ASIO boss Mike Burgess has ignited a political firestorm by alleging that foreign spies were able to cultivate and recruit a former politician while refusing to identify the figure at the centre of the scandal.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton called for the ex-politician to be named and shamed for disloyalty, adding that he suspected the MP who allegedly “sold out” their country was a former Labor MP from NSW with connections to China.
ASIO boss Mike Burgess said the case study he raised was a “historic matter that was appropriately dealt with at the time”.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
In a speech on Wednesday night, Burgess also said the ex-politician had proposed roping a relative of a former prime minister into the foreign interference scheme.
Alex Turnbull, the businessman son of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, revealed on Thursday that he had been approached by suspicious Chinese operatives in 2017 and had reported the interaction to security agencies.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil backed Burgess’ sensational speech, saying she was glad the spy chief had brought attention to the risk of foreign interference and that the public interest would not necessarily be served by revealing the former politician’s identity.
“Our government said this is the most dangerous geostrategic circumstances Australia has faced since the Second World War and a very large part of that is foreign governments trying to infiltrate our society,” O’Neil said.
Burgess defended his decision not to name the former politician in a statement issued on Thursday night, and said: “In accordance with longstanding practice, ASIO will not publicly discuss individuals or provide operational details.
“There are multiple reasons for this, including the need to protect our sources and capabilities.
“In this case, while we want the foreign intelligence service to know its cover is blown, we do not want it to unpick how we discovered its activities.”
He said the case study he raised was a “historic matter that was appropriately dealt with at the time” and that the “individual is no longer of security concern”.
As Parliament House in Canberra fizzed with speculation about the identity of the former politician, Dutton told 2GB: “It’s pretty rough to besmirch former politicians when he’s talking about one. If he doesn’t indicate the name, there’s a cloud hanging over everybody else.
“If you’re putting that detail out there, as Mr Burgess has done, I think it’s incumbent to give a little bit more criteria, a little bit more of a hint about who the person is.”
Former federal Labor senator Sam Dastyari and former NSW Labor state politician Ernest Wong both said they were convinced Burgess was not referring to them in his speech.
The NSW corruption watchdog in 2022 found that Wong engaged in serious corrupt conduct as part of a scheme to circumvent the state’s donation laws with cash from Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo. Dastyari left the Senate in 2018 after being embroiled in a scandal related to Chinese political donations.
There is no suggestion that either Dastyari or Wong were involved in the matters described in Burgess’ speech.
Other prominent former politicians with ties to China denied that Burgess was referring to them while declining to comment on the record.
In his speech on Wednesday night, Burgess revealed ASIO had discovered a foreign spy unit known as the “A-team” that targeted Australians who could potentially access sensitive information.
“Several years ago, the A-team successfully cultivated and recruited a former Australian politician,” Burgess said.
“This politician sold out their country, party and former colleagues to advance the interests of the foreign regime. At one point, the former politician even proposed bringing a prime minister’s family member into the spies’ orbit.
“Fortunately, that plot did not go ahead but other schemes did.”
Former treasurer and United States ambassador Joe Hockey said it was absurd that Burgess had declined to name the former politician while making such explosive claims.
“The idea that you can make an allegation like that and say nothing, pretend it didn’t happen, is absolutely ridiculous,” Hockey told ABC radio.
“It’s crazy, and it’s unsustainable.”
Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said he had a “fair idea” who the former politician was but that it did not matter whether their identity was revealed.
“Every politician is a target,” he said. “The people around us, including our staff and family members and associates, are targets, and we need to approach our work with that in mind.
“This is a different strategic environment that we’re operating in, and naivety about those threats is not healthy.”
Don Rothwell, an expert in international law at the Australian National University, said Burgess’ comments suggested the alleged conduct took place before December 10, 2018, when parliament passed foreign interference laws, or that ASIO had determined there was not a strong enough case to support a prosecution.
“The result is that the conduct of the politician has been revealed in the public domain but no criminal charges will be laid,” he said.
Rory Medcalf, head of the Australian National University’s national security college, said: “It’s understandable that the director-general of security did not name the former politician whose treacherous behaviour he outlined.
“The threshold for conviction using admissible evidence is not the same as for reaching a confident judgment in an intelligence assessment using secret methods, and that’s apart from the fact that apparently, the offence in question occurred before the introduction of foreign interference laws in 2018.”
Credit: Matt Golding
But Medcalf said he wished Burgess had explained whether the former politician was motivated by money, ideology, compromise or ego.
“This detail would help in reducing the risk of future such betrayals,” he said.
A veteran of the national security community questioned Burgess’ decision to raise the claim, and asked: “If the person did betray the country rather than simply being suspected of betraying the country, why aren’t they in prison?”
In his annual threat assessment, Burgess said successful convictions were not the only way to measure whether security and law enforcement agencies were successfully disrupting espionage and foreign interference operations.
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