‘Friends’ of Australia among nations interfering in diaspora communities, spy chief warns

Australia’s spy chief says the public would be shocked to learn the identities of supposedly friendly nations that have been found actively interfering in the country’s diaspora communities.

Mike Burgess, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s (ASIO) director, warned that he would name the nations involved if the threat persisted and became a significant risk to Australians.

“I can think of at least three to four that we have actually actively found involved in foreign interference in Australian diaspora communities,” the domestic spy chief told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC’s) Insiders programme.

Mr Burgess said he could confirm one of the nations was Iran, given a minister had already spoken publicly about Tehran’s involvement.

"Some of them would surprise you, some of them are also our friends,” Mr Burgess said, adding that if the threat persisted for Australia, the officials would call out the nations.

Australia recently uncovered a plot by an international intelligence agency to eliminate an Australian resident by luring them to an offshore location, ABC reported. The resident had been critical of an unnamed foreign regime.

Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said he did not plan to identify the other nations involved. Asked on Sunday if he would do so, he replied: “No, in a word.

“Our priority here isn’t to get a headline. Our priority here is to keep Australians safe. First, second and third priority. Gold, silver and bronze, in the spirit of the Olympics.”

“They are our priorities, and so we are careful about, I’m careful about, information that I give out being consistent with the advice that I receive from the agencies,” Mr Albanese added.

In 2021 the Scott Morrison government flagged China and Cambodia’s foreign interference in diaspora communities within Australia, and asked them to cease these efforts. “We take these reports seriously and we have, on occasion, conveyed our concerns directly to Chinese officials as well as to Cambodian officials,” said Neil Hawkins, then acting first assistant secretary.

Sunday’s comments were the second major public intervention involving the country’s spy chief in less than a week. Last Monday, Australia raised its terror threat level to “probable”, the mid-point of the country’s five-tier warning system, for the first time since November 2022.

Mr Burgess revealed that intelligence agencies had disrupted eight possible terror incidents in just the last four months, as he warned that the security environment in Australia had become more volatile as “more Australians are being radicalised and radicalised more quickly... (and) embracing a more diverse range of extreme ideologies”. He added: “More Australians are willing to use violence to advance their cause.”

He added that the situation in 2024 is “completely different” from a decade ago when the terror alert was last raised.

“Social economic grievances, conspiracy theories is up also in the mix along with traditionally religiously motivated [including] Islamist violent extremism and nationalism and racism,” he said, adding that there was a “broad range of ideologies” threatening Australia’s social fabric.