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At least three different foreign governments have been caught plotting to hurt critics living in Australia, the nation's spy boss has revealed.
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) director general Mike Burgess shared the information tonight in a wide-ranging annual threat update he called his "most significant, serious and sober so far".
The ASIO head warned Australia should expect even more security shocks in the next five years than in the first part of a decade dominated by wars in the Middle East and Europe and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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He said many of the very foundations of Australia's democracy were being tested and highlighted continued threats from foreign governments and politically motivated violence involving nationalism, neo-Nazis and antisemitism.
In a world where a "small number of authoritarian regimes" were growing more aggressive, leading to what appeared to be state-sponsored murders and attempted murders affecting our closest allies, he warned Australia was not immune.
ASIO investigators identified at least three countries "plotting to physically harm people living in Australia", leading to "grave fears" for their lives in some cases.
Burgess did not name any of the countries while sharing broad details of two of the three cases.
In an attempt to silence an Australia-based human rights activist, one foreign spy agency tried to trick them into travelling to a third country where plotters were waiting.
"They planned to arrange an 'accident' that was anything but accidental, with the objective of seriously injuring or even killing the activist," Burgess said.
Last year, a different hostile foreign intelligence service wanted to "harm and possibly kill one or more individuals on Australian soil" as part of a broad international effort to "eliminate critics of the foreign government around the world – activists, journalists, ordinary citizens".
ASIO managed to step in and disrupt both plots, Burgess said.
"It goes without saying that plots like these are repugnant," he said at the Ben Chifley Building in Canberra.
"They not only involve plans to hurt people – obviously bad enough – they are shocking assaults on Australian sovereignty and the freedoms we hold dear."
Despite these and other efforts from hostile foreign governments, many of the spy agency's biggest concerns were closer to home.
While traditional terrorist organisations are reviving their capabilities, none of last year's terrorist incidents were directly linked to an offshore group and Burgess said "our greatest threat remains a lone actor using an easily obtained weapon".
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Politically motivated violence on the rise
Burgess raised concerns about young Australians being caught up in "webs of hate, both religiously and ideologically motivated" and predicted tough times for social cohesion with spikes in communal violence.
He was worried antisemitic attacks had "not yet plateaued" after shifting from harassment and intimidation to specific targets.
"Antisemitism festered in Australia before the tragic events in the Middle East, but the drawn-out conflict gave it oxygen – and gave some antisemites an excuse," he said, referring to Hamas' October 7 attack that killed 1200 in Israel and Israel's devastating response that has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, devastated nearly 70 per cent of the buildings in Gaza and been condemned by many as disproportionate.
"Jewish Australians were also increasingly conflated with the state of Israel, leading to an increase in antisemitic incidents.
"The normalisation of violent protest and intimidating behaviour lowered the threshold for provocative and potentially violent acts.
"Narratives originally centred on 'freeing Palestine' expanded to include incitements to 'kill the Jews'."
Collaboration between ASIO and the US
In a wide-ranging speech, Burgess revealed ASIO had alerted US authorities to a 12-year-old boy plotting mass shootings in the US.
ASIO online operators found a self-professed neo-Nazi on a popular social networking site. The boy talked about live streaming a school shooting and then moving on to a church, synagogue or mosque.
The Australian spy agency also discovered a cyber unit from an unnamed foreign government that targeted critical infrastructure networks in the US.
The same unit routinely tried to explore and exploit Australia's networks, mapping systems to lay down malware or maintain access in the future.
"ASIO worked closely with our American counterpart to evict the hackers and shut down their global accesses, including nodes here in Australia," Burgess said.
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Spies target AUKUS partnership with the US and UK
Foreign spy agencies targeted Australia's AUKUS partnership with the US and Britain that will deliver an Australian fleet of submarines powered by US nuclear technology.
In addition to the submarine deal, AUKUS Pillar II involves cooperation on a wider range of security technologies including artificial intelligence, electronic warfare and hypersonic systems.
"ASIO has identified foreign services seeking to target AUKUS to position themselves to collect on the capabilities, how Australia intends to use them, and to undermine the confidence of our allies," Burgess said.
"AUKUS will remain a priority target for intelligence collection, including by countries we consider friendly."
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