Australia’s domestic spy boss Mike Burgess says his agency was ‘confident’ in new terror alert system approach

Australia’s domestic spy boss Mike Burgess says his agency was “confident” in a new terror alert system approach they will present to the Minister next week after a long-running review into the levels.

The ASIO Director-General had used his annual threat assessment in June to declare that a “probable” level “does not tell the full story”.

The current system moves from “possible” to “probable” when there’s more than a 50 per cent chance of an onshore attack or attack being planned in the next 12 months.

However, it can only ratchet up further to “expected” if there’s specific information of an imminent threat.

“Probable” was the same level Australia was under when 15 innocent people were killed in an alleged terrorist attack on a Jewish event at Bondi Beach on December 14.

“The next level on the scale is ‘expected’, which applies when we have intelligence about a specific attack,” Mr Burgess had said in his annual threat assessment.

Both Mr Burgess and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke have expressed frustrations with the decade-old system, insisting it’s too blunt and fails to convey to the public the seriousness of the threats the nation faces.

Mr Burgess on Friday revealed the results of a review would soon be presented to the Minister.

“I didn’t say it was broken. I just said I’m not sure it ‘probable’ describes the current environment,” Mr Burgess said on Friday.

“That’s what the review is looking at and we’re briefing the Minister next week.

“I’m pretty confident we’ve got something. But of course, it’s for the Minister to be happy.

“Then we’ll proceed with an outcome of consulting States and Territories.”

Mr Burke on Friday reiterated his belief that the alert system needed a clearer way to tell the public when a threat is becoming more serious but isn’t yet imminent.

“Effectively, the challenge that we have at the moment is this: you go from possible to probable when you colloquially cross the 50 per cent threshold,” he said.

“But anywhere from 50 per cent up until where you have specific information of an imminent threat - you don’t have an ease of communication method.

“So that’s the weakness that is being worked through.”

Mr Burke added that he would like Five Eyes partners — which includes Australia, US, UK, Canada, New Zealand — to share the same system.

“I would love if all Five Eyes (partners) did it the same way,” he said.

“We’re reviewing it at the same time that other Five Eyes (partners are). Some of them are doing their reviews as well.

“But, effectively, what the review is seeking to work out is how can we have the simplest, most targeted way of being able to provide the community with accurate information that is easily digestible.”

In an interview with The West Australian last month Australia’s top cop Krissy Barrett warned the threat environment was currently “more complex” today almost a year on from our worst terror attack.

She warned the country faced a volatile few months of “a lot of noise” and heightened emotions over Summer.

It comes just weeks before the anniversary of the Bondi Beach massacre of 15 people.

The three senior counter-terrorism leaders were in Sydney on Friday to announce a new national centre dedicated to detecting and disrupting the threat of online violent extremism and terrorism.

The Counter Terrorism Online Centre begins operations this week after $74 million was allocated for the initiative in the May budget.