Output 3.2—National security policy

Page Index

• Feedback on performance
• Key results
• Administered item—National Counter-terrorism Committee

Feedback on performance

The Prime Minister, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Secretary and the departmental Executive provided positive feedback on the division’s work, including on the quality and timeliness of briefings and advice, across all the division’s areas of responsibility. The two meetings of the Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) Unit Steering Committee confirmed its satisfaction with the unit’s progress.

Output 3.2 was assessed as having provided effective and timely advice, briefing and support on defence, intelligence, border protection, counter-terrorism and related law-enforcement and domestic security issues.

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Key results

Throughout its second full year of operation, the National Security Division continued to provide advice to the Prime Minister and support whole-of-government and cross-portfolio endeavours on a wide range of government initiatives.

Defence policy and operations

The division worked closely with the Department of Defence to provide policy advice and updates to the Prime Minister on Australian Defence Force operations in Iraq and Sudan. The division also provided advice on deployments to East Timor and Solomon Islands and Operations Sumatra Assist I and II to Indonesia.

We worked with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs on commemorative events to mark significant military anniversaries, such as Anzac Day. We will continue to work with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs on significant events to occur in the second half of 2005, including a major commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of Victory in the Pacific.

The division worked with the departments of Defence, Finance and Administration and the Treasury on the Defence Force Disposition Review. This work will continue in 2005–06.

We provided advice to the Prime Minister on various Defence portfolio matters, and contributed to their whole-of-government coordination. These matters included:

• Defence strategic policy, preparedness and reform
• Defence personnel issues
• international military cooperation activities
• Defence housing
• Defence infrastructure and estate matters.

Defence capability and acquisitions

The division worked closely with representatives from the departments of Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade, Finance and Administration, and the Treasury, to provide advice to the Prime Minister and the government on a range of Defence capability, acquisition and policy issues, including:

• funding for major capital equipment programmes
• National Security Committee of Cabinet consideration of major capital equipment acquisition proposals
• delivery of the Defence Capability Plan 2004–2014
• new air combat capability for the Royal Australian Air Force
• approvals processes for the acquisition of new air warfare destroyers and amphibious ships for the Royal Australian Navy.

We also worked closely with the Department of Defence and provided advice and support to the Prime Minister and government on the implementation of recommendations arising from the Defence Procurement Review 2003. This included work on the change in the status of the Defence Materiel Organisation to a prescribed agency for financial management purposes, and the implementation of the two-pass approval process.

Enhancement of Australia’s intelligence performance

During a year in which the performance of Australia’s intelligence agencies continued to attract heightened scrutiny, the division advised the Prime Minister and government on, and coordinated the government’s response to, a range of sensitive issues relating to the agencies’ roles, performance and budgets.

The division played a major role in steps to enhance Australia’s intelligence arrangements that flowed from the recommendations made by the Inquiry into Australian Intelligence Agencies, conducted during 2004 by Mr Philip Flood AO (the Flood Inquiry).

In July 2004, the government agreed to make the recommended changes, with the exception of a name change for the Office of National Assessments (ONA). The division worked quickly to coordinate advice for ministers on the implementation of the recommendations. As a result, the following measures were approved the next month:

• a timetable for amending intelligence-related legislation
• necessary additional resources for the ONA and other agencies
• terms of reference for the new ONA-chaired Foreign Intelligence Coordination Committee (FICC)
• a revised mandate for the Defence Intelligence Organisation
• six-monthly monitoring of progress by the department’s Cabinet Implementation Unit.

As recommended by the Flood Inquiry, a new annual cycle was agreed for resource allocation and for ministerial consideration of the intelligence agencies’ performance and foreign intelligence priorities. A new unit—Intelligence Projects—was established in the division to support ministers in this. The unit, working closely with the ONA in particular, contributes to advice to ministers on the agencies’ performance, priorities and resource needs. This group also supports the department’s representative (a deputy secretary) on the FICC. One early achievement was the implementation of the Flood Inquiry recommendation for the coordination of new national foreign intelligence priorities, which combines Defence and non-Defence priorities into a single structure for the first time.

