ASIO boss Mike Burgess held a secret meeting with Israel’s president at during his controversial visit to Australia last month, the spy agency has admitted.
The meeting at ASIO Headquarters in Canberra between the Director-General of Security and Isaac Herzog was not listed on Mr Herzog’s public schedule, nor was a briefing by ASIO’s counter-terrorism team, a situation described by independent senator David Pocock as “unprecedented”.
ASIO confirmed the meeting to The Guardian following questions from Mr Pocock to Foreign Minister Penny Wong in the Senate on Tuesday which she refused to answer while saying that queries about the spy agency “were often very sensitive”.
“Australian intelligence agencies maintain strong and enduring working relationships with their foreign partners,” the ASIO spokesperson later confirmed.
“The president met with the Director-General of Security, and was briefed by ASIO’s counter-terrorism team on their work following the Bondi attack. Meetings such as this are important opportunities to discuss global threats and strengthen international cooperation.”
Mr Pocock said after the Senate exchange that the government needed to be more transparent with Australians.
“Constituents raised with me a concern that the Israeli head of state, president Isaac Herzog, visited ASIO headquarters in the course of his recent visit to Australia. The stated purpose of this visit was to provide support to Australia’s Jewish community,” he said.
“A visit by a foreign head of state to the headquarters of our national security and intelligence agency would, I believe, be unprecedented.”
Israel is not part of the Five Eyes intelligence network of which Australia is a member, and immediately after the Bondi attack Israeli intelligence officials falsely claimed there was “no doubt” Iran was behind the massacre, which has since been confirmed to be linked to ISIS.
Mossad also claimed last year that a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp leader was behind an alleged arson attack in Sydney, allegations repeated by ASIO, the Prime Minister and the Australian Federal Police, but NSW Police confirmed in a statement to parliament that there was no evidence of Iranian involvement.
Sky News Australia host Sharri Markson, who was given an exclusive interview with Mr Herzog during his visit, also reported that Israeli intelligence sources had confirmed Mossad assisted with the ASIO investigation into the firebombing, which among other incidents led to Jewish lobby groups successfully pressuring NSW Premier Chris Minns to pass controversial “hate speech” and anti-protest legislation.
ASIO and the AFP have been under scrutiny since the Bondi attack for failing to stop father and son terrorists Naveed and Sajid Akram from owning firearms and travelling to an ISIS hotspot in the Philippines in the month before the massacre, despite Naveed being on a watchlist due to his links to convicted Islamic terrorists.
The spy agency was criticised in 2024 after being caught encouraging a 13-year-old autistic teenager’s fascination with ISIS before charging him with terror offences, and was grilled in the Senate for pumping resources into DEI initiatives including seven “staff-led diversity” networks.
