Malcolm Turnbull says it is the most significant reform of intelligence and security arrangements in more than 40 years, but some experts criticise move

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Peter Dutton has been named the minister in charge of a new super portfolio, in a significant overhaul of Australia’s national security architecture.

But intelligence and security experts are split over the need for such a change, with some questioning whether the plan has been thought through properly.

The new home affairs department will incorporate immigration, border protection and domestic security agencies.

Asio and the Australian federal police will now answer to Dutton as home affairs minister, although the attorney general, George Brandis, will remain responsible for the approval of warrants.

The announcement comes after months of rolling, semi-public contention between senior government ministers about the security overhaul.

“We need these reforms, not because the system is broken, but because our security environment is evolving quickly,” Turnbull said on Tuesday.

“We are taking the best elements of our intelligence and national security community and making them better. As terrorists evolve their methods, we have to evolve our responses.”

Turnbull said the portfolio would be similar to the UK’s home office arrangement, “a federation, if you will, of border and security agencies”.

“Let me be quite clear, this is not a United States-style Department of Homeland Security,” he said.

“The agencies will retain their current statutory independence which is such a vital aspect of our Australian system.

“They will be supported by a central department that will oversee policy and strategic planning and the coordination of the operational response to the threats we face.

“Importantly, Asio, the AFP and Australian Border Force will all report directly to the home affairs minister. This will ensure that these three important agencies have direct reporting into the cabinet.”



The new portfolio also incorporates the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac) and the office of transport security.

Peter Jennings, the executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, has cautiously welcomed the plan, saying it will help the intelligence and police communities to develop the capacity to think in the longer-term, like the Defence Department.

But he has warned that for the changes to work properly, the new Home Affairs Minister and Attorney General will have to work “incredibly closely,” so if there’s a clash of personalities it could lead to intelligence operations being paused.



“That would be very serious for intelligence,” he told Sky News.

“I think that’s quite a sensible allocation of responsibilities, but there will be teething problems as these new organisations are established.”

The head of the Australian National University’s Defence and Strategic Studies Centre, John Blaxland, said the plan would have significant ramifications and he was not sure if it the government had thought through the new tensions it would create between ministers and agencies.

“Contestability, collegiality?” he Tweeted.

The overhaul had been resisted by Brandis, the foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop, and the justice minister Michael Keenan, on the basis it would upset arrangements that were working well and strip ministers of their current functions.

Despite resisting the change for months, Brandis told reporters he was now a supporter of the new arrangements, because they meant a cabinet minister would now have “exclusive” focus on national security, as opposed to the current situation, where the attorney general had a divided focus.

Brandis will retain his responsibility for issuing warrants under the Asio Act and ministerial authorisations under the Intelligence Services Act, and he will gain responsibility for oversight agencies – the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor and the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security.

Turnbull told reporters under the new arrangements Brandis would be able to separate his duty as Australia’s first law officer and the requirement that he defend the rule of law from his previous portfolio responsibility for Asio.

Asked about the potential problems created by Asio now having to report to two ministers – Dutton and Brandis – rather than just one in the current arrangements, Brandis said that situation had a precedent in Australia.

He said the ministers responsible for the Australian Signals Directorate and for the Australian Secret Intelligence Service currently had to make requests of the attorney general during operational matters. “This is a very familiar and established process.”

Michael Wesley, Dean of the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University, told Sky News there was no reason to force Asio, the AFP, and other security agencies to report directly to one minister.

“My question is what’s broken that needs to be fixed?” he said.



“I think we’ve got one of the most successful security and policing sectors in the world that has been honed over decades of practice and high operational capability.

“We’ve seen in Australia much fewer terrorist attacks than in the UK or the US that have centralised homeland security departments.

“I think we have a system that works extremely well and playing politics with Australians’ lives and safety potentially is an extremely bad move in my view,” he said.