Office of National Assessments
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| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 19 October 1977 |
| Jurisdiction | Commonwealth of Australia |
| Headquarters | Robert Marsden Hope Building, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia |
| Employees | 138 (2015) |
| Annual budget | $54.7 million (2015) |
| Minister responsible |
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| Agency executive |
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| Parent agency | Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet |
| Website | http://www.ona.gov.au |
The Office of National Assessments (ONA) is an Australian statutory intelligence agency. Established by the Office of National Assessments Act 1977, ONA is an independent body directly accountable to the Prime Minister of Australia and is a portfolio agency of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. ONA provides all-source assessments on international political, strategic and economic developments to the Prime Minister and the National Security Committee of Cabinet.
ONA also plays a coordination role in the Australian Intelligence Community through evaluating foreign intelligence products, convening the National Intelligence Coordination Committee, and developing relationships with intelligence agencies around world.
The origins of the Office of National Assessments stem from the 1977 tabled recommendations of the Royal Commission on Intelligence and Security, established on 21 August 1974 by Australia's Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and led by Justice Robert Hope, for the formation of an independent agency to provide intelligence assessments on political, strategic and economic issues directly to the Prime Minister.
As such, Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser established the Office of National Assessments through the Office of National Assessments Act 1977, ensuring the ONA had statutory independence from government. ONA began operations on the 20 February 1978, assuming the Joint Intelligence Organisations's foreign intelligence assessment role. The Joint Intelligence Organisations retained its defence intelligence assessments role until being restructured as the Defence Intelligence Organisation in 1990.
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