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Sleeper agent operated in Australia for years before ASIO caught him
By Anthony Galloway and Nick McKenzie
The head of the nation's domestic spy agency has sounded the alarm on foreign states interfering in Australia's political affairs, revealing a "sleeper" agent was secretly operating in the country for years before being caught.
Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation boss Mike Burgess warned foreign spies were intimidating Australians within the country, while there was one case of a group of agents who threatened the physical safety of someone in Australia as part of a foreign interference plot.
ASIO boss Mike Burgess has sounded the alarm about foreign interference.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
In an unprecedented public address about the extent of ASIO's operations, Mr Burgess said visiting scientists and academics were ingratiating themselves into Australian universities with the aim of conducting clandestine intelligence collection, striking "at the very heart of our notions of free and fair academic exchange".
With ASIO investigating twice as many terrorism threats than this time last year, Mr Burgess also raised concern about the growing threat of right-wing extremism, saying small cells were regularly meeting in suburbs across Australia to salute Nazi flags, inspect weapons and train in combat.
Mr Burgess warned Australia was currently the target of "sophisticated and persistent espionage and foreign interference activities from a range of nations". China has previously been blamed by security agencies for large-scale hacking in Australia, while ASIO is investigating a suspected Chinese military intelligence operative in Melbourne who had approached a Liberal Party member to run for parliament.
Mr Burgess said there were more foreign intelligence officers and their proxies operating in Australia now than at the height of the Cold War, and many of them had the capabilities and intent "to cause significant harm to our national security".
He said a foreign intelligence service sent a "sleeper" agent to Australia, who lay dormant for many years and quietly built community and business links, while secretly maintaining contact with his offshore handlers.
The agent started feeding his spymasters information about expatriate dissidents in Australia, which directly led to harassment of them and their relatives overseas.
"In exchange for significant cash payments, the agent also provided on-the-ground logistical support for spies who travelled to Australia to conduct intelligence activities," Mr Burgess said in his address at ASIO’s headquarters in Canberra on Monday night.
"These are the sort of insidious activities ASIO works to detect and disrupt every day. And in the case of the sleeper agent, I can confirm ASIO did disrupt the operation. Regardless, the threat is real and the threat is extremely serious."
Mr Burgess said ASIO has also uncovered cases where foreign spies have travelled to Australia with the intention of setting up sophisticated hacking infrastructure targeting computers containing sensitive and classified information.
While foreign interference was a growing issue, Mr Burgess confirmed Australia's terrorist threat was still sitting at "probable", and will remain "unacceptably high for the foreseeable future".
Violent extremism of the type embodied by Islamic State and al’Qaida remained the security agency's principal concern, but Mr Burgess said the threat of right-wing extremism in Australia was "real and growing".
He revealed an Australian earlier this year was stopped from leaving the country to fight with an extreme right wing group on a foreign battlefield after authorities received a tip-off from ASIO.
"In suburbs around Australia, small cells regularly meet to salute Nazi flags, inspect weapons, train in combat and share their hateful ideology," Mr Burgess said.
He said online forums, including the white supremacist group The Base, were attracting international memberships from Australians, sharing extremist right wing ideologies and encouraging acts of extreme violence.
"We expect such groups will remain an enduring threat, making more use of online propaganda to spread their messages of hate," Mr Burgess said.
"While we would expect any right wing extremist inspired attack in Australia to be low capability, i.e. a knife, gun or vehicle attack, more sophisticated attacks are possible. And we also need to be mindful of state-sponsored terrorism as states seek to use terrorism to further their goals."
Mr Burgess also spoke about the importance of the encryption laws that passed in late 2018, saying they have been used to protect Australians from serious harm.
Acknowledging a perception that his organisation has been seen in the past as operating in the "shadows", Mr Burgess said he wanted to be "as open and frank with you as I can about what we do and why we do it".
"I want to be clear that the ASIO I have the privilege to lead is not a secret organisation operating as a law unto itself, conducting shadowy business around the margins of our democracy and our law," he said.
"Yes, we need to keep secret the precise nature of many of our operational capabilities and the details of our operational activity.
"These are the tools of our trade that give my team its edge to prevail against some of the most difficult challenges imaginable and so must be protected. I will never knowingly put any of my team at additional risk by carelessly talking about their operations."