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From 19m ago 03.49 BST Asio chief Mike Burgess says national terrorism risk remains at 'upper end of probable' Caitlin Cassidy The national terrorism risk
From 19m ago 03.49 BST Asio chief Mike Burgess says national terrorism risk remains at 'upper end of probable' Caitlin Cassidy The national terrorism risk remains at the ‘upper end of probable’ in the aftermath of the Bondi terror attack, Mike Burgess has told the royal commission. Asio’s director general said the “temperature is higher” than when the threat level was raised to probable in 2024, which means a greater than 50% chance someone will plan to undertake an act of terror. He said in 2024, the war in the Middle East invoked a “range of emotions” in Australia and “those behaviours including antisemitism that, in our view, that were left unchecked, were therefore normalised and gave more permission for violence through 2023 and through to August [2024] when we raised it”. In the current security environment, Burgess said there is a “concerning trajectory, as in it’s getting hotter”. double quotation mark There is more permission for violence and an environment where people can go to violence with little or no warning means we’re on the upper end of probable. The next level up is expected. But in the current system, that requires us to have specific intelligence that there is a plan and a location for an act of terror. Burgess said Asio continues to put the resources “where we know the threat is” and is investigating matters “out of abundance of caution”, including ensuring “individuals in Australia who might have connections with Iran and the IRGC are not a security problem”. Asked if the public could be assured Asio had sufficient resources and powers to respond to antisemitic conduct, Burgess said “I believe they can”. His public testimony has concluded. Share Updated at 03.53 BST 7m ago 04.01 BST Caitlin Cassidy ‘Absolutely a concern’ in 2025 that antisemitism could lead to terror attacks, AFP assistant commissioner says Assistant commissioner of the AFP, Stephen Nutt, is the next witness at the royal commission. He confirms the AFP had no role in providing resources to the Hanukah event at Bondi when the terror attack occurred. Nutt says prior to the attack on Israel in 2023, antisemitism was not investigated by a specific AFP command or task force. That has since changed, with antisemitism becoming a strategic priority for law enforcement agencies. double quotation mark What we started to see was … the increase in the temperature in the community, where we saw protest activity, which is a legitimate part of functioning democracy, turn violent … We saw increasingly antisemitic chants, we saw gatherings where praise around the attack was occurring, and we also saw an increasingly open display of prohibited hate symbols. One of the incidents Nutt was pointed to was the Dural caravan explosives hoax in January 2025, which he alleged was part of a fabricated terrorism plot but achieved its desired effect in having a “very concerning impact on the Jewish community’s feeling of safety, but also more broadly across Australia”. He says at the time, the AFP wasn’t just concerned about threats of vandalism and abuse towards the Jewish community, but also “religiously motivated violent extremism, ideologically motivated violent extremism, and also politically motivated violent extremism”. double quotation mark There was absolutely a concern that antisemitism could escalate to actual terrorist acts. Share Updated at 04.06 BST 19m ago 03.49 BST Asio chief Mike Burgess says national terrorism risk remains at 'upper end of probable' Caitlin Cassidy The national terrorism risk remains at the ‘upper end of probable’ in the aftermath of the Bondi terror attack, Mike Burgess has told the royal commission. Asio’s director general said the “temperature is higher” than when the threat level was raised to probable in 2024, which means a greater than 50% chance someone will plan to undertake an act of terror.
