IGIS Annual Report 1993-94

THE YEAR IN REVIEW

52. This year has been dominated by matters connected with ASIS. I completed my inquiries into complaints against ASIS by an ex-member of the Service and by a then-serving ASIS officer, and continued my investigations into two other complaints by ex-members of ASIS. Four other complaints were received against ASIS, one from an ASIS officer, another from an ex-officer and two from members of the public. I commenced inquiry into each of them. I also undertook two "own motion" inquiries into certain aspects of ASIS's activities, and I continued my regular monitoring of the way in which ASIS handles secret intelligence to ensure that it meets the Government's requirements which are designed to ensure that the privacy of Australian persons and companies is not abused. I was also consulted by the Director-General of ASIS about the Service's grievance procedures and I made a number of suggestions for change., these suggestions were accepted and I was able to endorse the new ASIS procedures as "adequate and effective" in accordance with section 11(5)(a) of my Act.

53. During the year a campaign was mounted against ASIS, my Office and me personally, by certain ex-ASIS officers and others. It involved the briefing of members of parliament and the media by the ex-officers, and culminated in a long television program on 21 February, 1994, in which two of the ex-officers made various claims about illegal or improper activities allegedly conducted by ASIS. The campaign against my Office and me took the form of criticism of my findings in cases involving an ex-officer and his spouse, allegations by another ex-officer that I was a "lackey" of ASIS and/or the Foreign Minister, and threats that if I did not resign as Inspector-General my reputation would be so blackened that the Government would be forced to replace me. While much of this criticism was made to parliamentarians and the media, I and my office received abusive and threatening telephone calls, especially from one of the ex-officers.

54. The Government subsequently announced the appointment of the Commission of Inquiry into ASIS by Commissioners Samuels and Codd. Since then my office has spent a considerable amount of time preparing statements for the Commission and giving evidence before it. The Inquiry will report by 31 December, 1994.

55. Apart from matters connected with ASIS, I continued my normal monitoring activities in respect of ASIO and DSD, and progressed my inquiries into a number of complaints against both bodies but especially ASIO. However, because of the increasing pressures on my office and the limited resources at my disposal to deal with them, many complaints that I had hoped to finalise remain on our books. This is unsatisfactory for all concerned: the complainants, the agencies that are complained about and my office.

56. Despite facing some problems, ASIO seems to be operating well. The recent reorganisation has produced beneficial results and, with the current more consultative type of management and the improved arrangements that are in place for the resolution of grievances, the Organisation is well set to concentrate its energies on its primary functions. Much of the credit for this rests with the current Director-General of Security, but the ASIO Staff Association has also played an important part in achieving this present state.

57. DSD has settled well into its new premises in Canberra and last year improved its already excellent performance in the way in which it met the Government's requirements regarding the handling of secret intelligence containing the names of Australian persons or companies.

58. I have discussed earlier in this report the reasons why I am able to give greater reassurance to the public and the Government about ASIO's activities than about the activities of ASIS and DSD. Briefly, the reasons are that virtually all of ASIO's activities fall within my purview while only a small part of ASIS's and DSD's activities are capable of examination by the Inspector-General, that ASIO has to abide by various Acts and Ministerial directives etc, all of which provide standards which enable me to check whether ASIO is in fact acting legally and with propriety, while there are fewer such checkpoints against which I can measure the activities of the other two collecting agencies. Having said this, however, I have seen nothing during the past year that causes me to believe that any of the intelligence and security agencies covered by my Act are behaving other than legally and with propriety.

59. During the past year, as in previous years, members of my staff found themselves becoming involved in providing informal counselling or support to complainants, many of whom find the situations that have given rise to their complaints stressful and trying. I am concerned that my office should not become by default an informal counselling service for members, former members, their spouses or agents of the intelligence agencies. Counselling is quite distinct from the role I play in helping people to decide the best course of action they should follow in relation to a matter that is troubling them. This kind of activity usually, and rightfully, precedes the making of a complaint under the InspectorGeneral of Intelligence and Security Act. What I am concerned about is any situation that may develop where people seek support from this office where they are not contemplating a complaint, or continue to seek support from this office beyond the finalisation of their complaint. Thus in one matter, a complainant repeatedly rang up to make unsubstantiated allegations. In the end I had to ask that these further allegations be put in writing and that future communications be in this form. In another matter, I recommended that the agency concerned should contribute to the cost of ongoing counselling that a complainant needed as a result of his association with, or action taken by, that agency.

