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The Prime Minister has defended the decision not to name a former Australian politician who betrayed the nation after being recruited by foreign spies.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess revealed that a former politician had been caught in a spy ring and “sold out his country, his party and his former colleagues”.
Since then, he has been under intense pressure from politicians and the public to name the individual.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he has confidence in the intelligence organisation.
“The idea of any minister in my government acting against the wishes of the director-general of ASIO seems quite extraordinary to me,” he told reporters in Melbourne on Friday.
ASIO chief Mike Burgess presented his annual threat assessment on Wednesday, warning against the growing threat of foreign espionage and interference.
Burgess made an independent decision not to name the person, and Albanese said CEO speeches are not the responsibility of his office.
He revealed that he did not know who the person was, but “what we know is that it was wrong.”
“One of the things we must do as a nation is build trust in our agencies, not engage in short-term politics or speculation as some have done; that is not responsible,” he said.
“I will support our national security agencies and I believe all political sectors should do so.”
Burgess said the spy agency was sticking to its long-standing practice of not publicly discussing operational details.
“There are multiple reasons for this, including the need to protect our sources and capabilities,” he said in a statement late Thursday.
The Prime Minister has defended the decision not to name a former Australian politician who betrayed the nation after being recruited by foreign spies
“In this case, while we want the foreign intelligence service to know that their cover has been blown, we don’t want them to reveal how we discovered their activities.”
Burgess said it was a “historical matter that was dealt with appropriately at the time” and that the person was no longer a security concern.
Foreign interference laws went into effect at the end of 2018.
Professor Don Rothwell, an expert in international law, said one might think the former politician was active before then or that authorities did not have enough evidence to support a prosecution.
Several cross-party MPs, speaking to AAP on condition of anonymity, expressed reservations about the retrospective application of the 2018 law despite being outraged by the individual’s conduct.
Reasons for this included that it was legally dubious to modernize the laws and that a person should not be attacked for following the laws of the country at the time.
But another wanted all means to be used to ensure the person faced justice and did not get away with “betraying their country.”
“There is a line and this crosses partisan politics,” they said.
The head of ASIO claimed that an unnamed Australian politician had “sold out” his country to a foreign adviser (pictured, the Australian Parliament in Canberra).
Opposition leader Peter Dutton supports the debate on modernizing the laws, as “the most atrocious act is that of someone in public office who betrays their country.”
In the same speech that exposed the former politician and exposed Australian academics and a political party member caught in the web of the foreign spy ring, Burgess said the above actions would be covered by current laws.
“A number of individuals should be grateful that the espionage and foreign interference laws are not retrospective,” Mr. Burgess said.
It was also difficult to prosecute someone under foreign interference or espionage laws, including because it required the use of classified material that agencies did not want in the public domain, opposition defense spokesman Andrew Hastie said.
The first person found guilty under the 2018 foreign interference laws was former Liberal Party candidate Di Sanh Duong on Thursday.
He will spend 12 months behind bars after cultivating a relationship with the then federal multicultural affairs minister, Alan Tudge, on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.