More Australians are being targeted for espionage than ever before, but Australia's top spy says public servants, academics and business people have told him to “ease up” on foreign spies.
In his fourth annual assessment speech on Tuesday night, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation Director-General Mike Burgess said that countering espionage and foreign interference, and the threats they pose to our way of life, was now the agency’s “principal security concern”.
ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess said more Australians are the targets of espionage than ever before. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage“I am concerned that there are senior people in this country who appear to believe that espionage and foreign interference is no big deal; it’s something that can be tolerated or ignored or somehow safely managed,” Mr Burgess said
Mr Burgess said these people made “flimsy” arguments, such as: “all countries spy on each other”, “we were going to make the information public anyway”, “it’s no different to lobbying or networking”, and “the foreign government might make things difficult for us”.
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