The spy agency Asio will take over issuing the highest level security clearances in Australia in response to what the government calls “the unprecedented threat from espionage and foreign interference”.
The government revealed the plans in a bill introduced to parliament on Wednesday, saying the new process would “reduce the risk of compromise of trusted insiders”.
While the Aukus nuclear-powered submarine plans were not specifically mentioned, the government’s notes to parliament said that the measures would help “ensure the ongoing confidence of our most trusted allies”.
The legislation will make the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) responsible for issuing, maintaining and revoking Australia’s highest level of security clearance, known as “positive vetting”.
This will replace the function currently performed by a range of agencies, including the Australian Government Security Vetting Agency, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, the Australian federal police and the Office of National Intelligence (ONI).
The laws governing Asio will be updated to allow the agency to make security clearance decisions “for Asio and non-Asio personnel alike” and to conduct security vetting and assessment on an ongoing basis.
Asio will be allowed to communicate with other agencies that sponsor security clearances, as part of attempts to prevent the risk of “trusted insiders” going rogue.
The government’s explanatory notes said the changes were “critical to enabling the ongoing, rather than point-in-time, validation of an individual’s suitability for a security clearance”.
The notes said commonwealth agencies were currently prohibited from using Asio advice to take permanent action, such as restricting access to information or places, except in certain circumstances.
“This makes it more difficult for Asio and clearance sponsors to deal with security threats as and when they arise,” the notes said.
“As changes in an individual’s suitability go unreported, risks accumulate … and may in extreme cases result in a clearance subject being found no longer suitable only after a significant risk has materialised.”
The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, said the reforms would “harden access to Australia’s most sensitive information, capabilities and secrets”.
“At a time when Australia is being targeted by espionage and foreign interference more than any other time in Australia’s history, the Albanese government is taking decisive action to protect the commonwealth’s most privileged information, capabilities and secrets,” she said.
O’Neil said the bill would provide new review processes for those who apply for security clearances by Asio.
O’Neil said a quality assurance office would be set up in the ONI “responsible for independently assuring the quality, consistency and transferability of Australia’s highest level security clearances”.
The head of Asio, Mike Burgess, said last month that his agency was taking a “more aggressive counterespionage posture” while urging people who held security clearances to lift their game.
In his annual threat assessment speech, Burgess said his team had scanned professional networking sites and “identified nearly 16,000 Australians publicly declaring they have a security clearance”. He said this practice was “reckless” and made those individuals high-value targets for foreign spies.
Burgess said that since the announcement of the Aukus partnership with the US and the UK 18 months ago, security agencies had noticed “a distinct uptick in the online targeting of people working in Australia’s defence industry”.
Last month Guardian Australia revealed the government had imposed strict new security rules at the Adelaide site where nuclear-powered submarines will be built, to reassure allies that sensitive military secrets will be protected.
