Asio chief says intelligence is ‘not here to be politicised’ after Dutton accuses Labor
The Asio chief has declared that his intelligence agency is “not here to be politicised”, vowing to defend its independence after the leak of details of an alleged foreign interference plot.
Mike Burgess confirmed he held no concerns about any Labor candidates at the next federal election, and people should “definitely not” assume an Asio employee was responsible when news reports attributed information to “security sources”.
Burgess told the Senate committee that when he delivered his annual threat assessment speech last Wednesday, he “deliberately chose not to identify the election, jurisdiction, party, the individuals that were targets, or the country attempting to conduct the interference”.
That, the Asio chief said, was because attempts at foreign interference were “not confined to one side of politics” and were being seen “at all levels of government, in all states and territories”.
