May 24, 2023
One of Australia's top spies has flagged plans to centralise top security clearances will require shared resourcing, adding the domestic spy service is "not here as a charity".
Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil introduced a bill in March that would centralise responsibility for the country's highest-level clearances within the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation.
The changes would bring the five agencies undertaking vetting processes for the top-secret, privileged access clearance under the one set of rules.
Director-general Mike Burgess told Senate estimates on Tuesday the work would be undertaken within existing resources and each agency would be sharing the load.
Liberal senator James Paterson asked whether an expected rise in security clearance applications as a result of the AUKUS project and the Australian Signals Directorate's REDSPICE project would place pressure on ASIO's resources.
Mr Burgess said he was content with the current levels of funding but his team were working on cost models in the event demand increased.
"ASIO is not here as a charity to do extra clearances for other people," he said.
"We're [the five agencies] each funding our own clearances.
"As the demand increases, we will have an operating model and a cost model. So if people need to do more, they will have to hand over the resource to do it."
The federal government's security vetting system has been plagued with backlogs for years as wait times grow more sharply in response to roles having higher access requirements.
But the focus of the proposed changes to top-level access processing isn't solely on speed.
Deputy director-general of vetting services Ewan Macmillan said it will wait to see what its clearance rates end up being.
"We're not doing this to increase speed, we'll take the time it takes to make the right decision," Mr Macmillan said on Tuesday.
"But of course, we anticipate that as we centralise, there will be efficiencies, and there will be streamlining that will overall increase productivity, but it's too early to give any firm predictions on what that would be."
Timelines can draw out to as long as two years for some applicants applying for top-level clearance.
The head of Australia's spy watchdog, Christopher Jessop, described the process last October as a "black box, which left it at greater risk of losing recruits.
Mr Burgess offered no guarantee the process would be improved but said his agency had a self-interest in processing applications as quickly as possible.
"As a chief executive of an agency that requires, on the clearance process, to be timely and effective even I would be making noises of my own people and our colleagues joining us on this endeavour to make sure we are able to recruit the talent we need," Mr Burgess said.
"We will self monitor because there's self interest."
Upon introducing the bill in March, Ms O'Neil said it was important to reform the vetting process for the highest-level security clearances in response to the growing threat of foreign interference and espionage.
Mr Burgess later described the ambitious AUKUS plan as a "great shiny example" foreign intelligence services were looking to gather intelligence on.
"Defence was always a target of foreign intelligence services and obviously, AUKUS is a great shiny example of something that foreign intelligence services would like to get insights on," he said.
"The threats are a very constant real threat to any defence information, including AUKUS, and Defence are very aware of that.
"I have people embedded in the AUKUS team in Defence that actually help Defence with their security posture, not because it's my responsibility, because security is a shared responsibility."
