- ASIO chief lists 'incels' and radicalised youth as security threats in Australia (Australian Security Intelligence Organization)
- Mike Burgess gave a rare interview on ABC 7.30 to discuss national security
- Incels are 'violent misogynists' present in Australia, Mr Burgess said
- He said ASIO had uncovered a 'nest of spies' in Australia the past two years
- Mr Burgess said recent politicisation of national security was 'unhelpful'
PUBLISHED: 23:16 GMT, 16 February 2022 | UPDATED: 23:24 GMT, 16 February 2022
Australia's top domestic spy chief has warned 'incels' and radicalised teenagers as young as 13 are among the country's biggest security threats.
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director-general Mike Burgess said 'it was not helpful' that national security issues were being politicised.
But he also revealed lesser-known security threats the agency is closely monitoring alongside far-right and Islamic terrorism and foreign spies.
Incel is short for involuntary celibate, an online subculture of men who express rage at women for denying them sex.
Originally formed in a Reddit group, incels frequently fantasise about violence and have been known to celebrate mass shootings.
'They are misogynists who believe women are the root of all of their problems and they've killed people overseas,' Mr Burgess told the 7.30 report on Wednesday night.
'We have people with those beliefs here in this country.'
ASIO chief Mike Burgess appeared on ABC's 7.30 and said incels and radicalised youth were among the security threats his organisation was dealing with in Australia
Mr Burgess also nominated the growing radicalisation of impressionable young people as 'most concerning'.
'We've seen an increase in the number of minors being radicalised. The age of them is decreasing. One of our youngest subjects is 13,' he said.
'It happens online and it happens actually in the real world, including in the schoolyard.
'We see minors who are actually attempting to recruit and radicalise other minors, using techniques similar to that you'd expect paedophiles to use - flattery, friendship, bringing them in, actually showing them material that gradually increases in terms of how horrific it is.
'And then turning it through intimidation, threats of isolation and bullying them to actually get them into their ideology.'
Mr Burgess said more than half of the security organisation's case load involved minors, who were being recruited both to far-right and radicalised religious causes.
'We've seen an increase in the number of minors being radicalised. One of our youngest subjects is 13. It happens online and it happens actually in the real world, including in the schoolyard,' Mr Burgess said
Lawful protest and dissent, such as that seen in anti-vaccine mandate protests in Canberra in recent weeks, were not of interest to ASIO, Mr Burgess said
Mr Burgess said the usual threats were still present and within the past two years, ASIO uncovered a 'nest of spies' in Australia and quietly removed it.
'They were looking to monitor a diaspora community and looking to steal defence technologies, they were looking to get access to police records, to follow up on people,' he said.
'They were trying to get access to security protocols at a major international airport.'
Mr Burgess agreed that the Covid-19 pandemic increased the threat from radicalised segments of society and 'anti-democratic behaviour'.
He said ASIO was not concerned with 'lawful' protest and dissent as seen at the recent 'Convoy to Canberra' anti-vaccine mandate protests.
'We predicted there would be a rise of anti-government, anti-democratic behaviour but it's not just Covid that's done that,' he said.
'There's a disturbing rise, including nationalism and racism and violent extremism, which are the grievances we see here.
'We predicted there would be a rise of anti-government, anti-democratic behaviour but it's not just Covid that's done that,' Mr Burgess told 7.30
'There are a small number of individuals that do act, think and plan, and will go to violence.
'The most likely terrorist attack in Australia continues to be the actions of an individual or a group of individuals that motivate to violence with little or no warning.'
But Mr Burgess said espionage and foreign interference had supplanted terrorism as his organisation's chief concern.
The spy chief said he was concerned national security was being politicised.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Defence Minister Peter Dutton suggested in Parliament on Wednesday claimed the Labor Opposition was sympathetic to China.
They also claimed Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese was the superpower's preferred candidate as prime minister.
Mr Morrison then labelled Deputy Opposition Leader Richard Marles a 'Manchurian candidate' during question time, a comment he later withdrew.
The reference is to a 1959 book in which a politician is used as a puppet by an enemy power.
'I'll leave the politics to the politicians but I'm very clear with everyone that I need to be, that that's not helpful for us,' Mr Burgess said of the comments.
Men who NEVER have sex are one of Australia's threats: ASIO boss
ASIO boss Mike Burgess has warned of a variety of security threats to Australia, including from 'incels', radicalised minors and a 'nest of spies' in a rare interview about national security.
