The boss of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s (ASIO), Mike Burgess, has made a revelation to the public that has turned the entire Australian political world onto its head: that a former politician was recruited by an international spy ring and “sold out their country, party and former colleagues”.
It had already been a wild week for Auspol following the retirement of Scott Morrison, news that UAP member and ivermectin advertisement Craig Kelly would join Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party, and whatever the hell Bob Katter was doing dressed as a pig.
Honoured to follow Pauline Hanson into battle.
— Craig Kelly (@CraigKellyPHON) February 28, 2024
You know she’ll stand up and fight for Australia.
Come and join the fight to save the nation.https://t.co/iQzJ1NlHR9 https://t.co/S20doSzD2n pic.twitter.com/DV3plS1NKk
However the batshit transitioned from wacky to dangerous when Burgess made allegations on Wednesday evening that an unnamed ex-politician had committed highly treasonous acts with a team of foreign spies.
Former politician worked for foreign spy ring
Labelling the international spy ring as “The A-Team” — with the A referring to Australia — Burgess disclosed how several years ago the A-Team had “successfully cultivated and recruited a former Australian politician”.
The ASIO boss then shared how this former politician was actively involved in plots that aimed to get the A-Team closer to other members of the Australian parliament.
“This politician sold out their country, party and former colleagues to advance the interests of the foreign regime,” stated Burgess.
“At one point, the former politician even proposed bringing a prime minister’s family member into the spies’ orbit. Fortunately that plot did not go ahead but other schemes did.”
Burgess and ASIO have intentionally chosen not to name who the politician is.
ASIO refusing to name the politician accused of being a foreign spy.
— Savannah 🇵🇸🍉 (@SavvyBeeBen) February 28, 2024
Guess you could call them “the unknown” pic.twitter.com/zrX9btLA9Q
The news has sent a shock through the political world, as politicians struggle to cope with the possibility that one of their own might not be entirely trustworthy. Wild to believe, I know.
“We all have to do a better job of protecting ourselves,” Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said to the ABC.
“Every politician in this country needs to understand that the work they do and the information they have is incredibly valuable to foreign governments and there will be attempts to use friendships, to use networks, to use technology to try to find out that information.”
Politicians want the ‘traitor’ unmasked
As the allegation regards to former politicians, some past members of Parliament have said the ASIO boss should declare who the “traitor” is, including calls from former Liberal Treasurer Joe Hockey who said it’s “absurd” the name hasn’t been revealed.
“I can only think that the head of ASIO was fully aware that there would be calls for that person to be named, because it is absolutely inconceivable that you would have a former politician representing their community, representing the country, who then goes and engages with a foreign adversary, and somehow they’re allowed to walk off into the sunset without having their name or their reputation revealed,” Hockey said to the ABC.
Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton agreed with this sentiment, saying to 2GB that if Burgess “doesn’t indicate the name, there’s a cloud hanging over everybody else”.
So why hasn’t the name been made public?
Director-General of Security @MikePBurgess will deliver his fifth Annual Threat Assessment this evening. Follow us as we share highlights from the speech. The full transcript will be available on https://t.co/eXBKNy5OKQ at the conclusion of the address. pic.twitter.com/Aa54bUXylm
— ASIO (@ASIOGovAu) February 28, 2024
Espionage laws create grey area
In 2018 the Government made massive changes to the espionage and intelligence laws, to broaden and modernise the definition of what counted as espionage.
However, when adding new offences to the Espionage and Foreign Interference Act 2018, the amendment did not include that it could take action against crimes retroactively. Therefore any acts that were committed prior to 2018, though they may now be defined as espionage, the perpetrator could not be charged under the new laws.
The reason this matters is because Burgess has not shared exactly when the former politician began working with the A-Team.
If the actions were committed before the new definition of espionage was made, then the ex-politician could potentially argue that what they did was not actually illegal.
Sure, they may have sold out their country to overseas spies — but back then it didn’t count as espionage, so you can’t name them and call them a traitor.
Well, you could. But your lawyers would not be happy about it.
And as much as we’d love to play a game of defamation roulette, I don’t have enough annual leave to cope with the court case anyway.
All in all, just another absolutely batshit day in the world of Australian politics. What a country.
