Former ASIO boss says beef up IGIS

The former head of Australia's domestic spy agency has warned against imposing extra bureaucracy on intelligence agencies to oversee expanded powers.

Retired ASIO head David Irvine has told a law conference in Sydney that beefing up accountability could be better achieved by giving more funding to the Inspector-general of Intelligence and Security.

He says it is too easy to ease concerns about intrusive intelligence powers simply by adding more oversight.