occupants, two ASIS officers and three ASIS civilian trainees, who refused to produce any form of identification. Within two days the minister for foreign affairs, Bill Hayden announced that an 'immediate and full' investigation would be conducted under the auspices of the second Hope Royal Commission on Australian Security and Intelligence Agencies, which was still in progress. A report was prepared and tabled by February 1984. It described the exercise as being 'poorly planned, poorly supervised and poorly run' and recommended that measures be taken in training to improve planning and eliminate adverse impacts on the public. The Victoria Police conducted their own investigation but were frustrated because ASIS Director-General John Ryan refused to cooperate. Bill Hayden offered to provide the real names of the seven officers involved in confidence. Premier of Victoria John Cain told Hayden that 'as far as the police were concerned, there was no such thing as information in confidence'. Following the incident, The Sunday Age disclosed the names, or the assumed names, of five of the operators involved. The journalist noted that 'according to legal advice taken by The Sunday Age there is no provision that prevents the naming of an ASIS agent'. Although not included within the public version of the report, the Royal Commission headed by Justice Hope prepared an appendix which would appear to have dealt with the security and foreign relations consequences of disclosure of participants' names by The Sunday Age. Subsequently, in A v Hayden, the High Court held that the Commonwealth owed no enforceable duty to ASIS officers to maintain confidentiality of their names or activities. At the time of the Sheraton Hotel incident, the extant Ministerial Directive permitted ASIS to undertake 'covert action', including 'special operations' which, roughly described, comprised 'unorthodox, possibly para-military activity, designed to be used in case of war or some other crisis'. Following the incident and the recommendations of the Royal Commission, the covert action function was apparently abolished. The functions of ASIS can be found in section 6 of the Intelligence Services Act, as can those functions which are proscribed by the act. Ultimately, in executing the operation, the operators were found to have used considerable force, menacing a number of the staff and guests with weapons and physically assaulting the hotel manager. Hope found Ryan to be at fault for authorising the training operation in a public place using concealed weapons. Ryan