On April 16 this year, a file for a security clearance was lost while it was being transported by a courier. The Australian Government Security Vetting Agency (AGSVA), which is responsible for security clearances, could not locate the file and had to tell the applicant to not engage with anyone claiming to be from the agency.
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The applicant was applying for a negative vetting 1 level, which allows holders to deal with classified information and documents up to “secret” level.
In another incident on December 17, 2019, a package containing two security files sent by a subcontracted vetting officer was temporarily lost, and then opened by a courier.
The incidents have been uncovered in a new audit by the National Audit Office, which in 2018 lashed the AGSVA for failing to protect insider threats and called for a major overhaul of its processes.
The AGSVA’s processing of security clearances for political staffers and public servants has for years been plagued by delays.
After undertaking a wide-scale audit in 2018, the National Audit Office found the AGSVA was unable to “effectively mitigate the government’s exposure to insider threats”. The waiting times in that year for positive vetting – the highest security clearance available – blew out to almost 18 months for non-complex cases and more than two years for complex cases.
The report recommended the Attorney-General’s Department and the Department of Defence establish a framework so security concerns about potential staffers could be shared with the agency looking to employ them.
Of the six recommendations in 2018, Defence has implemented four and partly implemented two. This included “risk mitigation activities” that had not yet been completed, while reporting on the management of risks to other areas of government was also not happening.
Mr Gyngell, a career intelligence official and diplomat said on Tuesday the restrictive nature of the security clearance system is a “looming problem”.
“It is much harder for people who have families anywhere overseas, not just China, but other parts of the world as well to get those security clearances because at the highest level they are highly intrusive and require detailed inquiries into contacts,” Mr Gyngell said.
“All of us have heard anecdotal evidence that Chinese-Australians have decided no ‘I’m not going to get anywhere in the public service’. That is a great waste of talent for us.
Allan Gyngell, former head of the ONA.Credit:Yuri Gripas
“I do think we need to address the issue of security clearances and how to make it easier for Asian Australians and Chinese Australians to get them.”
Mr Sharma said as a Department of Foreign Affairs official he had Chinese-Australian staff that had waited 6 months longer than their counterparts for security clearances. He said there were significant resourcing pressures on the system compounding the problem.
“We probably need to bring a bit more automation, artificial intelligence … to some of the vetting that we do,” he said.
“People get credit risks and assessments based on a whole lot of data that is available. We need to start doing a bit more machine automation around some of these processes and then leave it to the human element for security clearances for the most risky categories.”
Anthony is foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Eryk Bagshaw is the China correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Due to travel restrictions, he is currently based in Canberra.
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