Politicising national security ‘not helpful’, Asio spy chief says as Scott Morrison ramps up attack

Australia's domestic spy chief, Mike Burgess, has declared the weaponisation of national security is "not helpful to us" after extraordinary scenes in federal parliament where Scott Morrison labelled a senior Labor frontbencher a "Manchurian candidate".

With Morrison ramping up the partisan rhetoric about risks to Australia's sovereignty, the Asio director general told the ABC on Wednesday night the risk of foreign interference was "equal opportunity". These risks affected all members of parliament, he told the 7.30 program, "so it doesn't go after one particular party or the other".

Asked whether the current politicisation of national security was helpful to Asio's work, Burgess said: "I'll leave the politics to the politicians. But I'm very clear with everyone that I need to be that that's not helpful for us."

The second forthright public intervention by Burgess in three days followed an ugly partisan confrontation in question time, with the prime minister branding the deputy Labor leader, Richard Marles, a "Manchurian candidate" before withdrawing the slur, and declaring the Chinese government had "picked their horse" in the coming election.

The phrase "Manchurian candidate" refers to a politician being used as a puppet by an enemy power. Before using the insult, Morrison cited a speech by Marles in Beijing in 2019 calling for Australia and China to seek to build their relationship "not just in economic terms, but also through exploring political cooperation and even defence cooperation".

While Morrison and the defence minister, Peter Dutton, are attempting to use the penultimate sitting week of the current parliament to paint Labor as weak on national security and at risk of capture by the authoritarian regime in Beijing, the foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, has struck a noticeably different tone over the past 48 hours.

As the partisan rhetoric escalated in the House of Representatives, Payne used an appearance before a Senate estimates committee to deliver a nuanced message. She noted bipartisanship on foreign policy was "overwhelmingly preferable" and noted the parliament is united in support of Ukraine.