TRANSCRIPT
The intelligence operation dubbed the “A Team.”
They are a unit operated by a foreign power targeting Australia.
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director general Mark Burgess says their biggest scalp to date is a former Australian politician.
"Several years ago, the A team successfully cultivated and recruited a former Australian politician. This politician sold out their country, party, former colleagues, to advance the interest of a foreign regime. At one point the former politician even proposed bringing the Prime Minister's family member into the spies orbit. Fortunately that plot did not go ahead but others did."
Mr Burgess says the "A Team" has targeted academics, public servants, government contractors, and aspiring politicians.
"Another Australian, an aspiring politician, provided insights into factional dynamics of his party, analysis of a recent election and names of up and comers, presumably so the A team could target them too. ASIO disrupted this scheme and confronted the Australians involved. And while some were unwitting, others knew they were working for a Foreign Intelligence Service."
ASIO did not identify the politician who 'sold out their country' - former Liberal Minister Joe Hockey told ABC the perpetrator should be named.
"It is absolutely inconceivable that you would have a former politician representing their community, representing the country, who then goes and engages with a foreign adversary and somehow they're allowed to walk off into the sunset without having their name, or their reputation revealed. That is absurd."
Opposition leader Peter Dutton told 2GB that all former politicians are in question until the name is made public.
"I think though, in this circumstance, it's pretty rough to essentially besmirch former politicians when he's talking about one. And the trouble is, if he doesn't indicate the name, then there's a cloud hanging over everybody else."
No criminal penalties would apply to the 'traitor' former politician, as the actions took place before strengthened foreign interference laws were introduced in 2018.
These revelations came as part of ASIOs annual threat assessment, which outlines the national security environment within Australia.
Espionage and domestic security intelligence expert with UNSW Canberra, Dr Rhys Crawley, says this speech gives the usually quiet agency a chance to broadcast their concerns.
"The threat assessment that the director general does annually is one of the few ways that ASIO talks to the Australian public. It’s fantastic to have that transparency so we can understand the role that ASIO performs in our name, but also so we can start to understand some of the threats that are evolving, that we should be aware of."
Dr Crawley says there are reasons why ASIO wouldn't release the name.
"I'm sure there's a very good reason I don't know what it is. I'm sure the Director General when using words like sold out, he wouldn't have used those lightly. Nor would he have come to the decision to declassify that story lightly. I know there's calls out there today to name that person really that that's probably a decision for those who understand the full picture which would be pretty limited, I imagine, to Director General and some of his senior staff and probably the Attorney General."
ASIO boss Mike Burgess says people with access to sensitive information need to be more vigilant when it comes to national security threats.
"Australians need to know the threat is real, the threat is now, and the threat is deeper and broader than you might think. On just one professional networking site there are 14,000 Australians publicly boasting about having security clearance or working in the intelligence community."
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles says he has confidence in the systems in place.
"An awful lot of effort goes into briefing and training public servants around this threat and there are enormous amounts of efforts which go into securing our nation's secrets, and our record in relation to that as a country is actually very strong. So I have a sense of confidence about the security of the system which is around us, but part of maintaining that security is to have an ever watchful eye on what the threat is. That's why we do this public national assessment from ASIO. And it's why it's really important that this scenario has been put into the public domain."
Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson says security clearances shouldn't be on social media.
"Clearly there are people who are still behaving in a naive way. If you advertise your security clearance on LinkedIn, that is basically putting up a billboard for a Foreign Intelligence Service saying please contact me I have sensitive information that I could share with you. There is no reason to publicly advertise it, except to put your own interests, your personal interests ahead of the national interest."
