By Kirsty Needham
CANBERRA (Reuters) -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 to let them know their cover had been blown.
Director-general of security for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), Mike Burgess, said in an annual speech he had declassified details of the operation, which used professional networking platforms, email and social media to target Australians.
He did not name the country involved, but said it had also targeted Australia’s defence industry, offering money for reports on the AUKUS partnership with the U.S. and Britain to build nuclear submarines.
He said the foreign agency had “successfully cultivated and recruited a former Australian politician” several years ago. He did not identify the politician, and said the person had not been charged because they were no longer active.
“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,” he said.
This plot did not go ahead, he added, but others did.
Burgess referred to the foreign spies as the “A Team” and said they had tried to attract 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.
One academic gave the so-called A Team information about Australia’s national security and defence priorities, while an “aspiring politician” provided political information, he said.
“ASIO disrupted this scheme and confronted the Australians involved. While some were unwitting, others knew they were working for a foreign intelligence service,” he said.
LINKS SEVERED
ASIO severed links between the Australians and the foreign intelligence service, he said, adding several individuals “should be grateful the espionage and foreign interference laws are not retrospective”.
Burgess said ASIO had “confronted the A-team directly” late last year, during an online encounter with an ASIO officer, and told it to stop.
“We want the A-team to know its cover is blown,” he said.
ASIO has issued a notice to Australian public services warning government employees about the threat, he said.
“We have seen it try to recruit students, academics, politicians, business people, researchers, law enforcement officials and public servants at all levels of government,” he said.
Australia’s foreign interference taskforce has conducted 120 operations since it was formed in 2020, he said in the speech.
Australia introduced foreign interference laws in 2018. Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who introduced the laws, later said the “key 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 U.S. and Australia as infiltrating Western critical infrastructure, Burgess said one nation state was attempting to scan and target water, transport and energy networks in Australia and other countries.
“We assess this government is not actively planning sabotage, but is trying to gain persistent undetected access that could allow it to conduct sabotage in the future,” he said, without identifying the country.
China’s foreign ministry has previously called the accusations of hacking “groundless” and “extremely irresponsible”.
(Reporting by Kirsty Needham: Editing by Neil Fullick and Alex Richardson)
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