60. Finally, in this general section, I raise again the question of resources for my office. During the year the Department of Finance agreed to increase the staff of my office by two permanent officers, to seven. One additional temporary officer was also agreed, for six months, to help the office meet the demands of the Commission of Inquiry into ASIS.

61. The Commission of Inquiry has questioned me about the adequacy of the resources that are available to me to carry out my statutory functions. I have told them that substantially more resources are needed if the Office is to deal with the increasing number of complaints we have received in a timely and thorough manner, while continuing to carry out our normal monitoring activities. I discuss later in this report the demands that the Commission of Inquiry is making of us, and my efforts to establish a temporary task force to enable us to meet those demands. The only additional point I wish to make at this stage is to emphasise the disproportionate amount of time and energy that a small office like mine needs to devote to administration (including to document cases for increases in our resources).

62. I expect that the Commission of Inquiry will make recommendations to Government about the scope and shape of my Office. It seems best to await the Commission's report before deciding whether to press for an expansion of my Of'fice.




AUSTRALIAN SECRET INTELLIGENCE SERVICE (ASIS)


Monitoring Activities

63. Foreign Intelligence concerning Australian Persons: As in previous years I have conducted regular examinations of the way in which ASIS met the requirements laid down by the Government for the handling of foreign intelligence in which Australian persons (including companies) were named. The monitoring of ASIS's compliance with the Government's rules has involved me in regular visits to ASIS to examine foreign intelligence documents in which Australian persons were named, and in discussing doubtful cases with ASIS officers. The foreign intelligence reports that name Australian names are compiled by ASIS for examination by the Inspector-General. Each report is assessed by me against the rules and discussed with ASIS. I think it is fair to say that ASIS has a good understanding of the rules and makes very few mistakes indeed. During 199I approximately 24 per cent of all reports where Australian persons or companies were named were, in my view, breaches of the rules, but last year fewer than 10 per cent were in breach of the rules.

64. Many of the mistakes made were in my view understandable, given the need for desk officers to interpret what are fairly complex rules, and some of them are technical in nature. By this I mean that the names quoted are often those of Australians in the public eye or of large Australian companies. Very few breaches relate to ordinary Australians. If, as I believe, the rules exist primarily to protect the privacy of the ordinary Australian citizen, then they do this very well indeed, especially with the improvement that I have noted in ASIS's performance.

65. The Privacy of Australian Citizens and Permanent Residents: Apart from this continuing monitoring program, during the year I have visited ASIS on various occasions to examine their holdings on Australian citizens or permanent residents. I have done this because an ex-officer of the Service told me that ASIS holds thousands of files and cards on Australian citizens; that the files and cards recorded information and gossip of a personal nature and that this was freely available to ASIS officers and was made available on request to foreign intelligence services.

66. The following is an extract from a report that I made to the Foreign Minister conveying my conclusions on this matter.

"ASIS maintains an extensive card index on people, including Australians, with whom it has had contact or in whom it has a valid interest. I have examined a number of cards, chosen by me without forewarning to ASIS, and provided to me on the spot. The majority of people I nominated did not have a card. Eight of those nominated did have a card, but there was a valid reason for this (they may have visited ASIS). None of the cards I saw contained sensitive information of a personal nature.

I am assured that the material in these cards is not made available to other intelligence services …I am also assured that files, as distinct from the card index, are not maintained on private Australian citizens unless the citizens are of operational interest or unless they are staff members of ASIS. I accept these assurances.

"... the System seems to work well. So far as I have seen from my examination of the relevant files, the rights of the Australians concerned are not abused in any way."

67. I have also discussed with ASIS registry officers and ASIS management the way in which ASIS files and cards are stored and am satisfied that access to them is appropriately restricted. However, I propose to continue to monitor the Service's holdings on Australians to ensure that the privacy of Australian citizens and permanent residents is not abused.

68. Own Motion Inquiry: There has been one own motion investigation covering matters other than those of a grievance nature, and it is continuing. It concerns cooperative arrangements with another secret intelligence service.


Staffing Matters

69. If the Inspector-General is to play a constructive role in the grievance process, staff need to have confidence in the Inspector-General and to feel that they will not be ostracised if they approach him. For those conditions to be met, the Inspector-General needs to have ready access to staff and vice versa. It is essential for members of ASIS to know the Inspector-General on a personal, even if limited, basis, so that if the time should come that they need to use the avenue available to them they will be able to do so with confidence.

