How many people are involved. No one knows. The government announced in 2004 that it would provide additional funding of $228 million (including $31.5 million capital funding) to the intelligence agencies over four years to enhance Australia's counter-terrorism capabilities, in particular

resources for these agencies to improve their capacity to provide analysis and assessment of high priority areas and to meet increased operational demands.

It encompasses the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Department of Defence and the Office of National Assessments.

     ASIO

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), oversighted by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on the ASIO (PJC) and the Inspector-General of Intelligence & Security (IGIS) is the main Commonwealth domestic security agency. It operates under the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979. Recent amendments to the legislation are explored in Jenny Hocking's Terror Laws: ASIO, Counter-Terrorism & the Threat To Democracy (Sydney: UNSW Press 2003)

ASIO has been recurrently criticised as inward-looking, inefficient and busy fighting the last war (eg against the Soviets) at the expense of action against right wing extremist groups and other contemporary terrorists. That was reflected in a 1970s raid on its headquarters - at that time in Melbourne - by Commonwealth police at the request of reforming Attorney-General and later High Court judge Lionel Murphy.

Justice Hope, head of the 1974-77 Royal Commission of inquiry into Intelligence and Security, commented that ASIO "could not be taken seriously as an efficient organisation, still less an effective security organisation". Hope concluded that ASIO was fundamentally blinkered by a Cold War antipathy to political views it did not share but which did not threaten national security, was hopelessly politically partisan and misguided as to what should have been the top priority of its counter-espionage function.

Hope's associate George Brownbill, in commenting on release of some of the Royal Commission's papers in 2008, commented that ASIO's then head was given to "slipping little bits of gossip to the PM" and others in the Menzies governments of the 1950s and 1960s, with "gossip and tittle-tattle about people and their so-called 'communist sympathies'" being provided to figures in those governments and then revealed in under parliamentary privilege. "Much of this was no more than slander under privilege. That is, the evidence was just not there."

It is assumed that ASIO's databases cover much of the federal bureaucracy (eg as part of routine security vetting), contractors, political groups, the media, the judiciary and business.

Former chief executive Tudor Harvey Barnett's Tale of the Scorpion (St Leonards: Allen & Unwin 1988) is anodyne and self-serving, offset by Frank Cain's lucid ASIO - An Unofficial History (Richmond: Spectrum 1994), Jenny Hocking's Beyond Terrorism: The Development of the Australian Security State (St Leonards: Allen & Unwin 1993) and David McKnight's more problematical Australia's Spies & Their Secrets (St Leonards: Allen & Unwin 1994). Its antecedents are traced in Cain's The Origins of Political Surveillance in Australia (Sydney: Angus & Robertson 1983) and Terrorism & Intelligence in Australia: A History of ASIO & National Surveillance (North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing 2008). The Murphy raid features in Jenny Hocking's Lionel Murphy: A Political Biography (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 1997). David Marr's The Ivanov Trail (Melbourne: Nelson 1984) deals with controversial claims about ALP executive David Coombe.

     ASIS and AIC

The Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), within the federal Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade (DFAT), is ostensibly concerned with activity overseas but secured public attention by playing shootem-ups in a Melbourne hotel. It was established in 1952 but only publicly revealed in 1977.

ASIS was established by executive order on 13 May 1952. It operated under government directive until the Intelligence Services Act It currently operates under the Intelligence Services Act 2001 (ISA) came into effect on 29 October 2001. ISA provides a charter to

obtain and distribute intelligence information, not readily available by other means, about the capabilities, intentions and activities of individuals or organisations outside Australia, which may impact on Australian interests, and the well-being of its citizens.

Readers will be reassured to know that it "does not plan for or undertake activities involving violence".

There is an account in Oyster: The Story of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (Port Melbourne: Heinemann 1989) by Brian Toohey & William Pinwill.

The Australian Intelligence Corps (AIC) is one of several Defence Department bodies. The AIC provides intelligence personnel to military units, detachments and the defence force headquarters regarding combat intelligence, security and "other specialised intelligence duties".

     DSD

The Defence Signals Directorate (DSD), the local equivalent of the US NSA, is Australia's major player in the global intelligence community, reflecting a history of cooperation with overseas signals intelligence bodies (notably those in the US, Canada and UK) and advantageous geography for handling radio and satellite traffic.

