Australian politician ‘sold’ country to foreign spy ring: intelligence chief

A former politician “sold out” Australia to a foreign intelligence service, the country’s spy chief said on Wednesday, adding that his agency had confronted the spy ring before discovering they had been exposed.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) director-general of security, Mike Burgess, said in an annual speech that he had made public details of the operation, which used professional networking platforms, email and social media to target Australians Was.

He did not name the country involved, but said it had also targeted Australia’s defense industry by offering money for a report on the AUKUS partnership with the US and Britain to build nuclear submarines.

He said the foreign agency had “successfully groomed and recruited a former Australian politician” several years ago. He did not identify the politician and said the person was not charged because he was no longer active.

He said, “This politician sold out his country, party and former colleagues to further the interests of a foreign regime. At one point, the former politician even proposed bringing a family member of the Prime Minister into the spy ring Was.”

This conspiracy did not proceed further, he said, but was carried forward by others.

Burgess referred to the foreign spies as “the A Team” and said they had tried to lure Australians with national security information by offering them consulting roles.

Australian academics and political figures attending an overseas conference were met by “spies in disguise”, he said.

An academic provided the so-called A Team with information about Australia’s national security and defense priorities, he said, while an “aspiring politician” provided political information.

He said, “ASIO disrupted the scheme and confronted the Australians involved. While some were unaware, others knew they were working for a foreign intelligence service.”

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ASIO has severed links between Australian and foreign intelligence services, he said, and many individuals should be “grateful for espionage and foreign interference laws that are not retroactive”.

Burgess said ASIO had “confronted the A-Team directly” during an online encounter with an ASIO officer late last year, and had told him to stop.

“We want the A-Team to know that he has been exposed,” he said.

ASIO has issued a notice to Australian public services warning government workers about the threat, he said.

“We have seen it attempting to recruit students, academics, politicians, business people, researchers, law enforcement officials and civil servants at all levels of government,” he said.

Australia’s Foreign Interference Taskforce has conducted 120 operations since its formation in 2020, he said in the speech.

Australia introduced foreign interference legislation in 2018. Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who introduced the legislation, later said that the “main purpose” of the measures was to expose China’s activities.

In an apparent reference to Volt Typhoon, a Chinese hacking group previously named by the US and Australia as infiltrating Western critical infrastructure, Burgess said a nation state could scan water, transportation and energy networks in Australia and other countries. Was trying to do and target.

“Our assessment is that this government is not actively planning subversion, but is instead continually trying to gain unknown access that could allow it to carry out subversion in the future,” he said, without identifying the country.

China’s Foreign Ministry has previously described the hacking allegations as “baseless” and “extremely irresponsible”.