Director-General's Opening Statement
Senate Legal and Constitutional Legislation Committee
25 May 2006
Thank you for the opportunity to make some brief opening remarks.
The Committee may be aware that on 11 May 2006 the Intelligence and Security Committee of the British Parliament tabled its Report into the London Terrorist Attacks of 7 July 2005.
It is, in my view, a balanced and useful report containing some salient points that are instructive for our own experience in the context of considering resource issues in connection with counter-terrorism.
Firstly, the Committee noted the sheer scale of the problem that the British security and intelligence agencies face and their comparatively small capacity to cover it.
Secondly, if more resources had been in place sooner the chance of preventing the 7 July attacks could have increased - but there can be no guarantees that it will be possible to stop all attacks.
The British report also underlines the risks associated with focussing on just the known sources of threat and not pursuing the unknowns - without, of course, downplaying the very real impact that has on resources.
And, it is a stark reminder that our own risk management decisions and prioritisation of investigative tasks can have life and death consequences.
This is a substantial responsibility the people working in our intelligence agencies carry on a daily basis.
Like our British counterparts, ASIO continues to grow at what I consider to be the maximum sustainable rate against the background of a complex and demanding operating environment.
As part of the Federal Budget, the Government has allocated a range of additional funding measures of $642m for the Organisation over the next five years.
As has been said publicly, the additional resources will allow us to address both known and unknown sources of terrorist threat to Australia.
And they will allow us, in addition, to respond appropriately to the threat of espionage, sabotage, the promotion of communal violence, attacks on Australia's defence system and acts of foreign interference.
Recruitment of staff is well underway and I am confident we will be able to attract and retain the high-calibre people we need.
ASIO now has around 1070 staff, up from 955 at 30 June 2005.
We expect to have 1095 staff by 30 June this year.
Previous Government initiatives would have seen ASIO grow to around 1200 by the end of 2006-07.
In line with the recommendations of the Taylor Review, ASIO now has been funded to grow to 1860 by 2010-11.
We have strengthened our recruitment area; there continues to be a high level of quality applications across the range of recruitment campaigns; and we have a strong recruitment program in place to start 2006-07.
We are confident we will meet the targets endorsed by Government and are on track to grow by 170 next year if not more.
Our separation rate remains within the range of 6-7%.
ASIO is seeking a broad range of staff including intelligence officers, analysts, linguists, data entry staff, IT specialists, technical specialists, human resources staff, surveillance officers and administrative staff.
In addition, the Government has given in-principle approval for a new building in Canberra to accommodate an expanded ASIO Central Office and the Office of National Assessments (ONA).
We have adopted a careful and sequenced approach to managing growth, developing capabilities and maintaining accountabilities to Government, both financially and operationally.
I am confident that we will be able to deliver on our commitments to Government.
I am happy to respond to your questions as best I can within the obvious limitations of this public forum on matters concerning intelligence and operations.