Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 16:06, 10 June 2009

Template:Prune

This article may relate to a different subject or has undue weight on an aspect of the subject. Please help relocate relevant information and remove irrelevant content.

An ASIO file is a file compiled by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. These files are known to record the habits and movements of a person or persons of interest to ASIO. Older files present as log-like written documents. A file can be supplemented by digital, video, film, photographic and audio material.

The term is colloquial in origin and now used formally. The terms 'ASIO file' and 'ASIO files' appear in fact sheets 33, 52 and 53, published by the Australian Government National Archives of Australia.

Less frequently the term can be applied to other file types kept by ASIO, including events and other phenomena.

What does an ASIO file look like?

ASIO files that subjects have obtained, and have been filmed or photographed by mainstream news media, take the form of paper files with censored content. Because ASIO files can generally only be released to the public after a period of 30 years under Australia's Archives Act, these known files have the appearance of typed paperwork created over a period ending in the late 1970's.

Description of an ASIO file page

The file page originally shown in this article was a request form of some type, requesting information be added to a subject's file. A description of the page follows:

• Type-face: all upper case and bold. Page headed A.S.I.O. in print similar to the Arial font but more likely to be Helvetica (Arial was designed in 1982 and Helvetica in 1957). 'Inward Message' sub-heads the page in a more elaborate type-face.
• Date: appears to have been stamped (upper right corner). Year digits indistinct, showing a date of 14 Dec, just 11 days before Christmas.
• Stamps: the page had three stamps. A date stamp, an 'urgent' stamp (upper case), and a circulation stamp.
• Hand writing: the page showed six hand written annotations, reference numbers and what could be initials.

Censored rectangular, black ink, blocks appear frequently throughout subjects' files in other images released to the public. Entire paragraphs may be censored in this way.

How long is an ASIO file?

Accounts from people who have obtained pages of their ASIO files are indicative only, as subjects have invariably only obtained parts of their files. Files certainly can run into hundreds of pages and well known Sydney proprietor Bob Gould's is said to run to 8000 pages.

How accurate is an ASIO file?

This article may relate to a different subject or has undue weight on an aspect of the subject. Please help relocate relevant information and remove irrelevant content.

People who have obtained parts of their files say their files contain notable inaccuracies and considerable censured content. A royal commission into ASIO conducted in the 1970's corroborates subjects observations' and supports the view that the files are frequently inaccurate. Justice Robert Hope of the enquiry wrote that ASIO, between 1949 when it was formed and the mid 1970's when the enquiry was conducted, "could not be taken seriously as an efficient organisation". He also wrote that "ASIO has pursued radicals beyond what is required to obtain security". George Brownbill, Justice Hope's deputy, recalled that "ASIO files disclosed numerous cases where gossip and tittle-tattle about people and their so-called communist sympathies was recounted to certain figures in the Menzies governments... as we found out later and with more detailed inquiry, much of this was no more than slander under privilege."

The National Archives of Australia has, in consultation with ASIO, negotiated a process and subjects of files may now submit a written statement outlining as clearly and concisely as possible any inaccuracies they believe their file (or a file of a deceased spouse or parent) contains. The National Archives cannot change the contents of the file but will add the subject's statement to the file. The subject's statement should only address material already in the file.

Who can an ASIO file be about?

ASIO has kept, and appears to still keep, files on a wide range of people. ASIO seems interested in almost anyone. Subjects have included artists, scientists, doctors and political activists.

How can an ASIO file be obtained?

Anecdotal evidence suggests a suspected ASIO file can be obtained by requesting it. The Archives Act may be of assistance. Successful file owners seem to have taken a direct approach. Contacting the National Archives may help.. Tenacity may be required.

This article may relate to a different subject or has undue weight on an aspect of the subject. Please help relocate relevant information and remove irrelevant content.

Phillip Adams, an interviewer with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and newspaper columnist in The Australian, wrote he was given part of his ASIO file after attending a public event as a speaker at the National Archives in Canberra in 2005. Mr Adams' file pages were presented to him by officials of the National Archives. Mr Adams says he approached ASIO many times over many years asking for his file. He believes ASIO began monitoring him when he was 16 years old. Mr Adams emphasises that his file was given to him by the National Archives and not by ASIO.

On November 5, 2007 reports appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald and Brisbane Times newspapers claiming Chicka Dixon had obtained 150 pages of his ASIO file, covering a period in the 1960s and 70s when he was actively involved as a leader of the indigenous rights movement. The files are, Mr Dixon says, wildly inaccurate. Mr Dixon had long suspected his movements were being monitored by ASIO. At the time of writing this article the author is uncertain what steps Mr Dixon took to obtain pages of his file. Mr Dixon is reported to have always been very open with the knowledge that ASIO was interested in him.