The new unit also coordinated a review of the Intelligence Services Act 2001 recommended by the previous Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, Mr Bill Blick PSM. The outcomes of this review were considered by ministers in April 2005, and resulted in agreement on a significant number of amendments to correct or clarify aspects of the original legislation. The review also resulted in agreement to a number of changes to the current Parliamentary Joint Committee on ASIO, ASIS and DSD, including the expansion of its membership from seven to nine. Once enacted, the resulting Intelligence Services Legislation Amendment Bill will also implement all the legislative recommendations from the Flood Inquiry. This bill was introduced into parliament in June 2005.

Regional counter-terrorism cooperation

The year saw further significant strengthening of Australia’s links with regional countries to combat transnational terrorism.

The division worked with a range of Australian Government agencies to help coordinate Australia’s contribution of $36.8 million to the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement Cooperation, an international education and training institution. The centre, which opened in July 2004, greatly increases the ability of regional countries to respond to the complex challenges posed by transnational terrorism.

Before the 2004 election, the government announced a number of significant new measures to help combat terrorism in the Asia–Pacific region. The division worked with other agencies to assist with plans to implement these commitments, which include:

• providing $20 million to Indonesia and $10 million to the Philippines in counter-terrorism assistance over the next four years
• enhancing the regional capability of the Australian Federal Police at a cost of $102.7 million over five years
• establishing a Centre for Counter-terrorism Intelligence Cooperation and Training for Australia, South-East Asia and the Pacific, at a cost close to $20 million, over four years.

The division worked closely with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and other agencies to identify further measures to improve Australia’s regional counter-terrorism cooperation, for which additional funding of $40.3 million was allocated in the 2005–06 Budget.

We also provided advice to the Prime Minister and government on various other regional counter-terrorism issues, including:

• responses to National Threat Assessment Centre assessments of terrorist threats to Australians and Australian interests
• references to terrorist threats in travel advisories issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
• terrorist incidents, particularly the 2004 bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, and the 2005 kidnapping of Mr Douglas Wood in Baghdad, Iraq.

Counter-proliferation measures

Combating the threat of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) remained a high government priority. The division provided advice to the Prime Minister and government on a range of WMD proliferation issues, in particular:

• the enhancement of the Australian intelligence community’s ability to collect, coordinate and analyse information on the proliferation of WMD, as announced in the 2005–06 Budget
• Australia’s active role in the development of the Proliferation Security Initiative, including hosting the Operational Experts’ Meeting in November–December 2004
• Australia’s first report to the United Nations following adoption and implementation of United Nations Security Council resolution 1540 (2004), which seeks to prevent WMD proliferation
• Australia’s approach to the 2005 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty Review Conference
• the Iraq Survey Group’s WMD investigations
• International Atomic Energy Agency scrutiny of Iran’s nuclear activities, and the Iran–EU3 negotiations concerning them
• negotiation of the research, development, testing and evaluation annex to Australia’s memorandum of understanding with the United States that provides the framework for cooperation on United States missile defence
• regional developments, including the suspected North Korean nuclear weapons programme.

Strengthened domestic security

Considerable progress was made throughout 2004–05 on strengthening Australia’s domestic security against terrorism. The division’s key achievements in this area included the following.

• We took a leading role in the Council of Australian Governments review of security arrangements for hazardous materials in Australia, and helped to develop a nationally consistent approach to the implementation of the licensing system for security sensitive ammonium nitrate (SSAN). This included the preparation of detailed national guidance notes, template security plans, and a fact sheet for agricultural users of SSAN that is being translated into ten languages.
• The division provided advice to the Prime Minister on Providing for Australia’s Security, the package of national security measures in the 2005–06 Budget, and contributed to the development of the package.
• With the Attorney-General’s Department, we worked to implement a new phase of the National Security Public Information Campaign.
• We led a review into government communications during a crisis. The review examined the government’s ability to communicate effectively, both internally and with the public, during a national security emergency. It also examined the interoperability of communications for police and emergency services across Australia. The outcomes of the review complement Australia’s existing arrangements for continuity of government and crisis management.
• Throughout the year, the division provided advice to the Prime Minister about people smuggling in our region, offshore immigration processing facilities and Australia’s border security. We also continued to play a significant role in the interdepartmental People Smuggling Taskforce chaired by the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs.
• With the Department of Transport and Regional Services, we worked to develop the $48 million Securing our Regional Skies package, announced by the Deputy Prime Minister in August 2004.
• We provided advice to the Prime Minister about the comprehensive new aviation security regime that commenced in March 2005, and led an interdepartmental committee established by the Secretaries’ Committee on National Security to examine aviation security policy settings in the light of current threats to Australian civil aviation interests and the implementation of the new aviation security regime.
• With the Department of Transport and Regional Services, we worked to develop an agreement between all Australian governments on surface transport security arrangements.
• We provided advice to the Prime Minister on the development of the national guidelines for the protection of critical infrastructure from terrorism. The Prime Minister, premiers and chief ministers endorsed the guidelines in March 2005. We also worked with the Attorney-General’s Department to deliver threat assessment advice to the owners and operators of critical infrastructure.
• In cooperation with the Department of Transport and Regional Services, the Australian Customs Service and other agencies, we developed the $102 million package to strengthen Australia’s maritime security announced in July 2004.

