page_title: Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
section_title: Command, control and organisation
hierarchical_section_title: Australian Security Intelligence Organisation / Command, control and organisation
caption_attribution_description: Front entrance of the building that houses the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the Office of National Assessments (ONA). This image has been digitally altered to remove identifying features from windows and background at the request of ASIO's Media Liaison Section when permission was given for the image's creation and distribution.
context_page_description: The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is Australia's national security agency responsible for the protection of the country and its citizens from espionage, sabotage, acts of foreign interference, politically motivated violence, attacks on the Australian defence system, and terrorism. ASIO is comparable to the British Security Service and the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation. ASIO is part of the Australian Intelligence Community.
  ASIO has a wide range of surveillance powers to collect human and signals intelligence. Generally, ASIO operations requiring police powers of arrest and detention under warrant are co-ordinated with the Australian Federal Police and/or with state and territory police forces.
  ASIO Central Office is in Canberra, with a local office being located in each mainland state and territory capital. A new A$630 million Central Office, Ben Chifley Building, named after Ben Chifley, prime minister when ASIO was created, was officially opened by then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 23 July 2013.
context_section_description: ASIO is the statutory body established and regulated under the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Act 1979, responsible to the Parliament of Australia through the Department of Home Affairs. ASIO also reports to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee and is subject to independent review by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security. The head of ASIO is the Director-General of Security, who oversees the strategic management of ASIO within guidelines issued by the Attorney-General. The current Director-General of Security is Mike Burgess, who assumed office on 16 September 2019. There are also two Deputy Directors-General.
  In 2013, ASIO had a staff of around 1,740. The identity of ASIO officers, apart from the Director-General, remains an official secret. While ASIO is an equal opportunity employer, there has been some media comment of its apparent difficulty in attracting people from a Muslim or Middle Eastern background. Furthermore, ASIO has undergone a period of rapid growth with some 70% of its officers having joined since 2002, leading to what Paul O'Sullivan, Director-General of Security from 2005 to 2009, called 'an experience gap'.
caption: The ASIO's old Central Office
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