He said in 2024, the war in the Middle East invoked a “range of emotions” in Australia and “those behaviours including antisemitism that, in our view, that were left unchecked, were therefore normalised and gave more permission for violence through 2023 and through to August [2024] when we raised it”. In the current security environment, Burgess said there is a “concerning trajectory, as in it’s getting hotter”. double quotation mark There is more permission for violence and an environment where people can go to violence with little or no warning means we’re on the upper end of probable. The next level up is expected. But in the current system, that requires us to have specific intelligence that there is a plan and a location for an act of terror. Burgess said Asio continues to put the resources “where we know the threat is” and is investigating matters “out of abundance of caution”, including ensuring “individuals in Australia who might have connections with Iran and the IRGC are not a security problem”. Asked if the public could be assured Asio had sufficient resources and powers to respond to antisemitic conduct, Burgess said “I believe they can”. His public testimony has concluded. Share Updated at 03.53 BST 28m ago 03.39 BST Caitlin Cassidy Asio didn’t request extra resources in 2025 as ‘no serious matters’ were left untreated, royal commission hears Mike Burgess has told the royal commission that Asio did not ask the federal government for extra resourcing in 2025 as there were no “serious matters” that couldn’t be addressed. Pressed on whether additional resources would have better allowed Asio to address threats of political violence, the director general replied: double quotation mark Even if we’d identified that we needed more resources, the very nature of our recruitment and clearance process would have seen a 12-month lag before those resources came onboard. But of course it’s my day job to look at that... I am very clear that we knew we were busy and we had a lot on our plate. Again, I fall back on: at no time did we have serious matters that we knew about that we were leaving untreated – because that is the important measure for me in terms of the effectiveness of the security service. Burgess said it was correct that despite an overall increase in funding to Asio from 2020 to 2025, the proportion of money allocated to counter-terrorism significantly declined in the same period, as the commission’s interim report found. But he said “that’s an allocation of funding across the entire national intelligence community”. double quotation mark It’s not a one-for-one representation of what my organization is doing in identifying and understanding these threats, including counter-terrorism. Burgess also told the royal commission he didn’t believe all the antisemitic attacks in Australia throughout 2024 and 2025 were orchestrated by Iran. Share Updated at 03.45 BST 38m ago 03.30 BST Caitlin Cassidy Preventing lone actors from carrying out attacks ‘extremely hard’ for Asio, royal commission hears The royal commission line of questioning has moved to 2024, when Asio lifted its national terrorism threat to “probable”, with politically motivated violence joining espionage and foreign interference as the body’s principal security concerns. At the time, Mike Burgess said hateful rhetoric had targeted Israeli and Jewish communities as well as Muslim and Palestinian communities, and raised concerns over the potential for lone actors to commit terror attacks. Burgess told the royal commission the war in the Middle East was a factor in raising the threat to “probable”, and the risk of lone actors was difficult to counter. double quotation mark During the height of the caliphate and prior to that, we had groups like Al-Qaeda that would plan complex terrorist attacks offshore in western countries.
And whilst that was still a possibility, the most likely possibility was a lone actor going to violence with little or no warning … That’s where it gets extremely hard for us … It’s hard for someone to call the police or the national security hotline or for us to pick up indications, that is just the nature of the threat environment we have today. Under our law, which is appropriate, all my officers’ actions have to be proportionate to the threat we’re facing and lawful, and under law, we can’t be everywhere. We’re not all-seeing and all-knowing and we don’t aspire to be. Share Updated at 03.33 BST 50m ago 03.18 BST Concerns raised with Israel over behaviour of Ben-Gvir, Albanese says Albanese says the treatment of Australian and international activists detained by Israel was not consistent with how “we want anyone treated”. He’s asked about a request from Australian activist Gemma O’Toole to discuss how she was treated in Israel and whether the government raised concerns about the behaviour of Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, as well as the Israeli forces. View image in fullscreen Anthony Albanese speaks to the media during a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Monday, 25 May, 2026. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP The PM brushes off the meeting request and says “I’m not going to respond without any notice for someone I don’t know, I don’t know their circumstances.” He adds: double quotation mark The government made our position very clear, and it went to the behaviour of Ben-Gvir. I think that people will have a look at the way that people were treated. It isn’t consistent with how we want Australians – I go further than that, how we want anyone – treated. This morning cabinet minister Mark Butler was stronger and said the treatment of Australians in Israel was “disgraceful”. Share Updated at 03.39 BST 55m ago 03.13 BST Labor to wedge Coalition on tax cuts and negative gearing The PM says the legislation introduced Thursday will include measures announced in the budget including the working Australian tax offset (Wato), standard $1,000 tax deduction, and changes to negative gearing and CGT. This poses a problem for the Liberals, who have promised to support the Wato but vehemently oppose the tax concession changes. It looks and sounds like a big ol’ political wedge to me. Share Updated at 03.19 BST 1h ago 03.04 BST Labor to introduce income tax offset and changes to negative gearing and CGT on Thursday We’re onto questions and the PM is asked whether the startup sector will get a carve-out of the capital gains tax changes. Anthony Albanese says that Treasury is consulting with the tech industry but also business sector, which he said the government has been doing since before the budget was handed down. He says the government will introduce legislation to cut taxes and change tax settings on Thursday and that a second tranche of legislation will be introduced later to deal with details and implementation. Albanese also won’t say whether he’s open to a Senate inquiry examining the tax changes. double quotation mark On budget night, we very specifically said that we’d go out there and consult on the details, including the interaction with the rather complex tax system across the board, that we would do that - that we set forward on budget night the direction in which we are talking. We’ll have the core elements, they’ll be in the legislation this Thursday and then, what we will have is legislation with the implementation in detail. That is the normal process that occurs with tax policy.
Share Updated at 03.27 BST 1h ago 02.54 BST PM provides fuel reserves update and confirms supply secure until July Anthony Albanese says that Australia has two more days of jet fuel in reserve than it did before the conflict started in the Middle East in February. The prime minister held another virtual national cabinet meeting this morning as the government continues to try to secure supply while limited fuel goes through the Middle East. There are 38 days of diesel, which the energy minister, Chris Bowen, says is the most supply the country has had since the minimum stock obligation came in 2023. Albanese says: double quotation mark Supply is looking secure into July, and I do want to thank the Australian people for agreeing to do what we asked them to do – which is the hoarding of fuel has stopped, people are taking just what they need, and that means that, for those sectors who rely particularly upon diesel, it is making a difference. Share Updated at 03.06 BST 1h ago 02.47 BST Zali Steggall says feedback from voters for teal party ‘overwhelmingly yes’ Steggall says community feedback has been positive to the idea of a teal party: double quotation mark At the end of the day, it’s got to come from communities and our voters are looking for alternative solutions. The feedback I’m getting is overwhelmingly yes. People are very disillusioned with the major parties. I mean, the Coalition lurched to the far right is a never-ending – it just continues. The appointment of Tony Abbott to be the president of the Liberal party shows, I would argue, that they have not listened to the community and are still not willing to acknowledge the policy areas that they are completely silent or just absent on. And then you have the difficulties of the Labor caucus where there is no free vote. Share Updated at 03.08 BST 1h ago 02.43 BST Cait Kelly Spender says states without strong opposition an ‘opportunity’ to create more options Spender said she is worried about some parts of the country, like WA and SA, which she says do not have strong opposition: double quotation mark I think that there’s an opportunity to say, look, is it an evolution of what we do? Is it more community independents? Is there some different way of working together that can create more options? Well, then I’m certainly open to looking. Share Updated at 03.08 BST 1h ago 02.41 BST Cait Kelly Steggall: ‘There has to be an alterative choice from the major parties and One Nation’ Independents Allegra Spender and Zali Steggall are addressing the media in Parliament House amid speculation about the teals setting up a party. They have confirmed they are in chats. Steggal said: double quotation mark What we are seeing evolve is a growth of One Nation and people frustrated with the major parties. A real change in the Australian political landscape and I think it is beholden on me, myself as a community independent, to take responsibility and look at what the options are and how we evolve and build more consensus to enable more communities to benefit from choice. There has to be an alternative choice from the major parties and One Nation: that is sensible. Share Updated at 03.17 BST
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