Immigration minister says that while he will not discuss any specific threats, the repercussions of conflicts in the Middle East could reach Australia

Immigration minister Scott Morrison says he is not surprised Asio is considering raising Australia’s terrorism alert level for the first time since 2003, but has declined to discuss any specific intelligence prompting the spy agency’s reassessment.



On Tuesday night the Asio director general, David Irvine, said Asio was considering raising the alert level from medium to high. “Medium” means a domestic terrorist incident is possible; “high” means one is likely.

“What [Irvine] said last night obviously doesn’t surprise me in terms of the advice he’s been providing – but where that threat level is set is a matter for the director general. He’s made some pretty clear comments there,” Morrison told the ABC on Wednesday morning.

Morrison declined to nominate any specific domestic risk that might have prompted the likely adjustment, noting “these are very sensitive matters”.

He noted the UK government had recently adjusted its terrorism threat level from “substantial” to “severe” in recognition of the risks posed by radicalised individuals and returning fighters from the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

Morrison said the conflicts in the Middle East could reach Australia. “These are very serious matters,” he said. We were “living in very uncertain times” and Irvine had done much to explain the domestic security risks to the government and the public.

He stressed the setting of the threat level was a matter for Asio, not a call by politicians.

Morrison will use an address to the National Press Club today to outline more counter-terrorism measures at Australian airports.

An apparent lapse in airport security early in the life of the Abbott government allowed a convicted terrorist, Khaled Sharrouf, to flee Australia on his brother’s passport and fight in Syria. A picture was later posted on social media and reprinted by news outlets both in Australia and elsewhere of a young boy reported to be Sharrouf’s son, clutching the severed head of a Syrian soldier.

On Wednesday, Morrison will nominate additional funding for advance passenger processing and an expansion of the airline liaison officer network. The government has also boosted customs resources at airports for security checks. “This is all about tightening up, it is all about extending our reach,” the immigration minister said on Wednesday.

Irvine, who retires this week, used the opportunity of a television interview on Tuesday night to signal his agency was mulling the threat level.

“I’m certainly contemplating very seriously the notion of lifting it higher because of the numbers of people that we are now having to be concerned about in Australia, because of the influence of Syria and Iraq on young Australians – both in terms of going to those places to fight, but also in terms of what they are doing here in Australia, with a potential intent to attack,” he said.