ASIO warns naming 'traitor' politician could expose sources, as Peter Dutton cools on push to identify them

asio warns naming 'traitor' politician could expose sources, as peter dutton cools on push to identify them

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he won’t press to name the retired politician who “sold out” the nation. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he won’t push to name the “traitor” politician exposed by Australian intelligence, saying he will respect the decision of the nation’s spy chief not to name them.

After setting a fire under parliament by revealing a former politician had betrayed Australia, but not naming who, spy chief Mike Burgess repeated late yesterday he would not be identifying who had “sold out” the country.

“It is an historic matter that was appropriately dealt with at the time. The individual is no longer of security concern,” Mr Burgess said in a statement.

“In accordance with long-standing practice, ASIO will not publicly discuss individuals or provide operational details.

“There are multiple reasons for this, including the need to protect our sources and capabilities. In this case, while we want the foreign intelligence service to know its cover is blown, we do not want it to unpick how we discovered its activities.”

Mr Burgess said it was reassuring to see increased awareness and discussion of foreign interference threats facing Australia.

Mr Dutton this morning repeated that not naming the compromised politician would cast doubt over every former politician, but said he would respect ASIO’s call not to name them.

“Mr Burgess, as I said yesterday, is as good as they come,” he said.

“Of course, I am going to take his advice. If he doesn’t want to provide the name on that basis, then we take his advice.

“It’s difficult when these allegations are made, because I think it casts a cloud over former MPs, that’s why I think if you can you should name the person, but Mr Burgess has outlined why he can’t and we accept that advice.”

After also saying yesterday he would bet on the traitor ex-politician being from NSW Labor, Mr Dutton admitted he had no special knowledge of who it actually was.

“I haven’t had a briefing as to who the individual is, and the normal practice would be if there’s a problem within a particular party to speak to the leader of the day, ” Mr Dutton said.

“I don’t know whether that took place or not.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he would not question ASIO.

“One of the things we need to do is to build confidence in our agencies, not engage in short-term politics or speculation like some have done,” Mr Albanese said.

Speaking on Channel Seven, government frontbencher Jason Clare said politicians and the press should not be playing games trying to identify the traitor politician.

“This is not a game of Guess Who? This is serious,” Mr Clare said.

“The boss of ASIO … has made the decision that if he was to reveal the name then it would undermine the work ASIO does to keep us safe.”

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