Australian Security Intelligence Organisation


The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is the domestic intelligence and national security agency of the Australian Government, responsible for protecting Australia from espionage, sabotage, foreign interference, politically motivated violence, terrorism, and attacks on the national defence system. ASIO is a primary entity of the Australian Intelligence Community.
ASIO has a wide range of surveillance powers to collect human and signals intelligence. Generally, ASIO operations requiring police powers of arrest and detention under warrant are co-ordinated with the Australian Federal Police and/or with state and territory police forces. The organisation is comparable to that of the United States' FBI or the British MI5.
ASIO Central Office is in Canberra, with a local office being located in each mainland state and territory capital. A new $630 million Central Office named after Ben Chifley, the prime minister who created the organisation, was officially opened by then-prime minister Kevin Rudd on 23 July 2013.

Command, control and organisation

ASIO is established and regulated under Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979 , responsible to the federal parliament through the Minister for Home Affairs. ASIO also reports to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee and is subject to independent review by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security. The head of ASIO is the Director-General of Security, who oversees the strategic management of ASIO within guidelines issued by the Attorney-General. The current Director-General of Security is Mike Burgess, who assumed office on 16 September 2019.
In 2018, ASIO had an average of 1,980 staff. Changes since to security measures have meant that the specific headcount is classified and not publicly available. The identity of ASIO officers other than the director-general and deputy director-generals remains an official secret. While ASIO is an equal opportunity employer, there has been some media comment of its apparent difficulty in attracting people from a Muslim or Middle Eastern background. Furthermore, ASIO has undergone a period of rapid growth with some 70% of its officers having joined since 2002, leading to what Paul O'Sullivan, director-general from 2005 to 2009, called 'an experience gap'.

Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979 is an Act of the Parliament of Australia which replaced the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1956, which had established ASIO as a statutory body. ASIO had been established in 1949 by Prime Minister Ben Chifley's Directive for the Establishment and Maintenance of a Security Service under the executive power of the Constitution, under the control of the Director-General of Security and responsible to the Attorney-General.
After passage of the National Security Legislation Amendment Act 2014 by the Australian Parliament, ASIO officers are exempt from prosecution for a wide range of illegal activities in the course of conducting "operations". ASIO officers may carry arms, and the Minister responsible has the ability under certain conditions to approve the provision of any weapon or training to any specified person, even outside of ASIO officers.

Officers of the organisation

Officers of ASIO are employed under the ASIO Act, and are classed as Officers of the Commonwealth for the purposes of the Crimes Act 1914, which among other provisions makes impersonating an ASIO officer a criminal offence. The ASIO Act also makes the identification of ASIO officers a criminal offence punishable by one year imprisonment.

Powers and accountability

Special investigative powers

The special investigative powers available to ASIO officers under warrant signed by the attorney-general include:
  • Interception of telecommunications,
  • Examination of postal and delivery articles,
  • Use of clandestine surveillance and tracking devices,
  • Remote access to computers, including alteration of data to conceal that access,
  • Covert entry to and search of premises, including the removal or copying of any record or thing found therein, and
  • Conduct of an ordinary or frisk search of a person if they are at or near a premises specified in the warrant.
The director-general also has the power to independently issue a warrant should a serious security situation arise and a warrant requested of the attorney-general has not yet been granted.
An ASIO officer may, without warrant, ask an operator of an aircraft or vessel questions about the aircraft or vessel, its cargo, crew, passengers, stores or voyage; and to produce supporting documents relating to these questions.

Special terrorism investigative powers

When investigating terrorism, the director-general may seek a warrant from an independent judicial authority to allow:
  • The compulsory questioning of suspects,
  • The detention of suspects by the AFP, and their subsequent interrogation by ASIO officers,
  • Ordinary, frisk or strip search of suspects by AFP officers upon their detainment,
  • The seizure of passports, and
  • The prevention of suspects leaving Australia.

