Office of National Intelligence Bill 2018 and the Office of National Intelligence (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2018
The submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee of Intelligence and Security regarding its inquiry into the Office of National Intelligence Bill 2018 (the Bill) and the Office of National Intelligence (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2018 (the Consequential Bill) was prepared by the Law Council of Australia.
The Law Council acknowledges the assistance of its National Criminal Law Committee in the preparation of this submission.
The Law Council has also had the benefit of examining the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security’s (IGIS) submission and the Joint submission of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Office of National Assessments (the Joint Submission) to the Committee regarding its inquiry.
The Bill, if enacted, would create the Office of National Intelligence (ONI) further to a recommendation of the 2017 Independent Intelligence Review conducted by Mr Michael L’Estrange AO and Mr Stephen Merchant PSM. ONI would replace the current Office of National Assessments (ONA) and ONI’s proposed functions include:
- leading the national intelligence community;
- carrying out evaluations;
- assessing, correlating and analysing international and domestic matters of political, strategic or economic significance to Australia;
- advising the Prime Minister of intelligence matters; and
- open source collection.
You can read the full submission below.