Australia's cyber spy agency has abruptly cancelled a contract with the Australian National University to write its official history despite a military historian working for more than a year on the project.
The Australian Signals Directorate's shock decision to sever ties with professor John Blaxland has raised concern among senior figures in the Morrison government who have been pushing for the agency to be more transparent.
Professor John Blaxland was halfway through the first volume of the ASD’s official history.
Professor Blaxland was commissioned last year to write an exhaustive two-volume history of the ASD, an agency that has been growing in stature amid the increasing threat of cyber attacks.
ASD director-general Rachel Noble's decision to cancel the contract, which university sources estimated was worth about $2.2 million, comes weeks after she spoke of the need for the agency to be more transparent.
The agency will go ahead with an official history but security sources said it wanted more control over the project.
Some senior figures within the federal government fear it will erode trust in the ASD when it is trying to convince Australians the agency needs more powers to go after serious criminals and protect the nation's critical infrastructure from cyber attacks.
The decision has stunned colleagues of Professor Blaxland, a former intelligence officer with the Australian Defence Force who co-authored The Official History of ASIO. He was informed by the agency in recent weeks the contract was being cancelled.
Professor Blaxland has been working on the project since July last year and sources said he had completed about half the first volume, which was to cover the establishment of the Defence Signals Bureau in 1947 through to the 1970s.
He was commissioned to write the official history by former ASD boss Mike Burgess, who said at the time Professor Blaxland was "uniquely placed" to lead the project because of his "in-depth, front-line understanding" of Australia's intelligence community while the ASD praised him as "one of Australia's most experienced and respected military historians".
Ms Noble, who replaced Mr Burgess in February, decided to cancel the ANU contract, government sources said.
An ASD spokesman said the ANU contract was "terminated early by mutual agreement".
"ASD is committed to delivering an objective and high-quality account of its history – and this work continues," the spokesman said.
When contacted for comment, Professor Blaxland referred this masthead to the ANU's media unit. An ANU spokesman said the decision was "mutually agreed to by ASD and ANU".
"While ultimately the decision was made by ASD, it is one ANU respects and understands," the spokesman said. "ANU wishes ASD all the best with the project."
In a speech earlier this month at the ANU’s National Security College, Ms Noble said it had become more important over the years to explain to Australians what the ASD did.
"This has in part been motivated by the realisation that maintaining the trust of the Australian people in ASD is achieved by the government being transparent about what intelligence and security agencies are asked to do," Ms Noble said.
The ASD has been a subject of controversy in recent years since it was revealed the federal government was considering giving the Australian Federal Police the power to enlist the cyber agency to attack the networks of Australians using domestic servers.
Under plans unveiled last month, the ASD will lend its offensive capabilities to the AFP to go after the computer networks of individuals and networks engaging in serious criminal activity within Australia. Operators of the nation's critical infrastructure will also be forced to pass on information about cyber attacks to the ASD in real time, while some companies will have to give the agency access to their networks to fend off major hacks.
Amid the escalating threat of cyber attacks against governments and critical infrastructure operators, the government announced in June the ASD would recruit 500 newly trained specialists at a cost of $470 million.
The ASD, which has always been under the Department of Defence, has undergone a number of name changes throughout its history until its current name was adopted in 2013. It became its own statutory agency in 2017, reporting directly to the Defence Minister.
Defence Minister Linda Reynolds was contacted for comment.
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