THE Hawke cabinet disarmed and effectively castrated the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, the local equivalent of the CIA, after its bungled training exercise on November 30, 1983, extensively damaged the Sheraton Hotel in Melbourne.

The security committee on May 7, 1985, not only banned ASIS holding weapons but also recommended that ASIS's directive be amended to exclude it from carrying out covert action, either as special operations or special political action.

It also vetoed training exercises for special operations.

ASIS, and to some extent its ''big brother'', the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, were seriously embarrassed by the Sheraton raid, which exposed them as the Keystone Cops of the spy world.

ASIS, modelled on Britain's MI6, had been established by the Menzies government in 1952 to collect foreign intelligence and carry out counter-intelligence work.