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Governance

Protecting the Privacy of Australians

DIGO is legally bound by the Intelligence Services Act 2011 (ISA), available at the ComLaw website.

The ISA provides the legal framework for the activities of the foreign intelligence collection agencies in the Australian Intelligence Community: the Defence Signals Directorate, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, and the Defence Imagery and Geospatial Organisation. The intention of the legislation is to regulate the intelligence activities of the agencies in a number of ways: special directions from their respective Ministers, rules about protecting the privacy of Australian persons, and some general limitations.

Under section 15 of the ISA, the Minister for Defence is required to make written rules regulating the communication and retention of intelligence information collected by DIGO that concerns Australian persons. These are known as the DIGO Privacy Rules.

You may read the DIGO Privacy Rules (244K PDF).

DIGO's Legal Accountability – Who Oversees DIGO's Activities?

DIGO's activities are overseen by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. The Inspector-General is mainly concerned with how DIGO conducts its intelligence activities, while the Parliamentary Joint Committee is concerned with DIGO's administration and expenditure.

Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS)

The Inspector-General is empowered by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Act 1986 (IGIS Act) (as amended in 2005) to provide independent assurance to the Australian Government, the Parliament and the Australian public that DIGO conducts its activities legally, behaves with propriety, complies with any directions from the Minister for Defence, and has regard for human rights (such as privacy).

To guarantee the independence of the Inspector-General, the IGIS Act provides that the position is appointed by the Governor-General and cannot be dismissed by the government. The Inspector-General is a key element of the accountability regime for DIGO. You can find out more information about the Inspector-General at www.igis.gov.au.

Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security

The ISA establishes the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security to allow members of Parliament to directly oversee some of the activities of DIGO. The committee is made up of members of the government and the opposition, drawn from both the House of Representatives and Senate.

The ISA contains rules about how the Committee conducts its business. In particular, the Committee cannot review the intelligence operations or priorities of DIGO; rather, it reviews the administration and expenditure of DIGO, including DIGO's financial statements. You can find out more information about the Committee at www.aph.gov.au/committee/.