70. My contacts with ASIS staff in headquarters and elsewhere have been facilitated by the Director-General. As well, I and my staff have kept in close touch with the office-holders of the ASIS Staff and Welfare Association and we find this to be a useful means of checking the pulse of the Service. At the invitation of ASIS Management I speak to each Basic Intelligence Officer course for potential ASIS officers about the role of my Office, the work we perform and the concept of propriety.


Allegations against ASIS and Attacks on the Inspector-General

71. During 1993 a major campaign was waged against both ASIS and the Office of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security. It culminated in a television program on 21 February, 1994, in which two complainants to me made various serious allegations against ASIS and my office.

72. The campaign unfolded during the course of 1993. One of the complainants stated to me and the office that ASIS was "rotten to the core", was acting outside the bounds of legality and propriety and required major changes if it was going to be transformed into a useful and decent organisation. He also claimed that ASIS needed legislation or Ministerial guidelines, that it was beyond Parliamentary or effective ministerial scrutiny, that it possessed no effective internal grievance procedures and that officers who complained to the Inspector-General did so at their own risk. He argued that the problems could not be fixed from within, and that an external impetus was needed. Two other people who had earlier complained to me made various allegations against particular ASIS officers, and many of these allegations resurfaced in the television program.

73. When I asked for some substantiation of the allegations and whether I might be permitted to raise them (in the course of a preliminary inquiry into them) with the Director-General of ASIS or the Foreign Minister, I was given some names but was told that "the group" (ie these particular complainants and various others) did not want me to raise them with the Director-General of ASIS although they were agreeable to my discussing the allegations in general terms with the Minister. I subsequently did so.

74. When I met with the Foreign Minister on 18 August, 1993, I told him that the group's claims had not been sufficiently substantiated to warrant my conducting an inquiry into them, and in any case the group had asked me not to do so, but that I did propose to look into two particular matters. (I have since done so and reported separately to the Foreign Minister on them.)

75. During the second half of 1993 the group - or some members of it - began to attack my Office. One member told my Office that I would become the scapegoat once the alleged mismanagement within ASIS became public. Another member told me that I had been placed in the position of Inspector-General "to keep the lid on ASIS". This person, who became abusive in his telephone conversations with me and my staff, and who constantly set deadlines for me to contact him or to complete my inquiry into his case, told me on 18 September, 1993, that he would force me to resign or the Government to remove me.

76. Subsequently the Government set up in March 1994 the Commission of Inquiry into ASIS and these matters are amongst those being examined by that Commission.


Complaints Against ASIS

  1. As already noted, there have been very few complaints against ASIS by members of the public. This is not surprising. As I said in my 1991-92 Annual Report to the Parliament:

    "It is unusual to receive complaints from members of the public against ASIS. This is as it should be because ASIS - like the other agencies - should be acting legally and with propriety, and in any case the main thrust of ASIS's activities is overseas. "

None of the complaints that my Office has received from members of the public has proved to be well-founded. Many of them seem to have come from people who appear to be suffering some form of delusion.

78. Until recently at least ASIS was not widely known about by the general public. It remains to be seen whether the recent publicity about ASIS provokes complaints from members of the public. This is the pattern that we have noted in respect of publicity about ASIO.


Did ASIS act legally and with propriety in its dealings with an officer who was being investigated by the Australian Federal Police?

79. I discussed this case in my last annual report.

  1. After I concluded my inquiry into this case, the officer concerned asked me to act as an impartial observer during a security interview that he participated in with ASIS. I did so after warning the officer that I might thereby be obliged to debar myself from handling any complaint that he might subsequently wish to make against ASIS. Shortly afterwards he complained that the Service proposed to terminate his appointment, and asked if I would act as a mediator between himself and the Service. I said I would do so only with the agreement of the Director-General of ASIS and the Foreign Minister (mediation lying outside of my statutory role). When the former told me that he believed no useful purpose could be secured by mediation, I considered whether to inquire into the complaint. I decided against doing so, on the following grounds:

I also had in mind the effect of my attendance as an observer during the security interview that had been conducted earlier.

81. This case is now being reviewed by the Commission of Inquiry into ASIS.


Did ASIS act legally and with propriety in dealing with an officer and his assistant who were withdrawn from an overseas post?

82. These cases concern a former ASIS officer and his operational assistant who were recalled (for different reasons) from an overseas post.

  1. I concluded my inquiry into the ex-officer's complaint.
  2. I found that ASIS acted legally and with propriety in their handling of this matter.

