In recent years, ASIS has evolved significantly in order to deliver successful intelligence outcomes in response to an expanding scope of requirements placed on us by the Australian Government. Across the board, ASIS's secret intelligence services have made important contributions to the Government’s understanding of, and policy responses to, a wide range of international developments. In an increasingly inter-connected global environment, I see the demand for intelligence to inform Government policies continuing to grow.
Some of the key intelligence services ASIS provides include:
- the collection and distribution of secret intelligence from covert human sources overseas (HUMINT);
- the official exchange of intelligence with foreign liaison partners;
- the conduct of Whole-of-Government joint operations with other members of the Australian Intelligence Community (AIC) or joint activities with foreign liaison partners; and,
- the provision of intelligence support to the Australian Department of Defence, including its military deployments overseas.
The method, or combination of methods, we use to meet specific intelligence requirements can depend on a wide range of factors, including the nature of the operational opportunity, our potential access to relevant intelligence through existing sources, the time sensitivity of the specific intelligence requirement, the associated level of security and counter-intelligence risk, the financial costs and broader policy considerations.
ASIS’s customers have, overall, expressed high levels of satisfaction with our intelligence services. This is a testament to the enthusiasm and professionalism of all officers in the Service, and to their ability to rapidly develop new capabilities to meet emerging demands. They are a talented, 'can-do' group of people.
With the Government requiring an increasing range of activities from ASIS, and with our staff now in fields of operation not considered even a few years ago, we are at a very exciting and challenging time in the history of the Service. The key to meeting these challenges has been ASIS's ability to grow as an organisation and recruit the right number and types of people. I am delighted that, during a period of such exceptional change and growth, we have been able to maintain and develop further our unique and energetic esprit de corps.
While this level of growth presents its own challenges, and while there remain many and varied demands upon ASIS at the current time, I am increasingly confident that ASIS can continue to serve Australia's national interests in a constantly evolving international environment.
