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“Put simply, most of our work now and into the future will be to deter, disrupt and respond to … active threats, whether overt or in the shadows. That means we are defending.”
Krissy Barrett farewells former AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw during a ceremony in Canberra on Friday. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
Barrett has a clear warning to chaos agents seeking to disrupt Australian democracy.
“Under my leadership, the AFP will have a laser focus on disrupting crimes that impact our sovereignty, our democracy, our social cohesion, our financial systems, our future prosperity.”
‘Overlap’ between states and organised crime
“We are seeing tasking and payment [for attacks] being transferred to organised crime networks to use the systems and the networks they already have set up in this country.”
Iran’s ambassador to Australia was expelled in August, and on Tuesday, the government announced it would amend terrorism laws to allow the listing of foreign state entities as “state sponsors of terrorism” in direct response to the IRGC’s attacks.
Wars in Gaza, Ukraine causing uptick in violence
Burgess said the “normalisation of violent protest and intimidating behaviour” because of the two-year war in Gaza had lowered the threshold for “provocative and potentially violent acts” against Jewish Australians.
Krissy Barrett and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra in August. Source: AAP / Mick Tsikas
Barrett said such events have led to a rise in politically motivated violence — with threats against politicians doubling.
Australia’s antisemitism and Islamophobia envoys have reported five-fold increases in discrimination and violence against Jewish and Muslim communities respectively since the 2023 attack on Israel.
“And I think we’ve all seen that playing out literally on our streets.”
