In a fresh assault on Wong Former Prime Minister Paul Keating has accused Foreign Minister Penny Wong of rattling “the China can” and declared the chief of ASIO, Mike Burgess, runs “a goon show”.
ASIO is effective in defeating threats and being transparent in reporting on them, but its latest annual threat assessment leaves room to question its strategic priorities.
A Sydney man has been arrested under Australia’s foreign interference laws for sharing what he claims was open-source information. It could be a test case for the new laws.
If you were to believe the Morrison government, you’d think Anthony Albanese as prime minister would sell out Australia’s interests to China, give criminals a break, and perhaps sneak in a death tax.
ASIO is changing the language it uses to describe violent threats, because it says the current labels, such as “left”, “right” and “Islamic” are no longer fit for purpose.“
There is a deep and widening gulf in trust and communications between the agencies and the media that has clearly boiled over in ways that damage both institutions.
Amid increasingly sophisticated ploys online, it can be difficult to tell the difference between innocent social networking and a national security offence.
Some changes in the new security bill submitted to parliament last week are welcome, but others require careful scrutiny, especially when the rights of children are at stake.
My assessment is that there are about 150 to 300 core right-wing activists in New Zealand. This might sound modest – but proportionate to population, it’s similar to extremist numbers in Germany.
Michelle Grattan about the week in politics, including the implementation of an emergency plan to tackle the spread of coronavirus, climate change policy, national security and Bettina Arndt