Following World War II, defence and foreign intelligence functions were shared between the
Royal Australian Navy, the
Australian Army and the
Royal Australian Air Force. There also existed a Joint Intelligence Bureau (JIB) within the
Department of Defence responsible for geographic, infrastructure, economic, scientific and technical intelligence in the Asia-Pacific region. In 1969, the foreign intelligence functions of the individual armed services were merged into the JIB and the Joint Intelligence Organisation (JIO) was formed. The existence of JIO was initially a secret, but was revealed by Prime Minister
William McMahon when he blurted out something about "J-ten". The 1977 tabled recommendations of the
Royal Commission on Intelligence and Security, established on 21 August 1974 by Prime Minister
Gough Whitlam and led by
Justice Robert Hope, called for an independent authority 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 (ONA) through the
Office of National Assessments Act 1977. ONA assumed the National Assessments Staff and foreign intelligence assessments capabilities of JIO. Following the formation of the ONA in 1977 to handle assessment of foreign intelligence, the JIO was changed to focus on intelligence relating solely to defence matters. Following a review of intelligence structures, the JIO became the
Defence Intelligence Organisation in 1990 as the Department of Defence's strategic, technical, and all-source intelligence assessment agency. ==See also==