85. The case centred on the breakdown of relations between the Head of Mission and the ASIS officer and the subsequent actions of ASIS. The breakdown occurred suddenly, and quickly became irrevocable. I concluded that ASIS took appropriate action by sending a joint Foreign Af'fairs/ASIS team to the post to investigate, in the meantime urging their officer to act with prudence and moderation, and discussing the events with senior Foreign Affairs officials. The team concluded that relations between the ASIS station chief and the Ambassador had reached such a low state that there was little option but to withdraw one of them. Because of the possibility that the station chief’s cover might already have been damaged, it was sensible to withdraw the station chief rather than the Ambassador.

86. In my view there was nothing else that the Service could do to settle matters at the overseas post. and once the officer had returned to Australia and had indicated that he no longer had faith in ASIS management, the latter had little option but to terminate his appointment.

87. My inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the termination of the operational assistant's posting and her return to Australia is continuing.

88. Both cases are under review by the Commission of Inquiry into ASIS.


Did a long-serving member of ASIS receive appropriate departure entitlements on his retirement?

89. My inquiry into this complaint, which concerns the departure entitlements of a long-serving ex-ASIS member, continues.


Other complaints against ASIS

90. Towards the end of the year I received four more complaints against ASIS and have begun inquiring into them.


Case 1: concerns the appropriate level for the translation of an ASIS officer from one category of employment to another when the former category was abolished.


Case 2: concerns allegations of impropriety against ASIS officers by an ex-operational assistant, who claims that her private mail was opened by a colleague, that she was prevented by her head of station from lodging complaints with headquarters; and that various of her colleagues treated her unfairly and inappropriately.


Case 3: concerns allegations by an Australian journalist that ASIS holds records on him that describe him in scurrilous and ludicrous terms and that these records have been seen by various ASIS officers.


Case 4: the complainant refers to articles published in two magazines, New Idea (26 March, 1994) and The Australian Women's Weekly (November, 1993) in which Ms Wendi Holland is said to have made various claims about her links with MI6 and the CIA, and her alleged connections with and activities on behalf of ASIS.

91. The complainant alleges that, if there is any truth in Ms Holland's claims, ASIS has been acting improperly.

  1. I am at present conducting a preliminary inquiry into this complaint under section 14 of my Act. If I decide to inquire further I shall need to obtain the Foreign Minister's approval because the activities alleged are said in part to have occurred overseas and in part at least to have predated the commencement of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Act.

 



AUSTRALIAN SECURITY INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATION (ASIO)


Monitoring Activities

93. Warrant Operations: I continued to monitor the way in which ASIO conducts particularly sensitive and potentially intrusive activities, including warrant operations (ie operations sanctioned by the Attorney-General for, eg, the tapping of a person's telephone etc), the investigations of particular persons or groups of persons and the exchange of information with the State and Northern Territory Police Services. I am happy to report that ASIO continues to maintain the same very high standards that I have noted in previous annual reports.

94. By now I would have examined more than 90% of all of ASIO's warrant operations conducted during the past four years. Each operation has been carefully developed and each has been carried out strictly in accordance with the terms of the Attorney-General's approval for that warrant.

95. As a means of obtaining a further insight into the way in which ASIO conducts its warrant operations I have maintained contact during the year with senior staff of Telecom. They have indicated that they too are impressed by the care and sense of responsibility with which ASIO approaches its warrant operations.

96. Authorities to Investigate: I mentioned in my last annual report that the Attorney-General had issued a set of Guidelines on Intelligence Relevant to Security. Following on from the issuance of these guidelines ASIO has rationalised and improved some of its procedures. One of these updated procedures concerns the development of a uniform system of "Authorities to Investigate" (ATIs). Under this system ATIs are developed carefully and logically and are reviewed regularly, in much the same way as are ASIO's applications to conduct warrant operations.

97. I now regularly monitor the ATI registers and files. To date I have found nothing that has caused me concern in this area. Indeed, I have been much encouraged by what I have seen and (partly because of this and partly because of the heavy emphasis that ASIO now gives in its training programs to ethics and propriety) have decided that there is no longer any need for me to conduct an own motion inquiry into ASIO's practice of "community interviewing" ie interviews concentrating on particular ethnic groups. The requirement to obtain ATIs makes it virtually impossible for ASIO to conduct such community interviews unless there is a good security-based reason for doing so.

