ASIO chief: Islamic extremism is about 70% of caseload; 16 plots stopped since Bondi
In an interview on Neil Mitchell's Mitchell Unlimited podcast, released in September 2026, ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess said: "I bristle when I hear people saying that we have a growing Islamic extremism problem in this country. We don't. We have an Islamic extremism problem in this country. That is true. It is not growing, but it's still a problem. It represents about 70% of my organisation's caseload."
He said that since the Bondi Beach attack, "my agency and the police have prevented ... activities of individuals that could have led to an attack. 16 of those events have been stopped by the Police and Security Service since Bondi." Left unchecked, he said, they could have led to a terrorist attack resulting in harm or loss of life.
Burgess also said that "some people are confusing Islamic extremism with the good people of Islamic faith. They are not the same thing," adding that Muslim Australians were "on the receiving end" of Islamophobia. He told Mitchell: "I wouldn't rule out the possibility that Iran would want to kill prominent Jewish Australians," and said he had raised this with community leaders.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that ASIO and the Department of Home Affairs had begun reviewing the national terrorism threat advisory system, which Burgess said "was not designed for a situation like the one we now face"; he described the threat as at "the upper end of probable".
In his 2026 Annual Threat Assessment speech on 24 June 2026, three months earlier, Burgess said: "In the aftermath of Bondi there were calls for greater focus on countering Sunni violent extremism. This made sense when ISIS and al-Qaeda were the principal security threats, but contemporary terrorism is far more complex and this is borne out by recent events." He then cited two Western Australian cases: a man charged with throwing a homemade bomb, which did not detonate, into an Invasion Day rally in Perth in January, allegedly inspired by neo-Nazi ideology; and a man charged in February with allegedly preparing a mass-casualty attack on WA Parliament House, police headquarters and mosques, allegedly motivated by extreme right-wing ideology. Neither case has gone to trial. In the same speech he said Islamic State and al-Qaeda were "growing their capability to conduct and inspire attacks", and that ASIO and police had foiled "31 major plots since 2014", including 14 since Bondi.
The figure has moved over time. At Senate Estimates in February 2023 Burgess said "70 per cent [are] religiously motivated, and 30 per cent [are] ideologically motivated" (ABC). In ASIO's 2025 Annual Threat Assessment, fewer than half of the potential terrorism matters investigated in the previous year were religiously motivated.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xFY8z0VeBc (relevant section from 25:56; 16 plots from 45:38)
More sources:
- The Sydney Morning Herald, "Low, moderate, critical: ASIO boss sounds alarm on urgent upgrade of Australia's terror warnings", Matthew Knott, 18 September 2026 (copy held)
- abc.net.au - Right-wing terror threat has receded, ASIO chief says (13 Feb 2023)
- asio.gov.au - Director-General's Annual Threat Assessment 2025
- ASIO - Annual Threat Assessment 2026, Director-General of Security (24 June 2026), from 8:43
