Intelligence officials have helped thwart several attempts by foreign governments to harm or even assassinate critics on Australian soil. The country’s spy chief has made the alarming revelation, while warning of the most complex and challenging security environmental in decades.
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00:00Taking a front-row seat, China's ambassador welcomed inside ASIO headquarters to hear
00:08from the country's spy chief.
00:12The Director-General beginning his annual address with a blunt warning.
00:16ASIO assesses we are likely to have more security surprises in the second half of the decade
00:22than we did in the first.
00:24A wave of anti-Semitic attacks across Australia continues to be closely monitored.
00:30I'm concerned these attacks have not yet plateaued.
00:32Politically motivated violence is raising the temperature of the security environment
00:35and making acts of terrorism more likely.
00:38Mike Burgess also revealing several recently thwarted foreign assassination plots here.
00:45ASIO investigations have identified at least three different countries plotting to physically
00:49harm people in Australia.
00:51We will not tolerate the surveillance, harassment or intimidation of anyone anywhere in Australia.
00:59There is a short list of obvious candidates for this kind of behaviour, malign states,
01:03authoritarian states that have an interest in harming our democracy and harming our citizens.
01:07With a federal election looming, the ASIO boss has also put certain nations on notice
01:13not to attempt any interference, revealing special teams have been formed with the Electoral
01:19Commission to protect the democratic contest.
01:22A message heard loud and clear last night by at least one diplomat.