98. ASIO/Police Exchanges: At last, action has occurred in the area of exchanges of information between ASIO and the State and Northern Territory Police Services. The previous agreements governing these exchanges were hopelessly out of date, but the exchanges themselves were being carried on under draft agreements that reflected the changes that were made to the ASIO Act in 1987. Agreements have now been finalised between the Commonwealth on the one hand and New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory on the other. I understand that Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania are in the final stages of their consideration of the drafts.

  1. I regularly monitor the exchanges of intelligence, both ways, to ensure that they are in accordance with the agreements.

100. ASIO's Archives Record: I also regularly monitor the way in which ASIO is meeting its obligations under the Archives Act. It is pleasing to note that the changes that ASIO has made to its procedures in this area have resulted in very considerable improvements in productivity. Although ASIO is obviously not going to be able to reduce the backlog of outstanding requests within the time frame recommended by me, there has been a huge reduction in the backlog and all new requests are now being completed within the 90 day statutory time limit.


Complaints Against ASIO

101. As usual, the bulk of complaints received during the year has been against ASIO. The following are brief summaries of some of the cases my Office has handled during the year.


What did ASIO know about the Hilton bombing and the "Yagoona incident" of 1978? Did ASIO act with legality and propriety in providing information to the relevant authorities?

  1. This inquiry, which has featured in my last two annual reports, is now approaching its third anniversary. It has been one of the longest inquiries my Office has conducted, and it has probably been the most complex and labour-intensive. At the time of writing, I have provided my Final Report on this matter to the Attorney-General and to the Director-General of Security.

103. The complainant, a former NSW Police Special Branch agent, gave evidence in criminal proceedings against three members of the Ananda Marga sect, Messrs Alister, Dunn and Anderson, who were subsequently convicted of offences arising from an alleged attempted bombing at Yagoona, NSW, in 1978.

104. The so-called "Yagoona Three" were later released following an inquiry conducted by Mr Justice Wood of the NSW Supreme Court. At that inquiry, the complainant's credibility was strongly attacked.

105. (When the "Yagoona Three" were committed for trial in September 1978, and also at the Hilton Bombing Coronial Inquest in 1982, the complainant gave evidence that Messrs Alister and Dunn had told him that they and Mr Anderson were involved in the Hilton bombing. However, the complainant's evidence was never used as the basis of criminal charges arising from the Hilton incident, even when Mr Anderson was indicted in 1990.)

106. The complainant alleged to me that ASIO, by virtue of its coverage of the Ananda Marga possessed information which supported his testimony and which, if disclosed to the courts or the judicial inquiry, may have prevented the Yagoona Three from being released. He claimed that this information must have been deliberately suppressed by ASIO and that, as a result, I should reach conclusions which vindicated his reputation and that I should recommend that he be compensated.

107. In my last annual report I indicated that, as far as the Hilton bombing was concerned, I had reached the view that ASIO had no prior warning of the incident and that they passed all information of substance which came to them after the bombing to the NSW Police. This remains my view.

  1. In relation to the "Yagoona incident" and ASIO's coverage of the Ananda Marga, it has been difficult to reach conclusions because the written records are incomplete and memories have faded. Nonetheless I have concluded that:

109. Because the issues raised in the course of my inquiry are of general public importance, I would like to produce a public version of my report on this matter, but at present I lack the resources to do this.


Did ASIO discriminate against an ASIO officer on grounds of race, gender and her submissions to Mr Justice Hope? Did ASIO misadvise her about her superannuation entitlements?

110. Last year I reported that I had concluded this case in June 1992 and that as at 30 June, 1993, the matter of compensation still had not been finalised. Although the Attorney-General had accepted my recommendations on the matter, the Department of Finance had not decided upon my recommendation that an act of grace payment be made.

111. On 5 January, 1994, the then Acting Attorney-General, Mr Duncan Kerr, wrote to me that the Minister for Finance, then Mr Ralph Willis, had declined to support my recommendation for an act of grace payment.

  1. Since that time I have pursued other means to achieve the fulfilment of my recommendation for compensation. I have withdrawn my recommendation for an act of grace payment and instead have recommended that ASIO itself compensate the complainant. The Director-General of Security has accepted my recommendation and has said that he would recommend to the Attorney-General that he advise Cabinet to approve compensation for the complainant. At the time of producing this report Cabinet had yet to decide upon the matter.

