Australia’s spy chief says foreign interference is ‘existential threat’ but avoids mentioning China
- Duncan Lewis, who is retiring this month, described the risks of espionage in an hour-long speech but did not mention China once
- Political rhetoric around actual or perceived Chinese influence in Australia has escalated in recent months
Duncan Lewis, the director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio), will retire this month after a five-year term, handing over to Signals Directorate (ASD) boss Mike Burgess.
He told a Lowy Institute forum on Wednesday night that of the three major “vectors” threatening Australia’s security – espionage and foreign interference; terrorism; and cybersecurity – the interference of hostile state actors posed the most serious threat.
“It’s my view that currently, the issue of espionage and foreign interference is by far and away the most serious issue going forward,” Lewis said. “Terrorism has never been an existential threat to established states – for weaker states, yes, but for a place like Australia terrorism is not an existential threat to the state. It is a terrible risk that our populations run and it is a very serious matter which must be addressed every day: the counter-espionage and foreign interference issue, however, is something which is ultimately an existential threat to the state.”
While terrorist attacks attracted intense public attention, Lewis said, the threat of espionage was often harder to immediately recognise.
“The harm from acts of espionage may not present for years or even decades … these sorts of activities are typically quiet, insidious and have a long tail.”
Lewis stressed that terrorism remained a threat, and its risk was “unacceptably high”.