ASIO Chief reveals there are many dissidents still being actively threatened in Australia

China has been revealed to be the ‘A-Team’ aggressively targeting Australians detailed in ASIO Spy Chief’s annual threat assessment.

A former politician labelled a traitor by ASIO director-general Mike Burgess is “no longer a security concern”, the spy chief declared.Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

China’s leading spy agency has been revealed to be behind the ‘aggressive’ targeting of Australians, detailed in ASIO Spy Chief’s annual threat assessment on Wednesday.

In an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday night, Mike Burgess said while action is being taken against foreign operatives, many dissidents are still being actively threatened in Australia.

While the ASIO Chief repeatedly refused to name any overseas agency, the Sydney Morning Herald independently confirmed the “A-Team” referred to by Mr Burgess in his speech involves a division of China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) devoted to Australia.

It comes after a “traitor” former Australian politician was revealed to have been successfully recruited by foreign spies while serving in parliament.

The ASIO chief refused to identify the ex-leader who he claimed performed espionage for a foreign intelligence service “several years ago”.

Mr Burgess faced numerous questions regarding his choice not to publicly call out the MSS, despite his decision last October to reveal the Chinese government’s “unprecedented” theft of western intellectual property.

“It’s a complex, challenging and changing security environment. The world’s complex, it is not just one country,” he said.

“I don’t think me not mentioning their name imbolds them, they know who they are … and we’ve had this conversation with them.”

Mr Burgess continued to double down on his decision not to reveal the “traitor” politician despite current political figures pressuring the ASIO Chief.

“[Spies] target all parties equally. Individuals who call out names, if they’re doing that for political purposes, I suggest they be very careful because it might come back on their own party,” he said.

In response to Australian ambassador to America Joe Hockey’s demand for ASIO to expose the ex-politician, Mr Burgess said he did not agree with his comments but he was “entitled to his opinion”.

Mr Burgess went on to detail that there were “dozens” of spies who have been expelled from Australia since he took charge.

“We’re pretty proud of that, and again, we do that quietly with no fanfare, because the key thing is they’re put on notice and they’re removed and the harm is stopped.”

However, the ASIO chief added the challenge facing the national security organisation was once one spy was expelled, another takes their place.

In one example, Mr Burgess said a foreign intelligence service found out information about a person and then probed how to make that dissident “disappear”.

While acknowledging assassination plots were possible, he would not confirm if any dissidents had been physically harmed in Australia.

Mr Burgess concluded that Australia has been slow to wake up to the threat posed by foreign interference, but they were taking large steps to counter the problem.

“While some people might say we came to [foreign interference] lately and we missed stuff, yes, that’s probably true. [But since then] Australia has been a world leader.”