00:00 So every year the boss of Australia's domestic spy agency, that's ASIO, gives this annual
00:06 threat assessment and sort of runs through the state of play here in Australia.
00:11 One of the stories that Mike Burgess put forward and told the Australian public was the fact
00:16 that there was this international spying operating here in Australia.
00:20 ASIO spies had dubbed this team the A-Team and basically what they were doing was recruiting
00:26 academics, business people, law enforcement officers to try and gain information about
00:31 Australia.
00:32 But they also did successfully recruit a now former politician.
00:37 We were told that this politician was recruited by this group of international spies and that
00:42 also this person had tried to get a relative of a particular Prime Minister essentially
00:48 brought into the orbit of this spying but that part wasn't successful.
00:52 Now at the time when Mike Burgess gave this speech last week he didn't provide any details
00:56 about who this person was only to say that they were now a former politician.
01:01 But we've since had confirmation from Mike Burgess that this person, while they're a
01:05 former politician now, they were actually a serving member of an Australian Parliament
01:10 when they were recruited and when they were helping this international spy ring.
01:15 Mike Burgess wouldn't say still which party this person is affiliated with or even what
01:21 level of government they were working for but he also did confirm that this was all
01:26 occurring before 2018.
01:29 Last week the former Treasurer Joe Hockey urged ASIO to name the former politician didn't
01:34 he and said that in not doing so it potentially smeared all former and current politicians.
01:39 I mean is it likely that that will happen?
01:43 Very unlikely Lorna at this stage and just going back to what Joe Hockey said he was
01:47 furious last week demanding that ASIO not just name but shame this person.
01:53 He also went on to say that not naming this person would besmirch the reputation of every
01:58 politician until that politician was named.
02:02 But Mike Burgess in an interview with SBS News was arguing the fact that by telling
02:08 people about this particular incident it was more about raising awareness and that was
02:14 the right move.
02:15 He's defended how he's told this story and the fact that he hasn't named who this
02:21 person is.
02:22 From a political point of view the government is very much behind not providing any more
02:27 information.
02:28 They say they're guided by the intelligence agencies.
02:30 On the coalition side you've got a mixture of opinions there but Mike Burgess defending
02:34 the decision not to name this person saying it's more about raising awareness that foreign
02:39 intelligence is a threat and an ongoing threat here in Australia.
02:44 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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