ONI

The Office of National Intelligence (ONI) produces all-source assessments on international political, strategic and economic developments to the Prime Minister, members of the National Security Committee of Cabinet, and senior officials of Government departments. ONI also has responsibility for coordinating and evaluating Australia’s foreign intelligence activities.

Each year the IGIS reviews the activities of ONI (and formerly ONA). The functions of intelligence assessment agencies, such as ONI and DIO, mean that they are less likely than the intelligence collection agencies to intrude on the privacy of Australian persons or operate in breach of legislation. As such the IGIS makes fewer inspections of ONI and DIO compared to the intelligence collection agencies.

Information on all agency inspections and assessments are published in the IGIS annual report.

During 2019–20, IGIS inspected the analytic independence and integrity of ONI assessments and ONI’s compliance with its Privacy Rules. An additional inspection was scheduled in relation to ONI’s open source collection function under section 7(1)(g) of the Office of National Intelligence Act 2018 (ONI Act). However, due to the COVID-19 restrictions, that inspection did not commence and has been rescheduled for the 2020–21 reporting period. Inspections of ONI are less frequent than for a collection agency given its comparatively lower risk profile as an assessment agency

Compliance with ONI's privacy rules

During 2019–20, IGIS conducted one inspection of ONI’s compliance with its Privacy Rules. A further scheduled inspection could not be completed due to the COVID-19 restrictions.

Inspection activities identified seven ONI products where the relevant Privacy Rules were not applied. IGIS officers had been monitoring ONI reporting for references to Australian persons and this monitoring was used to identify instances of non-compliance. The inspection also identified areas where ONI could improve its compliance through ONI providing more detailed guidance in its internal policies.

ONI must advise IGIS if it identifies non-compliance with the Privacy Rules and must include information about the measures taken to protect the privacy of the affected Australian person, or of Australian persons more generally. In 2019–20, ONI reported one instance of non-compliance where the Director-General’s approval was not obtained prior to ONI granting three Australian Government agencies access to reporting on Australian persons, as per the Privacy Rules.

IGIS requested further information from ONI in relation to the scale and type of reporting accessed and the remediation measures. Based on ONI’s response to this request, the Inspector-General assessed that the seriousness of the non-compliance, in terms of intrusion into the privacy of Australians, was low given the type of material accessed. The prompt remediation measures undertaken by ONI were considered sufficient to manage the instance of non-compliance and to prevent similar occurrences in the future.

Analytic integrity inspection

During 2019–20, IGIS conducted its first ONI analytic integrity inspection. Previously, the Inspector-General completed inquiries into the analytic independence and integrity of the Office of National Assessments (now ONI), DIO and ASIO assessments.

The Inspector-General determined that targeted inspections on specific aspects of analytic integrity were a more efficient use of finite resources and this approach was more attuned to the risk level of the agency’s activities. It was determined that these inspections would be used to develop a baseline inspection process and standard for the analytic integrity of assessments across the agencies.

The inspection for ONI included a review of 40 per cent of intelligence products published by ONI from July to December 2019. IGIS officers inspected the tasking and scope of products, as well as consultation and approval requirements; the inspection focused on ONI processes being transparent and free from bias, and assessments being tested appropriately. The majority of records reviewed were of a high standard, however, there were some inconsistencies in recording key aspects related to external consultation. The inspection identified that more detailed guidance on external consultation would assist in improving the rigour and consistency of such records.