NSW Premier Chris Minns warns ASIO’s more than probable’ terror assessment concerning for State

NSW Premier Chris Minns says the state faces a “grim” new reality in the wake of the Bondi terror attack, after a stark warning from Australia’s spy chief.

In his annual threat assessment released this week, ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess described Australia’s security environment as “degraded”.

He said he was “gravely concerned” by the temperature and trajectory of the terrorism threat in Australia and warned the terror threat level – which was held at “probable” – did not tell the full story.

“We do know the environment is degrading and acts of politically motivated violence are becoming more likely than probable suggests,” he said.

“Just as climate change increases the likelihood of extreme weather but does not forecast specific storms, politically motivated violence, including acts of terrorism, is more likely even though we cannot predict a specific attack.”

On Sunday, Mr Minns told Sky News Sunday Agenda the assessment was “obviously confronting” for NSW residents in the aftermath of the Bondi massacre.

“But that’s the grim reality that we’re in and we need to smash these groups up, we need to confront them in every aspect of life,” he said.

“Either on the streets after someone’s decided to commit a terrorism event in Bondi or somewhere else, but also online and in our community.

“When racist, anti-Semitic abuse of behaviour is exhibited in our community, we need to confront it.

“All of us need to step up and say this is not acceptable … It can’t just rest on the shoulders of New South Wales Police or ASIO or the Jewish community of Sydney, who’ve frankly gone through enough.”

While there was a focus on militant Sunni Islamic extremism in the wake of the Bondi attack, Mr Burgess said ASIO had dealt with extremists “across the ideological spectrum” since then.

“Including one who allegedly combined ideological and extreme Christian beliefs, and an individual allegedly inspired by an extreme left-wing ideology,” he said.

The spy chief also warned people were increasingly being radicalised alone and online rather than in groups or “in prayer halls”.

“And, instead of spending time and resources planning sophisticated attacks, radicalised individuals are moving to low-capability attacks with little or no warning,” Mr Burgess said.

“These dynamics make the contemporary terrorism environment different – and in some ways, more difficult – than we saw with al-Qaeda and ISIL.”

Mr Burgess said even a “vast army of ASIO case officers and surveillance officers” might not be enough to stop an individual radicalised online.