Australian security agencies have disrupted a foreign interference plot by Iran that was targeting an Iranian-Australian on Australian soil, the government has said.
The plot allegedly included individuals monitoring the home of a critic of the Iranian regime and extensively researching the person and their family.
The home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, revealed the incident in a speech to the Australian National University on Tuesday while also describing foreign interference as “one of the core threats our democracy faces”.
O’Neil said Tehran’s brutal response to protests sparked by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa “Jina” Amini last year had triggered demonstrations against the regime around the world, including in Australia.
“Late last year, Asio disrupted the activities of individuals who had conducted surveillance of the home of an Iranian-Australian, as well as extensive research of this individual and their family,” O’Neil told the ANU’s National Security College.
“I’m pleased to say our agencies were on to it like a shot. Asio tracked the operation and shut it down immediately.”
The comments follow a submission to a Senate inquiry by the Department of Home Affairs, which said it was “aware of reports that pro-Iranian government informants are surveilling former Iranian residents protesting against the regime in Australia and threatening their relatives in Iran as a result.”
O’Neil said it was “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 Australian security agencies were “not going to stand back and have Australians or indeed visitors to our country watched and tracked by foreign governments on our soil.”
“This is Australia, this is our democracy, and if you engage in activities like this, you will be discovered,” she said.
“To those states who operate in the shadows, I have a simple message – we are watching you. Where our national interest is served by calling out your operations, we will. And to those in Australia making their voice heard, we are acting to protect you.”
O’Neil vowed to “bring foreign interference out of the shadows, and into the light” so that people can be ready to face the challenge.
Responding to questions after the speech, O’Neil also described foreign interference as “a China problem” but said she wanted to “broaden the conversation to reflect the accurate picture and that is that we are the subject of foreign interference from very many countries.”
The minister said Iran was “first cab off the rank” and she said she intended to make a series of public interventions disclosing “some specific examples of foreign interference we see from specific countries”.
Without naming countries, she said there were other examples “of foreign governments tasking human sources to collect sensitive personal information of individuals seen as dissidents by the foreign government due to their activism.”
The minister said people also arranged “counter-protests to instigate arguments with activists with the intent of provoking violence – all at the request of a foreign intelligence service.”
While suggesting that a range of foreign governments attempted to exert control over diaspora communities in Australia, O’Neil added that “this is almost always unsuccessful due to the deep loyalty of Australia’s migrant communities to our beautiful shared country.”
“We see it when people in those communities or their families back home are threatened, harassed or intimidated. To be clear, this type of foreign interference is commonplace, it is happening around our country every day,” O’Neil said.
“We see it too, on social media, where foreign governments covertly try to sow division around political issues that are felt deeply in the Australian community, to deliberately deteriorate our social fabric and cause conflict and painful rifts.”
Australia passed new laws to crack down on espionage and foreign interference in 2018. It does not stop countries seeking to influence government processes in an open way, but bans covert and deceptive activities on behalf of foreign actors that interfere with Australian democracy.
O’Neil said she wanted “a public discussion about this problem that is open, apolitical and commensurate with the size of the challenge – and to build a community of people who know what foreign interference is, what it looks like, and what to do when they see it.”
She said it was also important to avoid partisanship “because if this discussion becomes polluted by craven political interests, our citizens will lose trust with our attempts to explain it.”
The federal opposition said the confirmation that Asio had disrupted attempts to monitor an Iranian-Australian was “extremely concerning, but not surprising”.
Claire Chandler, the Liberal senator who chaired a recent Senate inquiry into human rights in Iran, said the committee had “heard from dozens of Iranian-Australians who have raised concerns about threats, intimidation, surveillance and foreign interference by individuals affiliated with the Islamic Republic of Iran regime.”
The shadow minister for countering foreign interference, James Paterson, called on the Albanese government “to protect these democratic rights with the strongest possible response to deter this activity and send a clear message to those responsible that it will not be tolerated.”
The Iranian embassy was contacted for comment.
