Mike Burgess, the head of Australia’s Office of National Intelligence (ASIO), said he thwarted an attempt by a foreign state to meddle in the Australian elections.

In 2019, Australia passed a law penalizing foreign interference after Russia’s alleged attempts to influence the UK Brexit referendum, the outcome of President Trump’s election and, in France, to prevent that of President Macron.

In 2020, an Australian parliamentary attaché of Chinese origin had been the subject of criminal proceedings for his alleged involvement in an operation of this type. He had trained at the Chinese Academy of Governance, an organ of the Communist Party. The Voltaire Network had devoted a news brief to this affair, but was obligated to withdraw it under legal pressure.