Staffing levels at Australia’s peak intelligence oversight body are regressing, impeding its ability to ensure that national security agencies operate as intended within our democratic framework of institutions and laws.
Without enough people, the organisation, the Office of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, cannot monitor the agencies and assure ministers, Parliament and the public of their effective and legal operation.
Its 2023–24 annual report, released in September, revealed that staffing was below target and falling.
The office has extensive powers of investigation and access, including conducting inquiries, undertaking inspections and investigating complaints and public interest disclosures. Its powers are legislated under the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Act 1986 and are critical to oversight of Australia’s National Intelligence Community.
The office employs people with a wide range of skills, including legal, investigative, financial and technical capabilities.
Its understaffing was already evident two years ago. Things have got worse since then.
In the opening review of the Annual Report 2023-24, the current inspector-general, Christopher Jessup KC, reveals the office’s oversight teams had completed 77 inspections, fewer than planned and down from 91 in 2022–23.
Worryingly, the report also reveals that the planned expansion of the office from an average staffing level of 57 to 60 was not achieved. On 30 June 2024, it had only 39 permanent staff members.
Shockingly, the ongoing staffing level has in fact fallen for two years: it was 49 at the end of 2021–22 and 41 at the end of 2022–23. This is despite additional funding in 2018–19, 2023–24 and 2024–25 to expand its oversight and supporting capabilities, commensurate with extra spending in the intelligence community.
The report attributes the staffing deficit to factors including external labour market shortages, ongoing challenges with the Top-Secret vetting pipeline and increasing resignations. The resulting shortages affect operations and corporate functions.
These problems are not new and have been previously identified in successive annual reports. However, staffing deficits are not confined to the Office of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security. Recruitment and retention of staff across a range of skillsets is an ongoing challenge for other public sector agencies, including the National Intelligence Community.
While the inspector-general’s office is exploring new approaches to recruitment and retainment, the current understaffing damages the core institutional integrity and functioning of the office. The problem is even more acute because its jurisdiction has expanded in response to the 2017 Independent Intelligence Review and recommendations of the 2019 Comprehensive Review of the Legal Framework of the National Intelligence Community.
Hopefully, the overdue release of the unclassified 2024 independent review of Australia’s NIC will address these findings and provide further recommendations to ensure the inspector-general’s office has enough people and funding to perform effective oversight functions of the National Intelligence Community.
One helpful move could be limited expansion of the role of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security to help alleviate some of the burden on the inspector-general’s office.
If transparency and oversight remain important features of Australia’s intelligence community, the government needs to act decisively and urgently to ensure the office is in the best possible position to perform its function.