Latest news with #Asio
The Guardian
16-05-2025
- The Guardian
Man arrested after Adelaide school community led to believe food was poisoned
An 18-year-old man has been arrested after allegedly menacing a teacher and leading a school community to believe its food had been poisoned with lead acetate, while seeking a ransom of $2.59m. The man was arrested after a 'complex investigation' by South Australian police on Wednesday night, which involved assistance from federal units including the domestic spy agency, Asio. The man faced an Adelaide magistrates court on Thursday. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email According to court documents, South Australian police allege the man, whose identity has been suppressed, 'made it appear that food, namely yoghurt, brownies, juice, jelly, hot cross buns and apples had been or were about to be contaminated with lead acetate'. Police allege this was done with an intention to 'cause prejudice, to create a risk of prejudice, or to create an apprehension of a risk of prejudice to the health an safety of the public and by doing so, cause public alarm and anxiety'. Lead acetate is harmful substance that can cause serious health problems. It is highly toxic to a person's nerve system and can potentially lead to irreversible neurological damage. The man has also been accused of menacing a staff member at Glenunga International High School between 19 February and 14 May and demanding they introduce 'systemic changes' at the school. Glenunga is the state's largest public school. Police also alleged the accused menaced a 'covert operative' during the same period of time and demanded they pay him a combination of bitcoin and cash worth $2.59m. South Australian police's acting commissioner, Linda Williams, said the force took the alleged crimes 'very seriously'. More than 100 police officers were involved in the investigation, which was considered a top priority. 'As you would appreciate, because the matter is before the court, there are limited details that I can share with you,' Williams said at a press conference on Friday morning. 'Can I stress that community safety was at the forefront of every decision that was made throughout this investigation. We have worked with the education department to ensure the ongoing safety of children, the school community and the broader South Australian community.' The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, said the police investigation was the most complex matter he had ever been briefed on. He said he was first told about the threats on 2 May, more than two weeks ago. 'This was a major investigation,' Malinauskas said at a press conference on Friday. 'It was technically, extremely complicated and men and women within South Australian police were literally spending countless nights and days working on this matter and in each and every step of the way, seeking to ensure that community safety was at the heart of every decision they made. 'There's also been collaboration at the federal level, including with Asio, which speaks to the seriousness in which South Australian police took up this challenge and have been able to deliver an outcome in terms of an arrest in the last 24 hours. The Adelaide Advertiser reported that in the email threats from the accused – which were also sent to that masthead – he allegedly dubbed himself 'the 'prophet of justice' and a 'hero' who would 'cleanse corruption''. The accused has been remanded in custody.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Peter Dutton reaffirms support for antisemitism citizenship test question and re-vetting Palestinian visas
Peter Dutton has committed to redoing security checks for thousands of Palestinians from Gaza granted visitor visas in Australia as he doubled down on introducing questions on antisemitism in citizenship tests. In a press conference in Perth on Wednesday, the opposition leader said he would subject Palestinians on visitor visas who had fled the conflict in Gaza to more scrutiny, echoing the Coalition's previous claims – without evidence – that they are a national security risk. Related: Visas for Palestinians take median time of four months to process, despite Coalition claims 'We won't compromise on border security. We have been clear about that. Our nation is the greatest in the world,' Dutton said. 'We welcome migrants coming to our country. We have the most successful migration program but we won't compromise on those settings, which provide screening of people who are coming in from a war zone.'The Coalition first floated the idea of changing citizenship requirements in February after a viral video emerged of two Sydney nurses allegedly threatening Israeli patients. At the time, Anthony Albanese dismissed the idea as a 'thought bubble' along with a proposal to hold a referendum to give the government more power to deport criminals with dual citizenship. Dutton said he remained committed to changing the citizenship test to include questions on antisemitism on Wednesday. In August 2024 Dutton had advocated for a temporary pause on granting visas to people from Gaza, claiming the decisions were making Australia less safe due to 'a murky process' of visa approvals. More than 3,000 Palestinians have been granted visitor visas since 7 October 2023, with the home affairs department offering some 995 Palestinian and Israeli nationals a three-year humanitarian visa, as of January. Palestinians must be approved by both the Israeli and Egyptian authorities to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, and are subject to rigorous security checks. The Asio chief, Mike Burgess, has previously said Palestinians with visas had 'gone through the process' and 'part of the process is, where criteria are hit, they're referred to my organisation and Asio does its thing'. The vetting process searches an applicant's name against a watch list, and anyone red-flagged is referred to Asio for a full security assessment involving consulting with other countries' security agencies. In the case of Palestinian applicants, that includes Israel. The strict criteria for referring and conducting an assessment is detailed in the Asio Act. Asked whether Dutton didn't trust the existing process, he responded: 'We will take advice and conduct proper security checks.' Rasha Abbas, the Palestine Australia Relief and Action (Para) group's executive director, described Dutton's commitment as 'truly disappointing'. She told Guardian Australia: 'It's also disappointing for the leader of the opposition to create doubt in highly trusted systems and processes of Asio and home affairs that are independent of the government of the day.'
