{"id":39064,"date":"2018-05-04T12:30:08","date_gmt":"2018-05-04T02:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=39064"},"modified":"2018-05-04T12:33:22","modified_gmt":"2018-05-04T02:33:22","slug":"the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers\/","title":{"rendered":"The AFP and CT: it matters who watches the watchers"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

In an earlier post, we argued that with the forging of the Turnbull government\u2019s Home Affairs portfolio, the time was right to question the policy assumptions underpinning Australia\u2019s domestic security strategies. And with that, we explored the effects of the conflation of policing and law enforcement<\/a>. With the launch of ASPI\u2019s Counterterrorism Yearbook 2018<\/em><\/a>, we now examine how increased cooperation between law enforcement and intelligence agencies in Australia may be\u2014unintentionally\u2014securitising policing and undermining its independence.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s law enforcement and intelligence communities have historically evolved and operated in fundamentally dissimilar ways. Each community has had different legal authorities, internal modes of organisation and governing paradigms.<\/p>\n

Prior to 11\u00a0September\u00a02001, Australia\u2019s counterterrorism (CT) apparatus had a much lower public profile. Many state, territory and Commonwealth agencies had CT responsibilities, but for the most part the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) was Canberra\u2019s lead agency on the issue.<\/p>\n

Putting aside the absurd claims that Australia is becoming a \u2018police state<\/a>\u2019, terror threats since 11\u00a0September have served as a catalyst for greater cooperation between police and intelligence officials.<\/p>\n

Australia\u2019s current CT\u00a0policy framework ensures that ASIO still has a loud voice and much influence on Canberra\u2019s strategy setting and operational decision-making. That said, law enforcement contributions\u2014by the AFP and other agencies\u2014are highly valued by the government and policymakers alike. However, the commitment to Team Australia<\/a> \u2018jointness\u2019\u2014the Coalition government\u2019s catch cry for a collaborative policy space\u2014may be homogenising the policy voices.<\/p>\n

Despite Australia\u2019s long history of separate police and intelligence communities, it would be false to claim that policing is far removed from CT\u00a0intelligence operations. Consider the use of control orders, preventative detention and warrantless searches of private property. Certainly these laws haven\u2019t been widely used<\/a> since\u00a02005: control orders have been used six times, preventative detention has never been used federally and, as far as we know, no warrantless search has ever been conducted.<\/p>\n

Arguably, extraordinary powers such as these should be considered the tools of intelligence agencies like ASIO, which use them sparingly to disrupt the most serious of threats. That leaves aside delayed notification search warrants and preventative detention orders, which fall under the jurisdiction of the Australian Federal Police (AFP). But now there are more than a few police who\u2019d like to be able to use these extraordinary powers to pursue transnational organised crime targets.<\/p>\n

The increasingly closer policing and intelligence CT\u00a0relationship is manifest elsewhere in Australia\u2019s security and intelligence architecture. Firstly, the Office of National Intelligence<\/a> will have greater coordination responsibilities for strategy and capability development across Australia\u2019s intelligence and security agencies than the Office of National Assessments ever had. Its coordination remit will likely include at least some oversight of the intelligence collection functions of other agencies such as the AFP. That architecture lends itself to continuing the trend of mainstreaming law enforcement into national security.<\/p>\n

Secondly, the shifting of the CT\u00a0mandate from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement<\/a> (PJCLE) to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security<\/a> (PJCIS) speaks to the overlap of policing with national security.<\/p>\n

The PJCLE was established in 2010\u00a0to monitor and review the performance of the AFP. The PJCIS was established by the Intelligence Services Act<\/em> 2001<\/em><\/a> and reviews the administration, activities and expenditure of Australia\u2019s security architecture, including ASIO.<\/p>\n

In 2014, the Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security recommended that its oversight mandate be extended to include the AFP\u2019s CT\u00a0functions. The recommendation came after the government introduced the Counter-Terrorism Legislation Amendment (Foreign Fighters) Bill 2014<\/em><\/a>. The committee emphasised that the extension of its oversight powers would be additional to\u2014rather than a substitute for\u2014those of the Joint Committee on Law Enforcement. But the government conferred all oversight authority for the AFP\u2019s CT\u00a0functions\u2014that is, those that fall under Section 5.3 of the criminal code<\/a>\u2014from the law enforcement committee to the intelligence and security committee.<\/p>\n