Others who have obtained parts of their files include Aboriginal activists Charles Perkins and Faith Bandler, activist and Melbourne academic Gary Foley and author Michael Hyde.

On 23 February 2008 the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported in a Good Weekend lifestyle article that artist Mary Hammond went to Canberra in 2003 to ask for her file, reporting she was given 41 pages of it. An article published by The Age dated July 2003 states Mary Hammond's file was obtained by a friend. Ms Hammond was unaware she had been followed by ASIO during early monitoring of her movements but became aware of the possibility during the Vietnam War protests. She said of her file "there are things here that are totally wrong". A photograph of Mary holding her file showed black censure ink had been applied in large blocks to her file.

Others who have gained access to security assessments from ASIO, or had their assessments revised, include US peace activist Scott Parkin and Iraqi asylum seekers Mohammed Sagar and Muhammad Faisal, who launched civil action against the Director-General of Security in the Federal Court to overturn adverse security assessments. Mr Parkin's lawyers were first granted access to his files in November 2006. ASIO refused to hand over documents and in November 2007 the court ordered discovery of a number of ASIO documents. ASIO subsequently appealed to the full court. ASIO's appeal was overturned again in July 2008.

The National Archives' role

The National Archives describes its role as being 'to help Australian Government agencies create and manage their records, to select the most valuable records created by Australian Government agencies to become part of the national archival collection, to store, describe and preserve the national archival collection and... to make records in the national archival collection that are over 30 years old publicly available'.

Under the Archives Act 1983, most records can be released to the public after 30 years unless they fall into any of 16 exemption categories (as itemised in section 33 of the Archives Act).

References

Footnotes

1. ^ National Archives fact sheet.
2. ^ Sydney Morning Herald, Dani Valent, Feb 23, 2008 "Favourite things" page 55 Good Living, shows photograph of Mary Hammond holding ASIO file with censored text.
3. The Age, Jeff Sparrow, March 16 2004"The real fight is for civil rights".
4. ^ Brisbane Times, Joel Gibson, Nov 5, 2007 "Files reveal the silly scary spies' eye-view of Aboriginal history". Chicka Dixon says "there are lots of errors". Gary Foley says "we were accused of a plot to blow up the 28-storey headquarters of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in Canberra. I knew nothing of this until I read it in my file a couple of years ago".
5. ^ ABC's Phillip Adams refers to his censored ASIO file content on Late Night Live in August 2007.
6. The Age, Chis Hammer, "ASIO: the enemy was within".
7. National Archives of Australia, Fact sheet 53, accuracy of personal information and courses of action if you are the subject of a file.
8. Sydney Morning Herald, Karen Pakula, Mar 1 2008 "A force of nature" para 8, article about visual artist Fiona Hall refers to the ASIO file of Ms Hall's mother, physicist Ruby Payne-Scott
9. Weekend Australian Magazine, Phillip Adams, Jul 16, 2005.
10. ^ Brisbane Times, Joel Gibson, Nov 5, 2007 "Files reveal the silly scary spies' eye-view of Aboriginal history". Quote article: "The file's existence came as no surprise to Mr Dixon, who routinely asked spooks to photograph "his good side" or began phone conversations by saying: "To those who are tuned in, we are now on air." unquote article.
11. The Age, Sushi Das, Sep 23, 2005 "ASIO files full of Hyde and seek".
12. The Age, John Elder, July 23, 2003 "When painting with reds meant a brush with Big Brother".
13. ABC, Nov 3, 2006 "Deported activist, asylum seekers win access to ASIO files".
14. , The Age, Karen Kissane, November 3, 2007 "Release files, court tells ASIO".
15. The Age, Peter Gregory, July 19, 2008 "Legal victory for expelled peace activist".
16. National Archives Service Standards.
17. Access to records under the Archives Act, fact sheet 10.

External links

• ABC ASIO files
• National Archives fact sheet 33
• ASIO file images, Sydney Morning Herald multi media clip showing images from an ASIO file.

Legislation

• Archives Act 1983
• Freedom of Information ACT 1982 (Although National Archives fact sheet 33 does state ASIO is not subject to this act and information, to date, is only available through the Archives Act.)
• Freedom of Information ACT 1989

About this article

This article has been compiled from stories of people who have obtained parts of their ASIO files, as reported by mainstream media in Australia. The article has been expanded from a paragraph first written for Misplaced Pages's Chicka Dixon article.

• Government of Australia