The head of Asio has issued a rare public statement confirming the domestic spy agency was aware of an alleged Chinese plot to infiltrate Australia’s parliament.

Explosive allegations aired on 60 Minutes suggested Chinese operatives offered $1m to fund Liberal party member Nick Zhao’s tilt at federal parliament.

The 32-year-old was found dead in a Melbourne hotel room after reportedly approaching Asio to discuss the plot.

“Australians can be reassured that Asio was previously aware of matters that were reported today, and has been actively investigating them,” Asio director general Mike Burgess said in a statement.

“Hostile foreign intelligence activity continues to pose a real threat to our nation and its security. Asio will continue to confront and counter foreign interference and espionage in Australia.”

The Nationals backbencher Barnaby Joyce said he was not surprised by allegations China tried to plant a spy in parliament.

“I know the Chinese, in one way or another, have been trying to infiltrate our parliament, whether online or directly through politicians,” he told the Seven Network.

“We must be resolute and strong and realise this is the new world order we are living in.”

Labor has asked the Morrison government for an urgent briefing and public explanation.

The deputy opposition leader, Richard Marles, said people needed to be confident Australia was free from foreign interference.

“We obviously want to understand everything that we can know about this,” Marles told the ABC.

“But on the face of it and what’s in the public domain right now, this is a very, very serious matter.”

The Liberal backbencher Andrew Hastie said he was briefed on Zhao’s death as chair of the parliamentary committee on intelligence and security.

“It was surreal, it was like something out of a spy novel happening in Melbourne with impunity,” he told 60 Minutes.

“This isn’t just cash in a bag, given for favours, this is a state-sponsored attempt to infiltrate our parliament.

“Using an Australian citizen and basically run them as an agent of foreign influence in our democratic system. So this is really significant and Australians should be very, very concerned about this.”

It was the second explosive allegation over the weekend of attempts by the Chinese government to influence Australian politics.

Nine newspapers reported on Saturday that a Chinese spy provided Asio with details of how Chinese military intelligence officers fund and conduct political interference operations in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia.