ASIO's Mike Burgess reveals 'hive of spies', foreign interference plots in 2023 annual threat assessment threat

It comes as the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation warns it's busier than it's ever been with the country's top spy describing the mounting fight against hostile adversaries as like "hand to hand combat".

Plots by foreign intelligence agencies to seek out and gain intelligence from politicians, judicial figures, media, and former defence personnel are also on the domestic spy agency's radar after a series of sophisticated attempts in recent months.

The wide range of threats against Australia are outlined in director-general Mike Burgess' latest annual threat assessment delivered on Tuesday evening.

Mr Burgess' stern warning follows last year's revelation that a smaller, and less dangerous, "nest" of spies had been disrupted in the lead up to the 2022 federal election.

"I want to dispel any sense that espionage is some romantic Cold War notion," he said.

"It's not; it is a real and present danger that demands we take security seriously."

Mr Burgess said foreign interference and espionage attempts had now become the main focus with more "hostile" foreign intelligence services and spies than ever before in Australia's history, including during the Cold War and after the September 11 attacks.

"While threat to life will always be a priority for ASIO, espionage and foreign interference is now our principal security concern," Mr Burgess said.

"Countering threats to our way of life is soaking up more and more of our resources."

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One example included ASIO's work to detect and disrupt a major spy network referred to as a "hive", the top spy revealed.

Unlike an earlier example revealed by Mr Burgess, this threat "was bigger and more dangerous" and sought to steal sensitive information through proxies and agents.

Mr Burgess did not reveal any operational details, or which country the spies were linked to, but described them as "highly trained" and using sophisticated tradecraft to try to disguise their activities.

"We watched them. We mapped their activities. We mounted an intense and sustained campaign of operational activity. We confronted them. And working with our partners, we removed them from this country, privately and professionally," he said.

"The hive is history."

The spymaster warned foreign services were on the hunt for sources, and insiders, across a range of professions.

Among those are judicial figures, prompting Mr Burgess to reveal his agency was investigating a small number of cases where suspicious approaches had been made.

"While we are yet to conclusively conclude they were targeted by foreign intelligence services, we do know spies want insights into court cases relevant to their governments, and are seeking to use litigation as an intelligence collection tool," he said, adding there had been similar cases in the United States.

Media figures, and in particular well-connected senior journalists, were also on the agency's list.

ASIO had also uncovered a plot where influential journalists were to be offered an all-expenses paid "study tour" of a foreign country.

Mr Burgess said the spies had planned to "ingratiate themselves with the reporters, try to elicit insights on political, economic, defence and other issues, and identify any vulnerabilities that could be leveraged later".

"The watchers are being watched; the reporters are being reported on; the press is being pressed," he said.

"We have seen journalists, producers and commentators targeted by spies in person, with the spies seeking to influence reporting, discover sources and obtain privileged information."

The risk also extended to defence personnel and security clearance holders, which Mr Burgess said had the potential to be "unwitting lackeys and witting lackeys".

Reports have surfaced that former defence personnel have been approached by foreign governments, such as China, to train their military for financial reward.

Mr Burgess said ASIO and its partners had stopped some former insiders from travelling overseas but were unable to intervene in other cases.

"These individuals are lackeys, more 'top tools' than 'top guns'," he said.

"Selling our warfighting skills is no different to selling our secrets - especially when the training and tactics are being transferred to countries that will use them to close capability gaps, and could use them against us or our allies at some time in the future."

ASIO last year lowered the terrorism threat level from "probable" to "possible" but Mr Burgess this didn't mean the threat of domestic violence had been extinguished.

A few short weeks after the security agency announced the threat level change, three people, two of them former principals, shot down two police officers and their neighbour in the Queensland locality of Wieambilla.

The killings have since been confirmed to be religiously-motivated terrorism attack - the first related to extremist Christian beliefs.

Mr Burgess said the circulation of extremist content online had fastened the radicalisation "flash to bang" for some individuals.

The investigation into the Wieambilla shootings is ongoing but he ruled out the killers had embraced "a racist and nationalist ideology or were sovereign citizens, despite their anti-authority and conspiratorial beliefs".

Some experts and commentators suggested the trio might be considered "sovereign citizens" - a group of people who don't believe the Australian government, including any of its laws or structures, has any legitimacy.

Mr Burgess said it was not helpful for commentators to make public assessments, with many failing to differentiate between extreme views and violent extremism along with assigning some ideologically-motivated extremism as left wing or right wing.

"It's disappointing some commentators and self-proclaimed terrorism experts were so quick to make definitive declarations about motivations, ideologies and political alignments in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy," he said.

"Proper, sober, accurate assessments require time and multiple inputs, including intelligence.

"Words matter. Facts matter. Actions matter. If we, as a community, persist in getting the diagnosis wrong, we will struggle to find a cure."