Science, engineering and technology support for counter-terrorism

The Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) Unit was established in June 2003 to coordinate and focus science, engineering and technology to support Australia’s counter-terrorism needs. Staff have been seconded to the unit from the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, the Department of Education, Science and Training, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), the Australian Federal Police and the intelligence community.

The SET Unit’s funding programme, Research Support for Counter-terrorism, began in July 2004. The programme is currently funding a number of projects with Australian research organisations, including the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, CSIRO, a private company and a cooperative research centre.

The SET Unit continues to develop strong linkages with counter-terrorism stakeholders, including business, industry and Australian research groups. Through its website, the unit has received more than a hundred registrations, from more than seventy organisations, of capabilities or technologies that may have an application in counter-terrorism.

The unit is continuing to develop opportunities for international collaboration in counter-terrorism research and has reached the final stages of negotiation of a memorandum of understanding with the United States Technical Support Working Group for Combating Terrorism. The unit has begun discussions with the United States Government, through its Department of Homeland Security, on the development of a treaty-level agreement for cooperation in science and technology for domestic security.

The unit has also been assisting in the establishment of the Publicly Funded Agencies’ Collaborative Counter-terrorism (PACCT) research programme. This programme brings together the research expertise of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation, CSIRO, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation and Geoscience Australia. PACCT will increase collaboration between these agencies and provide benefit to Australia’s counter-terrorism community by using the agencies’ research capabilities and focusing on areas of strategic importance.

Taskforce on Offshore Maritime Security

Following a recommendation of the review of maritime security policy settings, a taskforce was established within the department to examine security arrangements for Australia’s offshore oil and gas facilities.

The taskforce, which completed its work in December 2004, developed a package of measures that build on existing border protection and maritime security initiatives. The new arrangements are being implemented progressively, and include the Australian Government taking direct responsibility for terrorism prevention, interdiction and response in offshore areas of Australia. This responsibility rests with the newly established Joint Offshore Protection Command, launched in March 2005, which draws on the resources of both the Australian Customs Service and the Australian Defence Force. The Joint Offshore Protection Command began augmented security patrols of oil and gas facilities in March 2005, initially concentrating on those on the Northwest Shelf and in the Timor Sea.

The taskforce also recommended that the provisions of the Maritime Transport Security Act 2003 be extended to Australia’s oil and gas facilities. Parliament is currently considering legislation to effect this extension, whereby the operators of oil and gas facilities will be regulated by the Department of Transport and Regional Services, and be required to carry out risk assessments and have approved security programmes in place.

Administered item—National Counter-terrorism Committee

The National Counter-terrorism Committee (NCTC) is a high-level national body, chaired by the department, comprising officials from relevant Australian Government agencies and agencies of the states and territories. The committee’s primary role is to coordinate a nationwide cooperative framework for efforts to counter terrorism and its consequences.

During 2004–05, the division—through a dedicated secretariat—supported NCTC meetings in December 2004 and May 2005, as well as a special teleconference held in the aftermath of the Australian embassy bombing of September 2004. In addition to these, the NCTC Secretariat supported two meetings of the NCTC Executive Committee, in February and April 2005.

The division also contributed to key NCTC-related activities, such as the planning and conduct of a major counter-terrorism exercise, Mercury 04.