The Federal Government could be moving to allow ASD spies to keep an eye on Australian citizens.

The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) exists to protect Australia against threats from abroad.

Section 7 of the Intelligence Services Act 2001 (Cth) outlines the agency’s functions, clearly stating that ASD spying and information gathering powers are confined to “outside of Australia”.

But in recent years, there having been a number of signs that the signals directorate will turn its eyes inward.

Most recently, reports by journalist Annika Smethurst have revealed that the secretaries of both Home Affairs and Defence has discussed ASD agents hacking into domestic infrastructure.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton recently announced a new $1.6 billion cyber defence fund that includes millions in new funding for the ASD.

Buried in the detail is $31.6 million to extend and expand ASD capabilities to disrupt cybercrime offshore, “taking the fight to foreign criminals that seek to target Australians, and providing assistance to federal, state and territory law enforcement agencies.”

The concept of the ASD ‘providing assistance’ to domestic law enforcement sounds to many like the ASD spying on Australians.

Mr Dutton was asked what it means for the ASD to assist the AFP, considering the spying agency cannot operate domestically.

He said that the AFP and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) need the power “to protect Australians here and abroad”.

“That’s the skill that we’re tapping into,” he said, pledging that the power will only be available to the AFP and the ACIC, not the ASD. He made no mention of how any new processes would actually work.

“There’s more detail that we will provide in time,” Mr Dutton concluded.

However, the Australian Cyber Security Strategy 2020 says the government “will ensure law enforcement agencies have appropriate legislative powers and technical capabilities to deter, disrupt and defeat the criminal exploitation of anonymising technology and the dark web”.

Home Affairs has been accused of operating a “slow drip process of incrementally revealing to the public that it’s about to turn the nation’s international spying agency upon domestic targets, with pending law changes to enable this to happen”.