NIO: Intel not taken seriously

By DYLAN MURRAY
THE head of the country’s intelligence agency says that threat assessments submitted to the Office of the Prime Minister are never taken seriously.
National Intelligence Organisation (NIO) director-general Terrence Frawley said even during National Security Council meetings, there was no sense of urgency to look into intelligence provided.
He described Security Council meetings as gatherings for people to “chew betel nut and talk and then forget about the conversations”.
“The NIO provides threat assessment and sends them to other agencies that can act on the reports; we send the reports direct to the prime minister and the National Executive Council,” he said.
Assistant director David Doonar said: “On a scale of one to ten on how seriously threat assessments are taken, we would give it a three, which is worrisome.”
Doonar said apart from some events in previous years which they had forewarned about, the NIO was also aware of activities by groups in Bosavi and other parts of the Highlands but could only give threat assessments to police and military.
Chairman of the Special Parliamentary Committee on the 2022 General Elections, Allan Bird, urged the NIO to tell leaders how they could help improve the response mechanism.
He said there was a need for support to the NIO and asked that they send a proposal to the prime minister and the committee.
“We gather our intelligence from trusted sources; we have a strong network in terms of sharing information – we share mutually beneficial information with the US, Australia and Indonesia,” said Frawley.
He said they relied on person-to-person exchanges and got a lot of their information through intelligence ties with the police, the defence force, Customs and people in areas throughout the country.
He said that this was an issue since they had about 50 officers nationwide; the NIO was downsized during the late Sir Bill Skate’s time as prime minister, from 200 personnel to 50 today.