Mike Burgess’s annual threat assessment warns social media is ‘amplifying’ an erosion of trust in institutions, promoting discord and heightening polarisation
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An Australian citizen working as a senior intelligence officer for Iran “orchestrated” a firebombing in Bondi, the country’s top spy has claimed, while a former Australian resident in Iraq allegedly directed an attack on a Melbourne synagogue.
The alleged homegrown ties to Australia’s “summer of antisemitism” were contained in a wide-ranging speech given by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) director general, Mike Burgess, on Wednesday night. He said in the address that the “hatred of Jews is one thing virtually all the violent extremist cohorts have in common”.
Burgess warned that intelligence officials must contend with security threats from everywhere and all at once. The Asio boss said Australians who wanted a safer country should be more tolerant and give others a “fair go” to turn down the temperature.
The intelligence chief said the anticipated crescendo of security threats against Australia by the end of the decade had already arrived, including in December’s terror attack at Bondi beach, during which 15 people died in an antisemitic shooting.
“Our degrading security environment is characterised by concurrent, cascading and compounding threats,” Burgess said on Wednesday.
Among those threats were homegrown terrorists, foreign regimes targeting and harassing citizens and permanent residents, spies chasing critical details about the Aukus deal, and nation-states infiltrating critical infrastructure providers.
The underlying theme in Burgess’s annual threat assessment was that the world’s security environment had degraded and social media was “amplifying and accelerating” an erosion of trust in institutions, promoting discord and heightening polarisation.
“Whether online or in the real world, when intolerance is tolerated, when violent language and violent acts are left unchecked, they become normalised, reinforcing the impression they are acceptable and compounding the likelihood of further violence,” Burgess said.
The Asio boss alleged two attacks linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on Australia’s Jewish community were directed by two individuals living offshore with “strong ties to Australia”.
One, an Australian citizen based in Iran and a senior agent within a covert unit for the IRGC Quds Force, allegedly “orchestrated” the firebombing of Lewis’ Continental Kitchen in Sydney’s Bondi in October 2024, Burgess said.
The other, a former Australian resident living in Iraq, was behind the attack on the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne in December 2024, it was alleged.
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“I cannot name the two individuals tonight to protect ongoing investigations and related prosecutions, but I want them to understand this: we know who you are, we know what you’ve done, and we know who you work for,” Burgess said.
“We assessed these individuals were seeking to covertly promote hatred, foster antisemitism and encourage violence against Iran’s perceived enemies.”
Burgess pointed to other examples where foreign nations were trying to exert influence domestically, including through coerced repatriations.
In one example, one individual experienced a 10-year intimidation campaign by a foreign government to return to the country and address unspecified corruption allegations.
The individual’s family members still living in the foreign country were “detained, interrogated and subjected to travel bans”.
At least five regimes were targeting Australians with coerced repatriations, and one was particularly active, Burgess said.
Espionage remained a persistent threat, and the domestic spy agency underscored the foreign interest in gaining critical details of the Aukus pact.
A foreign spy, disguised as a consultant company employee, gained two reports from an Australian security clearance holder on Australia’s relationship with Pacific neighbours before Asio disrupted the operation, Burgess said.
He said the examples had occurred in just one week at Asio, showing the intelligence agency’s biggest challenge was a cumulative one.
“I don’t believe we can prioritise the major threats – you must deal with all of them,” Burgess said.
The Asio director general ended his speech by stating he “firmly” believed that “if more Australians, not just visitors, embraced the ethos of a fair go, mutual respect and tolerance, the temperature of our security environment would be several degrees lower”.
“The tolerance of intolerance, the growth of grievance, the radicalisation of minors, the embrace of conspiracy … all these things require a whole of community response,” he said.
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