Key events
Ben Doherty
Mike Burgess also made some more off the cuff remarks about China in his appearance at the Lowy.
Asked about a reported visit to Beijing in 2023 – Burgess would not confirm or deny the trip – Burgess said he spoke regularly with intelligence agencies from hostile countries. Asio has relationships with more than 351 civilian and military intelligence agencies in 124 countries, he said.
He said of China:
I did not mention China… but how do you know I wasn’t talking about things China did in my remarks?
We all spy on each other. But we don’t conduct wholesale intellectual property theft, we don’t interfere in political systems, and we don’t undertake high-harm activity.
Ben Doherty
Asio chief Mike Burgess gave a speech at the Lowy Institute last night in which he warned that there were “at least” three countries whose governments were prepared to carry out political assassinations in Australia.
We have the full story here, but Burgess elaborated on his remarks in conversation with Lowy Institute director Michael Fullilove after he had made the speech.
The Asio chief agreed his warning carried an “alarming message” but added that Australians needed to be told. He said:
I think it’s incredibly important Australians understand we now live in a world where that is possible… Australia is a long way from everywhere, but not from the threat.
Questioned on his remarks that there were “at least three countries… willing and capable” of conducting assassinations, Burgess said:
The countries I didn’t mention by name, know who I’m talking about… by mentioning them publicly, I’m also putting them on notice that we know some of them are prepared to do this. And we will do our damndest to stop them before it happens.
Albanese government ‘addicted to secrecy’ after Nauru deportations, Greens senator says
Sarah Basford Canales
The Greens senator, David Shoebridge, has accused the Albanese government of being “addicted to secrecy” after Guardian Australia learned of at least two other men being quietly deported to Nauru last week.
One of the men was a Sudanese national who sources said was detained within Yongah Hill immigration centre, near Perth, while the other was chartered from another centre within the country.
When the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, was asked about the deportation yesterday, he said: “If people have had their visas cancelled, we expect them to leave.”
Shoebridge, who is the minor party’s immigration spokesperson, said the government had put up a “wall of secrecy” over the deportations.
Forcibly removing people to a country they have never been to, with no connection to, with no oversight and in complete secrecy is not how any democracy should be behaving …
A government that thinks it is okay to do this is one that has lost its moral compass.
While the Albanese government has put up a wall of secrecy, we are relying on breadcrumbs of information that fall from the Nauru government and civil society.
$2bn in public wealth is being poured into this cruel policy, and minister Burke seems hellbent on making sure no one can question him or get the most basic information on what’s occurring.
Reports that one of the people sent to Nauru is from Sudan is especially frightening, when we know the Nauruan president has said the end goal is to send people back to the countries they have fled.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with some of the best overnight stories before Krishani Dhanji takes the controls.
Asio chief Mike Burgess gave a speech at the Lowy Institute in Sydney last night in which he said there were “at least” three countries whose governments were prepared to carry out assassinations on Australian soil. Asked whether it was too alarming, Burgess said that it was “incredibly important” for Australians to understand the dangers the country faced.
The Greens have accused the Albanese government of being “addicted to secrecy” after Guardian Australia learned that at least two more men were deported to Nauru last week without any public statement. Greens senator David Shoebridge said forcibly removing people from Australia under complete secrecy is not how a democracy should behave.
