by Matt Walsh
CANBERRA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The Australian government announced Tuesday it will form an all-encompassing "Home Affairs" portfolio to deal with the growing threat of terror.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull described the move as the "most significant reform of Australia's national intelligence and domestic security arrangements in more than 40 years."
In response to the ever-changing threat of global and domestic terrorism, Turnbull said the government drew inspiration from Great Britain's Home Office instead of the United States' Department of Homeland Security in forming the new portfolio.
Turnbull said while Australians had been "well served" by its separated agencies, the government "must stay ahead of the threats," adding that the new super ministry would coordinate intelligence gathering as well as responses to domestic terror threats.
"The new Home Affairs portfolio will be similar to the Home Office of the United Kingdom: a central department providing strategic planning, coordination and other support to a 'federation' of independent security and law enforcement agencies including the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the Australian Federal Police (AFP), the Australian Border Force (ABF) and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC)," Turnbull said.
"These arrangements will preserve the operational focus and strengths of frontline agencies engaged in the fight against terrorism, organised crime and other domestic threats."
As a result, the justice minister will no longer be required to take charge of matters involving the AFP, while the attorney-general will no longer oversee ASIO.
The new minister for home affairs will be current Immigration Minister Peter Dutton, who told the press that enabling closer collaboration between the government's agencies was the "best thing for Australia."
"We have been discussing how this would work and if it is best for Australia and the answer is 'yes,'" Dutton said on Tuesday.
"It's going to allow us the greatest capacity to keep Australians safe. My job is to make sure, along with the other ministers, that we provide every support possible to our agencies to keep Australians safe."
Meanwhile Attorney-General George Brandis praised the decision to take responsibility for spy agency ASIO away from him office, saying that he can give his time to "many other pressing responsibilities."
"These reforms are important because they mean that, for the first time, Australia will have as a senior cabinet minister - a minister whose exclusive focus is on national security," he told reporters.
"For the nearly four years I've been in the Attorney-General portfolio, and the (ASIO) responsibility has been with me. But the Attorney-General has many other, pressing responsibilities."
"These announcements will correct that anomaly. We will have a minister who can give 100 percent of their time to national security, and it will return the Attorney-General's portfolio to its traditional, orthodox function as the first law officer of the Commonwealth."
But experts have been hesitant to throw support behind the government's big shift to a centralized Home Affairs portfolio.
Professor Michael Wesley from the Australian National University (ANU) said the current system works "very well" and accused the government of "playing politics" over terrorism.
"I think we've got one of the most successful security and policing sectors in the world that has been honed over decades of practice and high operational capability," Wesley told Sky News on Tuesday morning.
"We've seen in Australian much fewer terrorist attacks than in the UK or the US that have centralized homeland security departments."
"I think we have a system that works extremely well and playing politics with Australians' lives and safety potentially is an extremely bad move in my view."
The government has said the new Home Affairs portfolio will be ready to serve by June next year.