It is a participant in the Echelon network, subject of criticism by some liberties groups and parts of the EU Parliament. It is formally described as "Australia's national authority for signals intelligence and information security", with functions of foreign signals intelligence collection and dissemination and provision of information security products/services to government agencies (eg advice about protection of the national information infrastructure and about cryptographic products).

Background is provided in The Ties that Bind - Intelligence Cooperation between the UKUSA Countries (London: Allen & Unwin 1985) by Desmond Ball & Jeffrey Richelson.

Other works of importance by Ball include A Suitable Piece of Real Estate (Sydney: Hale & Iremonger 1980), A Base for Debate: The US Satellite Station at Nurrungar (St Leonards: Allen & Unwin 1987) and Pine Gap: Australia and the US Geosynchronous Satellite Program (St Leonards: Allen & Unwin 1988). For the NSA see Chatter: Dispatches From the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping (New York: Random 2005) by Patrick Keefe and three works by James Bamford: The Puzzle Palace: A Report on NSA, America's Most Secret Agency (New York: Houghton Mifflin 1982), Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency (New York: Doubleday 2001) and The Shadow Factory: The Ultra- Secret NSA From 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America (New York: Doubleday 2008).

     DIGO

The Defence Imagery & Geospatial Organisation (DIGO) was created in 2000 through amalgamation of the Australian Imagery Organisation, the Directorate of Strategic Military Geographic Information and the Defence Topographic Agency.

Its site indicates that

DIGO is the lead imagery and geospatial organisation in the Department of Defence. DIGO provides a wide range of geospatial services from hardcopy maps to a range of Defence standard digital geospatial and imagery based products for incorporation into Geographic Information Systems (GIS). A primary responsibility for DIGO is the extraction of intelligence derived from a wide range of imagery sources. This intelligence can be incorporated into other digital mapping products and also used for identifying issues which may affect Australia's interests.

The 2002-2003 IGIS Annual Report comments that DIGO

has prime responsibility for the acquisition and analysis of satellite and other imagery and for the development, acquisition and exploitation of geospatial data.

This means that DIGO collects and analyses images of foreign and domestic subjects (eg. landforms, waterways, disputed territories etc.), and develops mapping and imagery intelligence products for a range of Commonwealth agencies and the Australian Defence Force.

Detailed technical analysis of imagery obtained by DIGO can reveal information that is of value to key decision makers in the development of policies that are in the national interest, and of possible benefit in national and international emergency management.

DIGO also has the capacity to combine imagery with other available sources of data to prepare highly accurate topographical maps and other aids that are of value in the preparation of plans relevant to national defence and security.

... while DIGO's collection priorities are focussed outside Australia, there are occasions when it collects images of Australian territory, for example in support of defence operations.

The scope for collection of imagery which could intrude upon the privacy of Australians is limited and occurs subject to the Rules Governing DIGO’s Activities in Respect of Australia and Australians.

     assessment and coordination

Australian security intelligence assessment and coordination bodies include the Office of National Assessments (ONA) and the Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO). The NZ equivalents are the External Assessments Bureau (EAB) and National Assessments Committee (NAC).

ONA had a budget of around $13.5 million in 2004-05, with some 61% attributed to staffing costs.

In relation to crimes a similar function is provided by the Office of Strategic Crime Assessments (OSCA) and the Office of Law Enforcement Coordination (OLEC).

     other federal agencies

A range of Commonwealth agencies are authorised to conduct surveillance under general or specific legislation. These include the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the Australian Customs Service (ACS) and the Health Insurance Commission (HIC).

The Australian Transaction Reports & Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), established under the Financial Transaction Reports Act 1988, is Australia's anti-money laundering regulator and specialist financial intelligence unit. It oversees compliance by financial services providers and the gambling industry. AUSTRAC provides financial transaction reports information to federal, state and lerritory law enforcement and revenue agencies. Its activity complements work by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) and
Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

The Australian Crime Commission (ACC) replaced the National Crime Authority (NCA), Australian Bureau of Criminal Intelligence and Office of Strategic Crime Assessments in January 2003. Its establishment under the Australian Crime Commission Act 2002 followed criticism of the NCA for alleged ineffectiveness in prosecuting misbehaviour. That agency had been oversighted by the Commonwealth parliament's Joint Committee on the National Crime Authority (PJCNCA).

The new organisation is to investigate matters relating to federally-relevant criminal activity and to "collect, correlate, analyse and disseminate criminal information and intelligence".




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