Top secret clearance a two-year wait

The process of getting a job at one federal agency is so rigid, one prospective employee has been waiting two years for a top-secret clearance.

Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Margaret Stone told a Senate hearing on Tuesday the process of gaining a top secret clearance to be able to work in her office can take 18 months to two years to come through.

"We lose something like 50 to 60 per cent of the people we offer positions (to) because they will wait for a certain time but they don't wait out that whole clearance and understandably find something else," she said.

"We still have at least one person in the clearance process who has been in that process for almost two years."

But she said it is not for her to suggest the process should be sped up.

"The last thing I want to do is make the system less vigorous," she said.

The independent Office of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security has the responsibility of reviewing the activities of Australia's six intelligence agencies.