ASIO boss urges politicians to watch their words after terror threat level raised

ASIO chief Mike Burgess has renewed his call for politicians to take care with their language as he urges Australia to cool down political debate.

ASIO chief Mike Burgess has renewed his call for politicians to watch their words after the domestic intelligence agency raised the terror threat level from possible to probable.

Mr Burgess told Sky News on Tuesday that Australia needed to cool down its political debate, saying “there’s a direct correlation between inflamed language, inflamed tension and violence”.

He said everyone had a role to play.

“Politicians have to debate, they have to challenge, they have to disagree,” he said.

“How they do it really does matter because it can generate more heat.”

The ASIO boss has counselled politicians to be careful about how they speak after raising the terror threat level on Monday. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Burgess, who has previously called for politicians to be mindful of how they say things after the October 7 attack on Israel, said he had since had “conversations in private” with some parliamentarians.

“I’m confident most politicians when they say things in the heat of the political debate don’t mean to do downside, but it’s a consequence of not using your words wisely,” he said.

Anthony Albanese echoed the ASIO chief’s words at a press conference in Sydney on Monday afternoon.

The Prime Minister said “we all have a responsibility” not to “engage in activity designed to cause tension”.

He urged political leaders and media to be mindful of the language they used, saying “the way that things are reported is important as well”.

The national terror threat level was raised for the first time in a decade because of deteriorating social cohesion and a spike in radicalisation among young men.

ASIO boss Mike Burgess (centre) said Australia’s security environment was very different to when the terror threat level was raised a decade ago. Picture: NewsWire / Joseph Olbrycht-Palmer

Announcing the new threat rating alongside Mr Albanese on Monday, Mr Burgess said the security environment was vastly different to 10 years ago when Australia reacted to the threat of transnational terror group ISIS.

He said people were now being radicalised for increasingly complicated and varied reasons and that ideologies were blending.

Both Mr Burgess and Mr Albanese said the decision did not mean an attack was inevitable or ASIO had intelligence of an immediate threat.

Rather, it was based on the overall picture, with intelligence analysts determining the likelihood of planning and carrying out attacks over the next 12 months is higher than 50 per cent.

More to come

Originally published as ASIO boss urges politicians to watch their words after terror threat level raised