Clare O'Neil accuses Coalition of harming migrants by 'wildly politicising' this issue

Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil has hit back at Coalition claims that she's silent on China, while warning of the dangers of politicising the issue of foreign interference.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil has accused the Coalition of "wildly politicising" foreign interference. Source: AAP / Lukas Coch

KEY POINTS:

• Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil has lashed out at the former Coalition government for politicising foreign interference.
• Her Opposition counterpart has accused Ms O'Neil of selectively naming countries involved in foreign interference.
• Ms O'Neil insists she will name those responsible for foreign espionage when it's "in the national interest".

Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil says the former Coalition government harmed diaspora communities by "wildly politicising" foreign interference in Australia, days after her counterpart accused her of dishonesty for failing to name Beijing as a culprit of such activity.

Beginning what she described as an "open conversation" on foreign interference in February, Ms O'Neil outed Iran as the foreign power behind a plot that saw an Australian resident extensively surveilled and their home broken into.

Analysts have argued naming a politically-isolated country like Iran was a low-cost way to discuss foreign interference without hampering Labor's attempts to rebuild its lucrative relationship with China.

But Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson has demanded that she speak plainly on the issue, insisting Iran was "not even close" to the main culprit of foreign interference in Australia.

"The Chinese government is the number one source (of foreign interference) ... The minister and the government have not been open and honest in discussing [it]," he told SBS News this week.

Relations with Beijing deteriorated under the former Coalition government, accelerated by its call for an independent inquiry into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A month before losing last year's election, former prime minister Scott Morrison escalated his rhetoric by claiming Beijing "has form" on foreign interference and was seeking to exert influence in Australia.

In the lead-up to the election, then-Defence Minister, and current Opposition leader, Peter Dutton claimed the Chinese government has “picked” then-Opposition leader Anthony Albanese as its preferred prime minister.

"The discussion about foreign interference, in my view, was wildly politicised by the former government to the detriment of the lives of diaspora communities in our country, which are very important," Ms O'Neil told the National Press Club on Thursday.

"I don't intend to do that as home affairs minister."

After outcry last month, The Daily Mail was forced to pull a story claiming three Chinese men taking photos at a Melbourne airbase had "aroused [the] suspicions” of a security expert.

A Lowy Institute report found this month that 14 per cent of Chinese-Australians had reported being physically threatened or attacked in 2022. That number had risen to 18 per cent during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Weeks later, Nine released footage of a Korean man suffering a racist attack in Brisbane on ANZAC Day, with the perpetrator using a number of slurs related to Chinese people.

O'Neil says she'll call out foreign interference when 'in the national interest'

Ms O'Neil's February speech - titled Foreign Interference in Australia - explained the Iran-driven plot in detail, though also touched on examples from other countries, which she opted not to name.

But pressed on China's exclusion on Thursday, she claimed the speech was limited to the "very real" issues facing the Iranian diaspora in Australia.

"The speech did not mention China because it was a speech about Iran, so I hope that is clear," she said.

"I will call out foreign interference when it is in the national interest to do so."

Labor is attempting to unthaw Australia's relationship with China. Source: Getty / Yan Yan/Xinhua

ASIO increasingly concerned as spy chief sounds the alarm

Ms O'Neil's decision to single out Iran came as the regime faced international outcry over its brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters earlier this year.

But the minister stressed her department had been tasked with producing an "attribution framework" for foreign interference, which she said would ensure naming of perpetrators was less politicised.

"[That would mean attribution] is not the ad hoc decision of the minister, but something that is a structured and thoughtful exercise," she said.

Australia's intelligence community has been escalating its warnings over foreign interference, with ASIO boss Mike Burgess revealing in February that unprecedented levels of espionage meant the agency was busier than at any time in its history.

Mr Burgess also revealed details of two specific plots by separate, unnamed foreign powers aimed at harming dissidents living in Australia.

Later that month, the Australian Federal Police launched a campaign targeting culturally and linguistically diverse communities, informing them of their rights and options if they believed they were being followed.

ASIO has also aired concerns about domestic terror threats, including from far-right extremists, but said "ideologically-motivated" extremism had subsided since COVID-related lockdowns ended.