ASIO chief Duncan Lewis alert to foreign action on campuses

ASIO chief says Australia needs to be “very conscious” of the possibility of foreign interference in universities.

Duncan Lewis at Senate estimates yesterday. Picture: AAP

The country’s intelligence chief says Australia needs to be “very conscious” of the possibility of foreign interference in universities.

Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director-­general Duncan Lewis said yesterday it was an issue but was unable to give specific details.

“We need to be very conscious of the possibilities of foreign interference in our universities,” he told a Senate estimates hearing. “It can go to the behaviour of foreign students, it can go to the behaviour of foreign consular staff in relation to university lecturers, it can go to ­atmospherics in universities.”

Mr Lewis “strongly identified” with comments made by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Frances Adamson in a speech to the University of Adelaide’s Confucius Institute earlier this month. She urged students to “respectfully engage” in debate rather than “silently withdraw” when faced with something unusual, unsettling or plain wrong.

Attorney-General George Brandis said the government would introduce a bill before the end of the year to deal with foreign ­interference.

AAP