Australia’s security agency recently disrupted a surveillance and interference operation by Iran, the country’s home affairs minister has said.
Australian Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said on Tuesday that foreign governments found to be behind operations focused on politicians, academics and community leaders in Australia will be called out in public as such intimidation “operates in the shadows, and our best defence is to bring it into the light”.
“We don’t just need to disrupt these operations but deter future ones by imposing costs on their sponsor through outing them, where possible,” O’Neil told the Australian National University’s National Security College in a speech.
“It is perfectly legal for anyone in Australia to criticise a foreign regime, as tens of thousands of people across the country have been doing in response to events in Iran,” she said.
“What we absolutely will not tolerate, under any circumstances, are attempts by foreign regimes to disrupt peaceful protests, encourage violence or suppress views,” she said, adding that foreign interference was a threat to Australia’s democracy.
“If you engage in activities like this, you will be discovered,” O’Neil wrote in a tweet.