This conferral of authority hasn\u2019t been without controversy<\/a>. The PJCIS clearly has a legitimate interest in the CT\u00a0activities of the AFP. But, placing the AFP\u2019s CT\u00a0activities within the remit of the PJCIS jeopardises public perceptions of police independence in matters of security policy, strategy and operations.<\/p>\n

Inevitably the AFP\u2019s CT\u00a0activities overlap with the functions of other Commonwealth law enforcement agencies, as well as those of state and territory police forces. While not a new phenomenon, the overlap between the AFP and intelligence agencies like ASIO has also increased, and is now more accurately described as a collaboration. This has been a major factor in blurring the lines of parliamentary oversight responsibilities. This conflation of law enforcement with CT\u00a0activities threatens to further securitise Australia\u2019s police.<\/p>\n

The AFP\u2019s international police-to-police cooperation programs have always been underpinned by a global understanding that the agency was neither an intelligence agency nor a security service. At the very least, the PJCIS arrangement has undermined the strength of this argument.<\/p>\n

In the short term the simplest way to reinforce the independence of Australia\u2019s police is to transfer the oversight responsibility for\u00a0CT back to the PJCLE. At the very least, this should be done for the law enforcement elements. This would serve to reiterate that\u00a0CT isn\u2019t an existential threat to Australia\u2019s domestic security, and that our police aren\u2019t part of our security apparatus.<\/p>\n

In the longer term, consideration needs to be given to whether the role of the PJCLE ought to be expanded to focus on oversight of Australia\u2019s home affairs arrangements more broadly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an earlier post, we argued that with the forging of the Turnbull government\u2019s Home Affairs portfolio, the time was right to question the policy assumptions underpinning Australia\u2019s domestic security strategies. And with that, we …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":310,"featured_media":39065,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[273,988],"class_list":["post-39064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-counterterrorism","tag-policing"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe AFP and CT: it matters who watches the watchers | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The AFP and CT: it matters who watches the watchers | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In an earlier post, we argued that with the forging of the Turnbull government\u2019s Home Affairs portfolio, the time was right to question the policy assumptions underpinning Australia\u2019s domestic security strategies. And with that, we ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-05-04T02:30:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-05-04T02:33:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Oversight.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"639\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"314\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Coyne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Coyne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Oversight.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Oversight.png\",\"width\":639,\"height\":314},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers\/\",\"name\":\"The AFP and CT: it matters who watches the watchers | The Strategist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-05-04T02:30:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-05-04T02:33:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/a67980596297e3db4ad0b3fde70aa778\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The AFP and CT: it matters who watches the watchers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/a67980596297e3db4ad0b3fde70aa778\",\"name\":\"John Coyne\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e84af569f04d25615d1447d4fe1908a9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e84af569f04d25615d1447d4fe1908a9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Coyne\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/john-coyne\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The AFP and CT: it matters who watches the watchers | The Strategist","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The AFP and CT: it matters who watches the watchers | The Strategist","og_description":"In an earlier post, we argued that with the forging of the Turnbull government\u2019s Home Affairs portfolio, the time was right to question the policy assumptions underpinning Australia\u2019s domestic security strategies. And with that, we ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers\/","og_site_name":"The Strategist","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org","article_published_time":"2018-05-04T02:30:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-05-04T02:33:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":639,"height":314,"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Oversight.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"John Coyne","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ASPI_org","twitter_site":"@ASPI_org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Coyne","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/","name":"The Strategist","description":"ASPI's analysis and commentary site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Oversight.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Oversight.png","width":639,"height":314},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers\/","name":"The AFP and CT: it matters who watches the watchers | The Strategist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2018-05-04T02:30:08+00:00","dateModified":"2018-05-04T02:33:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/a67980596297e3db4ad0b3fde70aa778"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-afp-and-ct-it-matters-who-watches-the-watchers\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The AFP and CT: it matters who watches the watchers"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/a67980596297e3db4ad0b3fde70aa778","name":"John Coyne","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e84af569f04d25615d1447d4fe1908a9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e84af569f04d25615d1447d4fe1908a9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"John Coyne"},"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/john-coyne\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39064"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/310"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39064"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39064\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39066,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39064\/revisions\/39066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}