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Letter of Transmission
30 August 1989
The Hon. R.J.L. Hawke, AC, MP
Prime Minister
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600
My dear Prime Minister
I have pleasure in submitting to you the third Annual Report on my operations, as required by section 35 of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Act 1986, in a form suitable for tabling in Parliament.
Yours sincerely
N.D. McInnes
Inspector-General of
Intelligence and Security
Role
The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security assists the responsible ministers in the oversight and review of Australials intelligence and security agencies to ensure the agencies, compliance with the law and the propriety of their activities; to ensure the effectiveness and appropriateness of the agencies' procedures in relation to the legality or propriety of their activities; to ensure that the activities of the agencies are consistent with human rights; and to allow for review of certain directions given to ASIO by the Attorney-General.
Complaints and inquiries
I received eight requests from members of the public for assistance in dealing with the intelligence agencies and, in addition, fourteen specific complaints, all of which concerned ASIO. After investigating eleven of these complaints, I decided that none of them required further action and so advised the complainants. The other three led to full-scale inquiries, two of which were still proceeding at the end of the reporting period.
During the year I dealt with seven complaints from members or former members of ASIO. Complaints from within the Organisation lodged in previous years had led me to believe that its staff grievance procedures were not working satisfactorily, so in the course of the reporting period I conducted an investigation under s. 8(1)(b) of the legislation, which empowers me "to inquire into the procedures of ASIO relating to redress of grievances of employees of ASIO". The recommendations I made at the conclusion of that inquiry are now being implemented by the Organisation, with the assistance of the Attorney-Generalls Department. Moreover, the Organisation has already put into effect changes I recommended, after an earlier inquiry into a staff complaint, in its procedures for staff access to personal files and for the staff performance and development review program. The net result of these improvements of ASIO's personnel practices, put into effect by the present Director-General of Security, will, I believe, facilitate the work of ASIO staff and management in what is often a difficult and always a delicate task.
Staff counselling
The frequency of approaches to me by members of ASIO (and to a much lesser extent members and former members of ASIS) underlines the importance of the function of staff counselling by this Office. Members of intelligence agencies sometimes ,cave problems with their work which they cannot resolve within their agency and which they might therefore be tempted to take up with unauthorised persons, with consequent damage to national security. Recourse to the Inspector-General is provided in order to deal with this dilemma. I reported last year that such recourse was hampered by an interpretation of a section of the ASIO Act that enjoins secrecy on its members. That difficulty has been dealt with by a memorandum of understanding between the present Director-General of Security and myself, which guarantees unfettered access to re for ASIO staff and which allows me to obtain documents relevant to staff complaints without launching a full-scale inquiry in each case. I believe that this agreement needs to find, eventually, a legislative basis in an amendment of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Act.
Monitoring of collection agencies
I continued periodic inspections at DSD and ASIS of their handling of material relating to Australians. I am satisfied that there is machinery in place to protect the privacy of Australian citizens and permanent residents from unwarranted intrusion, be it deliberate or accidental, by those two intelligence collection services. It will continue to be monitored. I have proposed to the Attorney-General a comparable monitoring system for ASIO's more intrusive operations.
Office administration
In performing my statutory functions as Inspector-General, I am assisted by three staff members.
Section 22C of the Public Service Act requires me to report on the implementation and operation of industrial democracy plans in my Office. During the year the Department of Industrial Relations gave its endorsement to the Office's Industrial Democracy Plan, the terms of which have been implemented in 1988-89. As to EEO for my staff, the arrangement whereby the EEO Program of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet also covers my Office has proved to be effective.