Home Affairs intelligence section role a mystery to departing NIC spy chief Nick Warner

Outgoing spy boss Nick Warner says some of Australia’s intelligence agencies need better oversight.

Departing NIC head Nick Warner. Picture: Kym Smith

Outgoing spy chief Nick Warner has raised questions over the role of an intelligence section in the Department of Home Affairs, and suggested some intelligence agencies need better oversight.

The Home Affairs Intelligence Division, which answers directly to department secretary Mike Pezzullo, is part of the National Intelligence Community (NIC), which Mr Warner heads as Office of National Intelligence (ONI) director-general.

But Mr Warner, who will retire in December, said it was unclear to him what the “specific functions of that entity” were.

“You’ll have to ask Home Affairs that question,” he told Senate estimates.

“But I have not seen that over the past 22 months that entity providing policy advice to the government.”

He said it was unusual that the section did not report directly to a relevant minister, as other NIC members did.

The NIC has ten member entities, but only six core intelligence agencies are subject to oversight by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security.

They are: ONI, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation (AGO), the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO).

Mr Warner indicated the government was considering whether oversight arrangements for the remaining four – AUSTRAC, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, Home Affairs and the Australian Federal Police.

“There should be oversight of intelligence functions,” he said.

But he said it was a difficult issue to resolve, as some of the agencies also had non-intelligence functions.

“I think this is still a matter that is before government and I should probably stop at that point,” Mr Warner said.

Former ASIO head Dennis Richardson has completed a review of the legislative framework for the NIC, but the government is yet to respond to the report.

A Home Affairs spokeswoman told The Australian the Intelligence Division “directly supports, and is a fundamental enabler of, the security of Australia’s border and the integrity of Australia’s immigration programs”.

“The Division supports – through the provision of intelligence products and analysis – the secretary and the commissioner of the ABF in their responsibilities to protect Australia’s sovereignty, security and safety,” the spokeswoman said.

“It is not a policy division and so does not provide policy advice to government.”

She said the Division was subject to appropriate oversight through the Senate estimates process, the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, and the Commonwealth Ombudsman.

“IGIS oversight of the division, while canvassed in the 2017 Independent Review of the Intelligence Community, would be unnecessary given the existing oversight and scrutiny to which the Division is subject, which is not the case with other members of the national intelligence community,” the spokeswoman said.

Mr Warner also used his final Senate estimates hearing to push back against suggestions that the intelligence community was driving government policy towards China.

“It’s a load of baloney. Policy continues to be made by government, by ministers, by the Prime Minister, on the advice of policy departments, not on policy advice from intelligence agencies because that is not our role.

“What intelligence agencies do, assessment agencies, is provide that pristine assessment … that informs policy formulation and options that go to government.”

His comments follow a blast from former prime minister Paul Keating last year, who accused intelligence chiefs of driving a more hawkish stance on China.

“When the security agencies are running foreign policy, the nutters are in charge,” Mr Keating said after Labor’s 2019 election campaign launch. “They’ve lost their strategic bearings, these organisations.”