One of the many reasons the national security agencies were so deeply resistant to being placed under Pezzullo’s jurisdiction in the Department of Home Affairs is that their leaders – Duncan Lewis at ASIO and Andrew Colvin at the AFP – understood that the effectiveness of their work depended on a high level of public trust. For ASIO in particular – which,as a covert agency cannot have the same degree of public scrutiny as other government agencies – this was a particular worry. Lewis understood that it is critical for ASIO’s effective operation that the public have implicit faith that it would not abuse its power.
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And this was another boundary Pezzullo failed to grasp:that there is a critical balance between empowering national security agencies to enable them to do their job,and not so over-reaching that trust in them is lost. Finding the right fulcrum of that balance is what I tried to achieve as attorney-general – much,as it is now revealed,to Pezzullo’s frustration. He thought that national security policy should be as hawkish as possible. The true test of national security policy is that it should be as effective as possible. Pezzullo failed to understand that it is possible to compromise effectiveness by over-reach.
Whatever happens to Pezzullo now – his position is plainly untenable,since no minister,Labor or Liberal,will ever be able to trust him again – one good outcome of this sorry affair would be to reverse the policy error of the Turnbull government to remove ASIO from the attorney-general’s portfolio,where it has historically lain. Having the agency which can,by its nature,be least open to public scrutiny within the department of government whose core function is to protect the rule of law,is a sensible and logical fit.
The Pezzullo revelations show,with appalling clarity,how important it is not just for our democracy,but for our national security as well,that the public be confident that those who exercise covert power understand the importance of limits.
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George Brandis is a former Liberal senator and federal attorney-general. He is now a professor in the practice of national security at the ANU’s National Security College.