ASIO quashed foreign plot to 'dispose of' Australian human rights activist

ASIO is prepared to take on foreign acts of aggression, the agency's boss Mike Burgess said. Picture by Sitthixay Ditthavong

A foreign intelligence service plotted to lure an Australian human rights activist offshore so that they could be "disposed of", the country's top spy revealed, as he promised to use Australia's "arsenal of weapons" to crush such schemes.

Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation director-general Mike Burgess released details of two instances in which foreign regimes planned to physically harm Australian residents, in his annual threat assessment on Tuesday evening.