The Guardian
23-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Peter Dutton reaffirms support for antisemitism citizenship test question and re-vetting Gazan visas
Peter Dutton has committed to redoing security checks for thousands of Gazans granted visitor visas in Australia as he doubled down on introducing questions on antisemitism in citizenship tests. In a press conference in Perth on Wednesday, the opposition leader said he would subject Palestinians on visitor visas who had fled the conflict in Gaza to more scrutiny, echoing the Coalition's previous claims – without evidence – that they are a national security risk. 'We won't compromise on border security. We have been clear about that. Our nation is the greatest in the world,' Dutton said. 'We welcome migrants coming to our country. We have the most successful migration program but we won't compromise on those settings, which provide screening of people who are coming in from a war zone.' Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter The Coalition first floated the idea of changing citizenship requirements in February after a viral video emerged of two Sydney nurses allegedly threatening Israeli patients. At the time, Anthony Albanese dismissed the idea as a 'thought bubble' along with a proposal to hold a referendum to give the government more power to deport criminals with dual citizenship. Dutton said he remained committed to changing the citizenship test to include questions on antisemitism on Wednesday. In August 2024 Dutton had advocated for a temporary pause on granting visas to people from Gaza, claiming the decisions were making Australia less safe due to 'a murky process' of visa approvals. More than 3,000 Palestinians have been granted visitor visas since 7 October 2023, with the home affairs department offering some 995 Palestinian and Israeli nationals a three-year humanitarian visa, as of January. Palestinians must be approved by both the Israeli and Egyptian authorities to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, and are subject to rigorous security checks. Sign up to Morning Mail Our Australian morning briefing breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion The Asio chief, Mike Burgess, has previously said Palestinians with visas had 'gone through the process' and 'part of the process is, where criteria are hit, they're referred to my organisation and Asio does its thing'. The vetting process searches an applicant's name against a watch list, and anyone red-flagged is referred to Asio for a full security assessment involving consulting with other countries' security agencies. In the case of Palestinian applicants, that includes Israel. The strict criteria for referring and conducting an assessment is detailed in the Asio Act. Asked whether Dutton didn't trust the existing process, he responded: 'We will take advice and conduct proper security checks.' Rasha Abbas, the Palestine Australia Relief and Action (Para) group's executive director, described Dutton's commitment as 'truly disappointing'. She told Guardian Australia: 'It's also disappointing for the leader of the opposition to create doubt in highly trusted systems and processes of Asio and home affairs that are independent of the government of the day.'
