Australia’s spy chief has warned the public sector — and the general public — that ASIO is in “hand-to-hand combat” with hostile intelligence services and can’t afford to “ease up” on foreign interference operations.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said in his annual threat-assessment address that public servants, judicial figures, journalists and people who worked with Defence have been targeted by spies from foreign countries.
“In the last year, a small number of Australian judicial figures have been subjected to suspicious approaches,” Burgess revealed.
“While we are yet to conclusively conclude they were targeted by foreign intelligence services, we do know spies want insights into court cases relevant to their governments and are seeking to use litigation as an intelligence collection tool.”
Burgess also used the speech to rebuke analysts and commentators for rushing to attribute motivations in the aftermath of the killing of two police officers and a civilian by a trio of terrorists in Wieambilla.
He said that ASIO believes the Wieambilla shootings were an act of politically motivated violence principally motivated by Christian extremist ideology.
Burgess said that the agency worked closely with the Queensland police force and reached similar conclusions related to motivations independently.
“Given the matter is still being investigated, I will refrain from going into more detail about ASIO’s assessment other than to say we did not find evidence the killers embraced a racist and nationalist ideology or were sovereign citizens, despite their anti-authority and conspiracy beliefs,” Burgess said.
“It’s disappointing some commentators and self-proclaimed terrorism experts were so quick to make definitive declarations about motivations, ideologies and political alignments in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy.”
The ASIO chief said getting these assessments right requires time and multiple inputs.
“That’s why ASIO is the authority on domestic threats,” Burgess said.
“We have a unique role in the intelligence community. We are collectors and assessors, as well as disruptors.
“Our advice does not just draw on open source material, we also have access to information obtained through ASIO’s investigative and operational activity, and from our domestic and international partners.”
Burgess also raised a concern that commentators often fail to appreciate the distinction between extreme opinions and extreme actions.
“One can lead to the other, but that does not mean they are the same thing,” he said.
“It takes careful, nuanced work to disentangle groups and individuals that will engage in violence, from groups and individuals that may have views that are awful — but still lawful.”
Burgess also confirmed ASIO’s decision last year to lower the terrorism threat level from ‘probable’ to ‘possible’.
He said the disruption of espionage and foreign interference networks was a major part of ASIO’s work, and that Australians were being targeted by people wanting secrets more now than at any other time in Australia’s history.
The intelligence agency identified and disrupted what Burgess tagged a “hive” of spies keen to steal intelligence from Australia.
“The spies were undeclared — in other words, they were working undercover,” Burgess said. “Some were put in place years earlier. Proxies and agents were recruited as part of a wider network. Among other malicious activities, they wanted to steal sensitive information.
“I’m not going into more detail because the foreign intelligence service is still trying to unpick exactly what and how we knew about its activities.
“It was obvious to us that the spies were highly trained because they used sophisticated tradecraft to try to disguise their activities.”
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