The head of the Australian Signals Directorate is attempting to assure people the intelligence agency is not seeking the power to conduct mass community surveillance, while also declaring that “not all Australians are the good guys”.
With the government planning new laws which would allow the ASD to help federal police target alleged Australian criminals, Rachel Noble will use a speech on Tuesday to say her agency does have “very intrusive capabilities”, which means a degree of transparency is important to maintain the trust of the Australian people.
Noble, the ASD director general, will tell an audience at the Australian National University that the “threat to our way of life is more real today than at any time I have known in my career”.
She will say her agency’s focus remains on foreign intelligence and it is a matter for the domestic spy agency Asio “to concern itself with Australians who may pose a threat to our way of life”.
But she will also say that the ASD’s existing ability to collect intelligence about Australians has been public for 20 years.
Existing laws impose strict limits, however, with the ASD required to seek ministerial authorisation before…
