Australia spy chief: Foreign meddling common, by friends too

The head of Australia's ASIO intelligence agency said it was not uncommon to find foreign countries trying to influence diaspora communities. "Some of them would surprise you," he said, without giving names.

Mike Burgess became the director-general of Australia's ASIO intelligence agency in 2019

Mick Tsikas/AAP Image via AP/picture alliance

The director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), Mike Burgess, told broadcaster ABC on Sunday that his organization had caught several countries seeking to interfere with or influence diaspora communities in Australia.

Australia had last year accused Iran of engaging in foreign interference and said ASIO had disrupted a surveillance operation on an Iranian-Australian's home.

But Burgess said other countries were also seeking to interfere in Australia's political system and its diaspora communities quite regularly, sometimes unintentionally and sometimes consciously.

'Some of them are also our friends'

"I can think of at least three or four that we've actually actively found involved in foreign interference in Australian diaspora communities," Burgess said in the interview on the "Insiders" program.

"Some of them would surprise you. Some of them are also our friends," he said.

The spy chief declined to elaborate on which countries he was talking about, except to confirm the government's allegation of an Iranian case.

"In diaspora communities, there are multiple countries that attempt to threaten and intimidate Australians living in this country," Burgess said. "When we find it, we deal with it effectively."

Burgess was speaking on the issue after the Australian government rebuked the Iranian ambassador for a social media post seeming to call for the violent and rapid removal of Israelis, or "the Zionist plague" as the ambassador put it, from "the holy lands of Palestine."

As in many countries, demonstrations have taken place in Australian in response to the conflict in Gaza, such as this action at parliament in Canberra last monthImage: Australian Broadcast Corporation (ABC)/AFP

"I don't normally comment on diplomats and what they say, but actually that one was an example that was worthy of being called out," Burgess said. "What a classic, terrible example of actually inappropriate, unacceptable language that ... can actually drive violence in our society."

Elections looming, security situation tense

Political interference and security are hot topics more generally in Australia in the run-up to national elections considered likely next year.

ASIO raised Australia's terrorism threat level this month to "probable," amid a rise in tensions, in part tied to the war in Gaza.

Burgess said it was becoming harder to counter misinformation on social media and tackle the threat of politically motivated violence, saying some minors, in particular, were "locked in their bedrooms on their devices" and increasingly exposed to violent extremism.

He said ASIO would be keeping an eye on such risks in particular amid an election campaign, because it would be a "focal point" for robust debate on social issues.

msh/sms (AFP, ABC)