An Iranian operation to surveil an Australian citizen was disrupted by security agencies, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said, in what she warned was part of a rising tide of foreign interference efforts.
Following a crackdown on nationwide protests in Iran in recent months, authorities in Tehran had attempted to monitor the home of an Iranian-Australian, including conducting research on their friends and family, O’Neil told the Australian National University in a speech Tuesday.
“We’re not going to stand back and have Australians or indeed visitors to our country, watched and tracked by foreign governments on our soil,” she said. Australia won’t tolerate “hostile acts in the form of surveillance, harassment or intimidation” against its citizens, she said.
Almost half of Australia’s 26 million people have a parent born overseas and more than a quarter were born abroad, highlighting the large diasporas foreign regimes could try to exploit. Overseas operatives have photographed protesters, sought to influence local lawmakers and even tried to impact how universities discuss topics, according to the minister.
O’Neil’s ministry, akin to the US Department of Homeland Security, was set up by the previous government to counter mounting domestic threats.
She said foreign interference was one of the “biggest domestic security challenges” facing the country, citing the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the country’s primary domestic security agency.
In February 2022, Australia announced it had disrupted attempts by an unnamed foreign government to disrupt the country’s elections, with ASIO Director General Mike Burgess saying a wealthy individual had been directed by a foreign power to fund candidates favorable to its aims.
“To those states who operate in the shadows, I have a simple message – we are watching you,” O’Neil said. “This is Australia, this is our democracy, and if you engage in activities like this, you will be discovered.”
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