Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Attorney-General. Would the Attorney-General update the House on ASIO’s progress in ensuring it has the resources and the ability to continue protecting the Australian community?

Philip Ruddock (Berowra, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for La Trobe for his question. I think members recognise his very conscientious interest in matters of security and the protection of the Australian community. Of course, this government has consistently demonstrated its commitment to protecting security. We are doing so by ensuring that our agencies are able to effectively deal with the range of security threats that we might face. I think it is timely to note that in the United Kingdom the close collaboration between police and security agencies was instrumental in dealing with the difficult situation that they were facing. The fact is that our security agency and policing authorities work very closely together. I remember the words of the former director of ASIO, Dennis Richardson, who said they have a very high degree of interoperability together—and ASIO’s volume of work continues to increase as the organisation protects Australians and Australia’s interests from the threat of terrorists.

New leads in particular require that investigations continue—and we have seen a significant increase in the number of investigations required. Experience shows that we need to be constantly looking at emerging threats—a very difficult and challenging task. Last year we asked Allan Taylor to undertake a review of security organisations, and he recommended that substantial new resources be particularly applied to ASIO to meet those demands. The government has funded that body and it will increase ASIO staff to 1,860 over the next five years. It currently has around 1,100 staff—nearly double the number it had in 2000-01. The organisation plans to recruit 170 staff, net, each year for the coming years and is tracking well to meet this target for this financial year. Its recruitment will progressively, but substantially, grow our security organisation’s capability.

Our recruitment of intelligence officers is important—and that is strong. It will boost ASIO’s ability to meet the challenges of the security environment. Recruitment and clearance of suitable officers is a lengthy process, but we will not be compromising on the quality of staff that we need. This government has ensured that ASIO is now well resourced to continue protecting the Australian community in the difficult environment in which we are operating.