ASIO: Foreign interference worse than Cold War

Wednesday 31 January 2018

There is “an element” of truth to the argument that Australia been slow to identify the threat of foreign interference, an Australian Security Intelligence Organisation official said during a parliamentary review of proposed treason laws.

Peter Vickery, The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s Deputy Director-General Counter-Espionage and Interference said the environment had changed dramatically since that period of serious geopolitical tension.

“While that was obviously a very busy time in that period of history, our assessment is that it’s not on the scale of which we are experiencing today,” Mr Vickery told the committee.

But ~~China~~ they pay us so it’s OK.

About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific's leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.