113. Although the complainant has been contacted regularly by my staff, I am concerned that she has continued to suffer financially as a result of the extended delays in this case. The amount of money involved is not large. Indeed, the costs of my inquiry and the subsequent negotiations for the payment of compensation would probably well exceed the amount of the compensation.


Did ASIO ever have a file relating to an ex-Member of Parliament?

114. In 1992, I received a complaint from a retired Member of Federal Parliament and former Minister, who claimed that ASIO had wrongly asserted it had never had a file on him.

115. In December 1993, I wrote to the complainant to say that ASIO had indeed had a file on him, which was probably opened in the early 1950s, but which either no longer existed or could no longer be found. I also noted that there were a large number of folios which mentioned the complainant on another file. None of these folios were cross-referenced to any files on the complainant.

116. The complainant's reply was that he did not believe ASIO was telling the truth and that he was confident I have "no way of making … (ASIO) come clean".

117. Subsequently, I wrote to the Director-General of Security, asking for a further search to be conducted. In that letter I noted my concern that in this case, and in others, ASIO has advised me that it could find no records relating to a complainant, only to discover some time later that it did hold papers. In his reply, the Director-General of Security noted:

118. I expect to receive a full response from ASIO soon concerning this complaint. In the meantime, the Director-General's comments raise wider issues regarding the assurances which I make to complainants. I intend to raise these issues with ASIO.


Did ASIO act with legality and propriety in offering a voluntary early retirement package to one of its former officers?

119. An ex-ASIO officer complained to me about the circumstances in which he was offered a voluntary early retirement package by ASIO in 1993. The complainant alleged that ASIO entered into a contract with him for the payment of a certain sum. The complainant said that ASIO later told him that the amount owing to him had been miscalculated and that he was entitled to a lesser sum. The complainant questioned both the legality of ASIO's position and the propriety of ASIO's dealings with him.

120. This complaint, which is still in the preliminary stage, raises jurisdictional issues which I need to resolve before deciding whether or not I should proceed to a full inquiry. I have sought legal advice on these matters.


Did ASIO miscalculate the compensation entitlements of two ex-officers at the time of their retirement?

121. I have referred in previous Annual Reports to complaints I have received from two former members of ASIO concerning the administration of their compensation entitlements

122. My inquiry into these complaints has unfortunately become protracted, not the least because the investigation of ASIO's compensation procedures has involved an examination of the associated role and responsibilities of Comcare, which began operation during the period covered by the complaints. It has become apparent that many of the problems experienced by the complainants were a product of the transition from the former compensation system to the new Comcare regime. Nevertheless significant difficulties remain in the arrangements between ASIO and Comcare for the ongoing management of these cases. My principal concern remains the special duty of care which I believe is owed by the intelligence and security agencies to their staff, both during and after their employment, because of the constraints placed on staff relationships with external bodies such as Comcare and ComSuper.

123. I have completed my investigation of these complaints, and have circulated a draft report to ASIO and Comcare for their consideration, in view of the critical nature of a number of my conclusions and recommendations.


Did ASIO give the Retirement Benefits Office (now ComSuper) a speculative interpretation of events surrounding an employee’s selection of superannuation options on resignation?

124. A former ASIO staff member applied to the then Retirement Benefits Office for approval to make a late election to preserve his superannuation benefits on the basis that, at the time of his resignation, the Organization had not given him sufficient information to make an informed choice among his options. In assessing his claim, ComSuper had asked ASIO specific questions about the Organization's procedures for advising staff on superannuation matters. The former employee complained to me that ASIO had failed to answer these questions, but instead had provided ComSuper with a speculative interpretation of the events leading to his resignation, based on inadequate records. He believed that ComSuper's subsequent decision to reject his application had been adversely influenced by the ASIO advice. He has sought a reconsideration of the ComSuper decision, but is concerned that ASIO will not be prepared to revise its advice, which he asserts was illfounded.

125. I have begun a preliminary inquiry into this complaint.


Staffing Matters

126. I have reported previously about the arrangements that were put in place in ASIO in 1992 for the handling of grievances. These arrangements had the effect of placing my 0ffice in a "reserve" role in the ASIO grievance process. They consist of a combination of an internal ombudsman and various review committees chaired by non-ASIO Chairpersons and possessing determinative powers.

127. I am delighted to say that the internal arrangements seem to be working well. Though I have provided some informal counselling, not one ASIO grievance has been lodged with me by a serving officer of ASIO since the new arrangements were put in place. Any problems that individual officers may have are being settled appropriately by the internal mechanisms.