ASIO admits agency limits after Bondi antisemitic mass shooting

Australia’s chief security officer, Mike Burgess, used his annual stump speech in the form of the Australian Security Intelligence Agency’s threat assessment public briefing to warn that an escalating climate of intolerance and grievance poses an amplified and multi-factorial set of threats to national security that now transcend traditional vectors.

In a blunt but nuanced speech diplomatically defending his agency’s performance following the anti-Semitic mass attack in Bondi during Hanukkah last December, Burgess argued that his agency knew the national security environment was “degrading” and that “politically motivated acts of violence were becoming more likely.” [the formal threat level] ‘possible’ suggests”.