Labor to canvass spy agency about security overhaul

Labor will use formal briefings with ASIO and the AFP to test whether they support the new home affairs portfolio.

Labor is demanding answers from Malcolm Turnbull about how a new home affairs super-portfolio would make Australians safer and will use its formal briefings with ASIO and the AFP to test whether they backed the change.

Tony Abbott yesterday suggested the advice to Mr Turnbull about the need for a new super-portfolio was different to the advice he received as prime minister, given he did not proceed with the creation of a home affairs department. “The advice back then was that we didn’t need the kind of massive bureaucratic change which it seems the Prime Minister has in mind,” Mr Abbott told 2GB. “I can only assume the advice has changed since then.

‘‘No doubt the Prime Minister will give us more information in due course.”

South Australian senator Nick Xenophon flagged a Senate inquiry when legislation came before parliament. He said a higher concentration of power in one super-ministry would need to be offset by “increased accountability”. Opposition legal affairs spokesman Mark Dreyfus questioned whether housing ASIO and the Australian Federal Police within a new home affairs portfolio, to be led by Peter Dutton, would cause an unnecessary disruption to Australia’s national security arrangements.

“I am looking forward to hearing from ASIO and the other agencies as to what they say about these proposed changes,” Mr Dreyfus told ABC radio. He said Labor had suspicions the shake-up was a political exercise to smooth over internal divisions in the Coalition, saying the opposition wanted to ensure the “government’s division has not also infected national security policy”.

Mr Turnbull called Mr Shorten on Tuesday night to discuss the bureaucratic overhaul billed by the government as the most significant reform to Australia’s security and intelligence arrangements in the past 40 years.

During the call, Mr Shorten was offered the chance to talk through the details of the changes with the key security agencies of ASIO and the AFP. The Australian understands Labor will use the briefings to press both agencies on whether they support the new arrangements or whether they had expressed dissatisfaction with the current set-up.

Speaking in Sydney yesterday, Mr Shorten attacked the changes as “rushed” but did not rule out Labor support, saying he instead wanted to “hear from the experts” about the proposed overhaul.

“We’ve requested briefings from the AFP and ASIO and our security agencies — what do they want?” he said. “Is the government saying the current system is unsafe? Is the government saying that there is a big problem now which needs fixing?”

The government has flagged that legislative changes will be needed, meaning Mr Turnbull will have to secure Senate approval for the shake-up.

A taskforce charged with implementing the changes will identify the acts that need to amended.