The intelligence watchdog's staff of just 17 people has "not kept pace" with its growing workload in keeping a check on the nation's thousands of spies, a major intelligence review has found.
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Dutton wins big in national security shake-up
Peter Dutton receives a super-sized Home Affairs portfolio that will take responsibility for immigration, security, police agencies including ASIO, the federal police and border force.
The review, released this week, has urged the Turnbull government to triple the Office of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security to 50 staff, in particular to allow it to carry out more random spot checks on the agencies.
The review by Michael L'Estrange and Stephen Merchant also recommends greater parliamentary oversight with an MPs' committee able to ask the watchdog to investigate particular spy operations.
Co-author Mr Merchant, a former long-serving defence and intelligence official, said he had "no reservations about the capability" of the watchdog - known as the IGIS.
"But both Michael and I came fairly quickly to the view that it just wasn't large enough to deal with the range of agencies that in our view constitute the intelligence community," he said.
"One advantage of increasing the number of staff would be to enable random and ad hoc inspections to be undertaken. They have access to everything but their capacity to even randomly sample that material is constrained by their numbers."
The report states that "resourcing of the IGIS Office has not kept pace with the functions it is tasked to perform".
![ASIO Director-General of Security Duncan Lewis and Attorney-General Senator George Brandis in May.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170725031843im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/h/6/h/5/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxg7ld.png/1500622029863.jpg)
It recommends that the expanded IGIS be tasked with keeping check on additional agencies including the intelligence arms of the Australian Federal Police and Immigration and Border Protection. Presently it covers ASIO, ASIS, the Office of National Assessments, the Australian Signals Directorate, the Defence Intelligence Organisation and the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation.Â
When the additional agencies are included the intelligence community numbers about 7000 officers.
![Labor MP Anthony Byrne puts a question to Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security during a committee hearing.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170725031843im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/g/9/4/q/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxg7ld.png/1500622029863.jpg)
The current Inspector-General is former Federal Court judge Margaret Stone, who declined to comment. The office has royal commission powers and can compel spies to answer questions and demand to see documents. It carries out routine inspections and handles complaints.
Its staff have top-level security clearances and some are former intelligence officers.
![The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Margaret Stone.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170725031843im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/l/q/q/5/q/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gxg7ld.png/1500622029863.jpg)
He said Australia's spy agencies were professional and conscientious but oversight was vital for to maintain public trust and confidence as "an important facet of democracy".
The review also recommended strengthening the role of the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security, most importantly by giving it the power to ask the IGIS to "conduct an inquiry into the legality and propriety of particular operational activities".
But Labor MP and committee deputy chair Anthony Byrne said the committee should itself be able to scrutinise operations.
"We have a system of intelligence oversight that mirrors the UK and US and yet we are the only committee that does not have the power to inquire into operational activities of the agencies," he said.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said he will consider the review's recommendations as he establishes a new Home Affairs super-ministry.
The Home Affairs Minister-designate Peter Dutton will have oversight of ASIO, the AFP and Australian Border Force but Attorney-General George Brandis will continue to sign ASIO warrants.
Mr Turnbull said this would make the Attorney-General "the minister for integrity, the minister for oversight" who could better focus on his role protecting the rule of law.
But a 2015 counter-terrorism review by Mr Turnbull's own department warned this arrangement would create risks because the Attorney-General would be scrutinising warrant applications without regular and detailed insight into ASIO's covert activities.
"The level of assurance the Attorney-General can provide in his oversight of operations is dependent on a well-developed understanding of the operational tools available," it stated.
"Separating operational oversight from the Attorney-General's portfolio risks breaking down this understanding."