The Guardian
31-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Australia should persist with Aukus despite risk of US relationship ‘becoming unstuck', former defence chief says
The US is a 'less reliable and a more demanding ally' under Donald Trump's second administration, but Australia should persist with the Aukus submarine deal, despite its risks and growing political and military concerns, former ambassador Dennis Richardson has argued. 'The worst possible thing we could do at this point would be to change course,' he told the Security and Sovereignty conference organised in Canberra by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull on Monday. Richardson – former secretary of both the defence and foreign affairs departments, a former Asio chief and a former ambassador to the US – has been tasked with conducting a 'top-to-bottom' review of the Australian Submarine Agency amid emerging concerns over its management of the Aukus submarine deal. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email He said abandoning the controversial $368bn Aukus agreement would show 'we have learned nothing'. Under pillar one of the Aukus agreement, the US will sell Australia between three and five Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines, with the first to be delivered in 2032. These will replace Australia's ageing Collins class diesel-electric submarines before Australia's own Aukus nuclear-powered submarines can be built. However, the agreement mandates that the sale of US boats to Australia 'must not degrade' American undersea capabilities. The US's submarine fleet numbers are a quarter below their target and the country is producing boats at half the rate it needs to service its own needs, US figures show. The Congressional Research Service has argued America may not have enough boats for its own defences and the capacity to sell any to Australia. Richardson said there were risks inherent in any program the size of Aukus, but he argued that, four years into the deal, reversing the decision and extricating Australia from the tripartite deal would simply set Australia back and expose its defences. 'Four-to-five years down the track, if we are going to go back to square one, we have learned nothing,' Richardson said. 'If we do that, we've learned nothing over the last 20 years, we've constantly switched and changed over the last 20 years.' Richardson said it was in Australia's national security interest to acquire nuclear submarines. 'In an environment in which you want the best military capability in increasingly demanding environments … nuclear submarines are the best submarines to get.' He argued that while the US was an increasingly unreliable and unpredictable partner, he saw the greatest risk to Aukus not from American capriciousness, but Australian capacity and commitment. 'I understand those risks and I think they are real. However, I think the biggest risk is here in Australia.' He said there were risks over Australian 'political will', over budgetary capacity, and over availability of the requisite shipbuilding and maintenance skills. Richardson told the forum Australia's relationship with the US would be increasingly difficult to manage, given the unpredictability of the current US administration, and its willingness to castigate and abandon allies. 'The biggest risk is not the Americans walking away from Aukus, the biggest risk is the relationship with the United States more broadly becoming unstuck. 'I can think of a number of scenarios in which that relationship would get into real trouble. What, for instance, if the Americans, against all rationality, militarily went into Greenland … they would have it taken over by lunchtime. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion 'Would we as a country … do anything but condemn that and vote against it in the UN? And … would Trump stand up and say, 'you're either with us or against us, and if you're against us, we no longer have the relationship we currently have'?' Speaking on a panel with Richardson, retired R Adm Peter Briggs argued the Aukus deal was fundamentally flawed, and that Australia should abandon it immediately. He proposed adopting a 'plan B': buying Suffren-class nuclear-powered submarines built in France. The Suffren-class could be built in Australia, he said, and was a smaller submarine more suited to Australian needs that Australia's navy had the capacity to adequately crew. 'The Suffren-class is the only off-the-shelf option, and it's a far better fit … we will be in charge of our own destiny. This is the only sovereign option.' Opening the forum, Turnbull said Australia's relationship with the US had been irrevocably altered by the new Trump administration. 'We cannot allow our affection for America and Americans, our long shared history, to blind us from the objective reality that the president of the United States has political values more aligned to the 'might is right' worldview of Putin than they are to ours, or indeed to any of his modern predecessors,' he said. Turnbull told the forum some in the defence and diplomatic establishment had argued Trump's chaotic governing style was 'just froth and bubble', and believed 'normal transmission will resume if not soon, certainly in four years'. 'We shouldn't be so sure. Look at the young men, including the vice-president, said to be the future of the modern movement. We should not assume that 'America First', Trump-style is going to evaporate anytime soon.' In an occasionally tense debate, Turnbull and Richardson clashed over the utility of Aukus. Turnbull was the prime minister who in 2016 signed a $50bn deal with French submarine manufacturer Naval to build diesel-electric submarines for Australia. It was this deal that was torn up by his successor Scott Morrison in 2021 in favour of Aukus. Richardson upbraided the former prime minister over his scepticism over Aukus. 'Self-evidently, if the Virginia [class submarine sale] falls over, we're in trouble. But in continuing to press that point, you're almost making it a certainty that we won't get it. I think there's a good chance that we will get it. It depends upon the degree of commitment that we have in this country and our preparedness to pursue it as a national enterprise, not as a defence project.'
