National Observer Home > No. 42 - Spring 1999 > Editorial Comment

Asio — a Damaging Relic

The Wispelaere case, involving the attempted sale by a former Australian Defence Intelligence Organisation employee of highly classified documents, has again drawn attention to the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (A.S.I.O).

Many years ago A.S.I.O. was a respected organisation, held in high regard by security and intelligence organisations in other parts of the world. After the Lionel Murphy raid (Murphy being a Soviet agent of influence) A.S.I.O. lost the confidence of other organisations. Subsequently it became politicised, in the sense that for political reasons it was prevented from carrying out effective screening and security and intelligence operations, at the instance of followers of Murphy.

At the same time A.S.I.O. became replete with moles. Attempts have been made in recent times to prevent the scandalous penetrations of A.S.I.O. from being made public. However foreign intelligence services have long accepted that sensitive information provided to A.S.I.O. would be likely to find its way to Soviet or other communist recipients. The supply of such information to A.S.I.O. has hence justifiably been curtailed.

As the example of the Wispelaere case shows, vetting by A.S.I.O. has become a matter for humour. Indeed, A.S.I.O. is now worse than useless; first, because its existence causes uninformed people to believe that an efficient and useful organisation exists, whereas A.S.I.O. comprises merely self-concerned bureaucrats, interested predominantly in their own promotions and pensions; and secondly, because despite its uselessness, it costs taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars which are impossible to justify.

The Australian Federal Police has long been regarded as an efficient and well directed organisation. A.S.I.O. should be wound up without undue delay so that the minimal functions that it now purports to perform can be taken over by the Australian Federal Police, with efficiency and without moles.

National Observer No. 42 - Spring 1999