ASIO chief reveals inner workings of anti-terrorism efforts

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TRANSCRIPT
One of Australia’s most secretive government agencies – the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation – is tasked with protecting Australia’s national security, investigating and disrupting espionage, foreign interference, politically motivated violence, and terrorism.
And most of that work happens in secret.
Australians only get to glimpse the work of the agency a few times a year.
“We have seen spikes in political polarisation and intolerance, on civil debate, on peaceful protest, anti authority beliefs have grown, trust in institutions has eroded, provocative and inflammatory behaviours has been normalised.”
That’s ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess, giving evidence at Senate Estimates, one of those few opportunities Australia has to understand the work of the security service.
Back in August, he raised the terror threat level to ‘probable’ after ASIO assessed there was a greater than 50 per cent chance of a domestic terrorist attack or plans of an attack in the next 12 months.
Mr Burgess says the concerns that informed the decision have played out as predicted.
“This trend began before COVID But accelerated in response to lockdowns and other government actions. It accelerated further after the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, and again, after Israel’s military response, these dynamics raised the temperature of the security environment and created a climate more permissive of violence, making acts of terrorism more likely.”
Politically motivated violence, which includes terrorism, is one of ASIO’s principal security concerns.
ASIO has recorded nine terror attacks, disruptions, or incidents in Australia this year, with religiously motivated violent extremists still dominating much of the work of the agency.
These concerns include the re-emergence the so-called Islamic State group as well as Al-Qaeda, both of which the government views as terrorist groups.
But Mr Burgess says none of the terror incidents this year have been directly inspired by the conflict in the Middle East.
“In our assessment, one third of the incidents involved religiously motivated violent extremism. The majority of incidents were allegedly motivated by nationalist and racist ideologies or mixed ideologies. Importantly, because this is often misunderstood, none of the attacks or plots were directly inspired by the conflict in the Middle East.”
He warns that the type of extremist plots and ideologies are changing.
“All involve young people, all involve lone actors or small groups. All involve low capability weapons. Few of the alleged perpetrators were previously known to ASIO or police, and of those who moved to violence, the majority gave little or no warning.”
The conflict in the Middle East has been felt across Australia.
Since the beginning of the Israel/Hamas war, protesters have taken to the streets of Australia in their thousands, demanding an end to the conflict in mostly non-violent demonstrations.
After former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli air strike, a number of people attended vigils and protests with Hezbollah flags.
Hezbollah and Hamas are listed terrorist organisation in Australia, and displaying the flags can be considered a crime.
Mr Burgess says people flying the flags of listed terror groups, who aren’t breaking the law, may face other consequences.
“As a security service, I welcome when individuals fly the flag, so to speak, and indicate that there’s someone we should have an interest in. So, if people are silly enough to do that, whether it’s unlawful or not, is a matter for law enforcement. But I personally welcome people declaring their hand, which allows ASIO to conduct lines of inquiry and investigations into those individuals should they be a threat to security.”