Australia’s top intelligence official has issued one of the starkest warnings in years about threats to the nation’s stability, revealing that foreign powers and extremist groups are actively undermining social cohesion and that a foreign-state–sponsored assassination attempt inside Australia is now “a realistic possibility.”
Speaking at the annual Lowy Institute lecture in Sydney on Tuesday, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Director-General Mike Burgess said community trust and unity were being “attacked in unprecedented ways.” He identified Russian operatives, state-backed disinformation networks, and far-right extremist groups as the key players driving a surge in polarisation across the country.
According to Burgess, ASIO is investigating pro-Russian social media influencers working with an offshore media organisation to amplify divisive narratives — particularly around Australia’s support for Ukraine, anti-immigration protests, and pro-Palestinian demonstrations. “These state-sanctioned trolls are more than propaganda puppets,” he said. “They want to turn hot-button issues into burning issues, tipping disagreement into division and division into violence.”
The ASIO chief also named the National Socialist Network, Australia’s largest neo-Nazi group, as a growing domestic concern. He said the group has been trying to infiltrate and exploit cost-of-living and anti-immigration rallies to spread its racist ideology and recruit followers. “The opportunistic extremists feed off social anger,” Burgess warned, “but it is the foreign manipulators — the cunning — who weaponise it.”
Burgess revealed that ASIO has identified at least three foreign governments with both the willingness and capability to carry out assassinations on Australian soil. These operations, he said, could be disguised through criminal intermediaries — a tactic previously linked to the Iranian regime, which Australia accused in 2024 of directing two anti-Semitic arson attacks through local proxies. “We are acutely alive to this threat,” he said, noting that security agencies are working around the clock to protect potential targets.
He also singled out Iran’s role in spreading anti-Semitic hate campaigns globally, including in Australia, describing the country’s actions as part of a broader effort to “fan the flames of division.” While such operations have achieved only “limited traction,” Burgess credited Australia’s compulsory voting, social safety net, and strong economy with helping blunt extremist narratives.
The spy chief expressed growing concern over how digital technology and artificial intelligence are accelerating online radicalisation. He warned that algorithms and AI-generated content could create what he called “aggro-rhythms” — a feedback loop where grievance, intolerance, and hostility amplify one another, heightening the risk of real-world violence. “Social media is the accelerant,” he said, “but people still strike the match.”
In a broader geopolitical context, Burgess did not shy away from criticising China’s intelligence activities, accusing Beijing of large-scale intellectual property theft and political interference. He said the Chinese government “fails to understand” how Western intelligence services operate in democratic systems, noting that ASIO’s work is independent despite serving the government of the day.
The remarks drew a sharp response from Chinese scholars, who dismissed the accusations as politically motivated. Analysts quoted by China’s Global Times said Burgess’s comments reflect “Western arrogance and insecurity” over China’s rapid technological progress, accusing Australian officials of inflating the threat to serve “U.S. hegemony.”
Despite a recent thaw in trade relations between Canberra and Beijing, tensions remain high in the security sphere. At nearly the same time Burgess delivered his speech, Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles warned that China’s rapid military expansion — “the largest in the world today” — has made the Indo-Pacific region increasingly volatile.
Concluding his address, Burgess urged Australians to recognise that national security is no longer confined to the work of intelligence agencies. “In this complex environment,” he said, “security is everybody’s business — a whole-of-government, whole-of-community, whole-of-society responsibility.”
As foreign interference intensifies and extremist networks adapt, Burgess’s message was clear: Australia’s greatest threat may no longer come from outside its borders, but from the fractures within.