The Guardian
12-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Albanese says he knew Dural caravan plot was possible hoax ‘for some time'
Anthony Albanese says he has 'known for some time' investigators believed the Dural caravan plot was a 'hoax' as both major parties point the finger over whether their decisions to quickly label the saga terrorism was appropriate. The Australian federal police revealed on Monday the caravan incident was allegedly concocted by criminals who wanted to cause fear for personal gain – not inflict a 'mass casualty event' in Sydney. The AFP deputy commissioner Krissy Barrett said investigators 'almost immediately' had considered the caravan to be 'a fabricated terrorism plot – essentially a criminal con job'. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, would not say whether his conversations with Asio boss, Mike Burgess, on 18 February revealed the hoax theory. But he called on Albanese to publicly declare when he was informed by police it was their leading theory. 'If the prime minister had knowledge that this was a hoax, why didn't he tell the Jewish community to try and assuage some of their fears that they rightly had?' he said. On Wednesday, the prime minister did not specify a date but suggested he had 'known for some time' of the ties to organised crime. 'I have known for some time what the AFP thought and what the Asio and security agencies thought about the events that occurred, including the caravan,' Albanese said. 'What I chose to do in spite of some of the media commentary, and in spite of the criticism of the opposition, was to act in our interest. '[To] back security agencies, back the Australian federal police and allow them to do their job and that is what responsible leadership looks like – not the commentary that we saw from members of the Coalition.' Albanese insisted while the incident was revealed as a hoax, the fear felt by the community, particularly those in the Jewish community, was 'very real'. In budget estimates on Wednesday, the NSW deputy police commissioner, David Hudson, said state police ruled out the prospect the caravan plot was a terrorist threat on 21 February. . Hudson said he briefed the NSW police minister, Yasmin Catley last Friday, once he felt 'confident that it was more the hoax [theory]'. Earlier on Wednesday, the shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson, defended his and the opposition's decision to describe the incident as a potential mass-casualty terrorism event weeks after it became public. 'Political leaders represent the people that they are elected to represent, and we are expected to reflect how they feel based on the best information we had at the time,' he told ABC radio. 'And we did that. And I do not regret one word that I said at that time.' Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Members of the opposition, including Paterson, the MP for Berowra, Julian Leeser, and Western Australia senator Michaelia Cash, attended an AFP briefing about the incident on 30 January. An adviser within Dutton's office also attended the online briefing, though this is disputed by government sources. Paterson said at no stage did the AFP say the incident was a hoax. 'They said that all lines of inquiry were open, that they were taking it very seriously, and that the counter-terrorism squad was investigating,' he said. The home affairs minister, Tony Burke, accused Dutton of 'deliberately' keeping himself in the dark on key details about the 'fake terrorism plot' for his political advantage – a claim Dutton has denied. Shortly after the 30 January briefing, Dutton said the incident could have been the 'most catastrophic terrorist attack in our country's history'. He has also called for an inquiry into the incident response to ascertain who in the federal government knew what, and when. Both Albanese and the NSW premier, Chris Minns, labelled the incident a terrorist event. At an initial police press conference on 29 January, Minns said this was the 'discovery of a potential mass casualty event'. 'There's only one way of calling it out, and that is terrorism. That's what we're very worried about. This would strike terror into the community, particularly the Jewish community, and it must be met with the full resources of the government,' he said. Minns said it 'would have been negligent not to take this incredibly seriously' on Tuesday when asked whether his initial response was overblown. Guardian Australia has asked the attorney general's department whether alternative theories were briefed at the 30 January meeting.
