Page 59 - Australian Defence Magazine March 2019

Critics of the new ONI architecture argue that the centrality of the intelligence assess- ment process—so integral to the culture of the old ONA—is now likely to take a back seat to the enterprise management mission in the new organisation. They also ques- tion the rationale for this hugely enlarged coordination function as an unnecessary encumbrance for an intelligence commu- nity that is already more intertwined and collegiate than at any time in its history.
NIC
ONI now oversees a greatly expanded intel- ligence community officially known as the National Intelligence Community (NIC). The original six agencies: the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation (AGO), ASD, ASIO, ASIS, the Defence In- telligence Organisation (DIO) and ONA/ ONI have now been joined by the intelli- gence functions of the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the Department of Home Affairs—principally the Australian Border Force and the Office of Transport Securi- ty—together with the Australian Criminal
Intelligence Commis- sion (ACIC) and the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTR AC), Australia’s financial in- telligence agency.
Bringing AUS-
TRAC and the ACIC
into the intelligence
fold is long overdue with the cost of organ- ised crime to Australia now running at an estimated $36 billion a year. All of these newcomers to the NIC are located within the Home Affairs portfolio.
Besides its core task of providing gov- ernment with national intelligence assess- ments, the greatly enlarged ONI will also determine the priorities for Australian intelligence collection, drive more efficient budget spending and evaluate the perfor- mance of all NIC agencies. It will direct capability investment planning for the NIC including collaborative efforts in ar- eas such as data analytics and ICT connec- tivity. That’s the vision but a big question
mark remains over how much financial authority Warner will have to influence the spending and investment priorities of individual agencies.
The seamless integration of our intelli- gence agencies into a genuinely national enterprise could also be threatened by the behemoth that is the new Home Af- fairs portfolio with its 23,500 staff and a departmental budget topping $3 bil- lion budget. Malcolm Turnbull’s July 2017 announcement of the creation of Home Affairs blindsided many in the intelligence world as well as coming as a surprise to the authors of the 2017 Intel- ligence Review.
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www.australiandefence.com.au | March 2019 | 59
“Around 40 per cent of the enlarged NIC now falls under the Home Affairs umbrella including ASIO.”