‘Worse than the Cold War’: ASIO director-general Mike Burgess warns Australia about foreign espionage

Australia’s top security official has warned that foreign espionage and interference activities are higher now than at any time during the Cold War.

Australia’s top security official Mike Burgess has warned that foreign espionage and interference activities are higher now than at any time during the Cold War. Picture: Sean Davey.

Australia’s top security chief has warned that foreign espionage and interference activities are higher now than at any time during the Cold War.

In his first annual threat assessment from the nation’s capital, ASIO director-general Mike Burgess warned that the level of threat faced in Australia was “currently unprecedented”.

“It is higher now than it was at the height of the Cold War,” he said.

“Indeed, some of the tactics being used against us are so sophisticated they sound like they’ve sprung from the pages of a Cold War thriller.”

Mr Burgess said there was a case of an unspecified foreign intelligence service that had sent a sleeper agent to Australia.

He said the agent “quietly built community and business links” while maintaining contact with his offshore handlers and then fed his country’s spymasters information about expats based in Australia.

“These are the sort of insidious activities ASIO works to detect and disrupt every day,” Mr Burgess said.

He also warned that far-right extremism had emerged as one of the nation’s most challenging security threats, stating that neo-Nazis were regularly gathering to salute Nazi flags and promote their “hateful ideology”.

“In Australia, the extreme right-wing threat is real and it is growing,” Mr Burgess said.

“In suburbs around Australia, small cells regularly meet to salute Nazi flags, inspect weapons, train in combat and share their hateful ideology.”

He noted far right-wing groups were more organised and security conscious now than in previous years.

He also said ASIO advice led to an Australian being stopped from leaving the country to fight with an extreme right-wing group on a foreign battlefield, noting many were radicalised online.
“We expect such groups will remain an enduring threat, making more use of online propaganda to spread their messages of hate,” Mr Burgess said.

He also warned that a terror attack in Australia was “probable”, adding that it’s “truly disturbing” to see extremists trying to recruit children.

“The number of terrorism leads we are investigating right now has doubled since this time last year,” he said.

“The character of terrorism will continue to evolve, and we believe that it will take on a more dispersed and diversified face.”