    Immunity from prosecution

The Act does not specifically state the types of crimes that ASIO officers receive immunity from, rather stating the exceptions in which an officer would not be indemnified by the Commonwealth. Section 35k defines these activities as not being immune from liability for special intelligence conduct during special intelligence operations. An ASIO officer would be deemed to have committed a crime if they were to participate in any of the following activities under any circumstances:
  • An activity that causes death or serious injury,
  • Torture,
  • If the activity involves the commission of a sexual offence against any person, or
  • If the activity causes significant loss of, or serious damage to property.

    Collection of foreign intelligence

ASIO's authority relates exclusively to domestic intelligence and intervention, however ASIO may take part in domestic intelligence gathering relating to a foreign threat alongside the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, Australian Signals Directorate and Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation. ASIO has the power to collect foreign intelligence within Australia on the issuance of a warrant by the Attorney-General.

Accountability

Because of the nature of its work, ASIO does not make details of its activities public and law prevents the identities of ASIO officers from being disclosed. ASIO and the Australian Government say that operational measures ensuring the legality of ASIO operations have been established.
ASIO briefs the attorney-general on all major issues affecting security and they are also informed of operations when considering granting warrants enabling the special investigative powers of ASIO. Furthermore, the attorney-general issues guidelines with respect to the conduct of ASIO investigations relating to politically motivated violence and its functions of obtaining intelligence relevant to security.
ASIO reports to several governmental and parliamentary committees dealing with security, legislative and financial matters. This includes the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security and the Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee. A classified annual report is provided to the government, an unclassified edited version of which is tabled in federal parliament.
The Office of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security was established in 1986 to provide additional oversight of Australia’s security and intelligence agencies. The inspector-general has complete access to all ASIO records and has a range of inquisitorial powers.

Relationships with foreign agencies and services

Australia’s intelligence and security agencies maintain close working relationships with the foreign and domestic intelligence and security agencies of other nations. As of 22 October 2008, ASIO has established liaison relationships with 311 authorities in 120 countries.

History

Pre-ASIO

The Australian Government assumed responsibility for national security and intelligence on federation in 1901, and took over various state agencies and had to rationalise their functions. There was considerable overlap between the civil and military authorities. Similarly, there was also no Commonwealth agency responsible for enforcing federal laws. At the outbreak of World War I, no Australian government agency was dedicated to security, intelligence or law enforcement. The organisation of security intelligence in Australia took on more urgency with a perceived threat posed by agents provocateurs, fifth columnists and saboteurs within Australia.
In 1915, the British government arranged for the establishment of a Commonwealth branch of the Imperial Counter Espionage Bureau in Australia. The branch came to be known as the Australian Special Intelligence Bureau in January 1916, and maintained a close relationship with state police forces, and later with the Commonwealth Police Force, created in 1917, to conduct investigations independent of state police forces. After the war, on 1 November 1919, the SIB and Commonwealth Police were merged to form the Investigation Branch within the Attorney General's Department.
Provoked by World War II, the Commonwealth Security Service was formed in 1941 to investigate organisations and individuals considered likely to be subversive or actively opposed to national interests; to investigate espionage and sabotage; to vet defence force personnel and workers in defence-related industries; to control the issue of passports and visas; and was responsible for the security of airports and wharves, and factories engaged in manufacture of munitions and other items necessary for Australia’s war effort. It was also responsible for radio security. In June 1945 it produced a report warning of the danger of the Communist Party of Australia.
Robert Frederick Bird Wake, one of the foundation directors of ASIO, is credited the creation of the Australian intelligence community in 1949, as claimed by Valdemar Wake, in his biography No Ribbons or Medals of his father's work as a counter espionage officer. Wake worked closely with Director-General Reed. During World War II, Reed conducted an inquiry into Wake's performance as a security officer and found that he was competent and innocent of the charges laid by the Army's commander-in-chief, General Thomas Blamey. This was the start of a relationship between Reed and Wake that lasted for more than 10 years. Wake was seen as the operational head of ASIO.