NewsBite

ASIO check in 24 hours ‘too short’

ASIO has confirmed it believed a 24-hour limit on making a transfer decision under the medivac bill was too short.

Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Duncan Lewis speaks during Senate Estimates at Parliament House in Canberra, yesterday. Picture: AAP
Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Duncan Lewis speaks during Senate Estimates at Parliament House in Canberra, yesterday. Picture: AAP

ASIO boss Duncan Lewis has ­suggested the intelligence agency ­believed that the original 24-hour timeframe for a minister to reject a medical transfer from Nauru or Manus Island under the initial medivac bill was too short if the assessment relied on the ASIO Act.

Appearing before Senate estimates yesterday, Mr Lewis said ASIO had provided legal advice as well as advice on the timeframe needed to conduct security checks under the ASIO Act.

“We would typically have to go to second or third countries to test their holdings on the individual which could take some time...It can be several months,” he said.

“The speed of the response would depend entirely on the information that we might already have on the individual.”

The bill, which passed parliament, was amended last week to allow the minister up to 72 hours to reject a transfer on security grounds.

The Australian reported earlier this month on a briefing from the Department of Home Affairs, based on advice from ASIO and Australian Border Force about laws Labor supported, speeding up the medical evacuations of asylum-seekers off Manus Island and Nauru. The advice was subsequently declassified.

Mr Lewis said the alleged leak was “seriously damaging” for his agency’s reputation.

Mr Lewis said he was confident the leak did not come from ASIO and ASIO did not use its position to influence debate on national security matters. He said: “the advice that ASIO gave was not what was represented on the front page of The Australian newspaper.”

But Home Affairs secretary ­Michael Pezzullo said The Australian had clearly either sighted the advice or had spoken to someone with knowledge of it.

He defended The Australian’s report and said, national affairs editor Simon Benson, who wrote the article, was a “senior and distinguished” reporter.

Add your comment to this story

To join the conversation, please Don't have an account? Register

Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout

Original URL: https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/immigration/asio-check-in-24-hours-too-short/news-story/22ba1482c0c46d00c247abdeada8b599