In late November 2022, the Director-General of Security - Mike Burgess - held a press conference at the Ben Chifley Building in Canberra to announce that after careful consideration, ASIO is lowering Australia’s national terrorism threat level from PROBABLE to POSSIBLE.
"A decision of this nature is not taken lightly or made casually. The subject matter experts in the National Threat Assessment Centre pore over the intelligence and employ structured analytical techniques to test, retest and contest their assumptions," he said "The process involves a large number of people and a significant amount of time.
Their conclusion is relatively straightforward: while Australia remains a potential terrorist target, there are fewer extremists with the intention to conduct an attack onshore than there were when we raised the threat level in 2014."
Importantly, Mr Burgess went on to say that "This does not mean the threat is extinguished. Far from it. Possible does not mean negligible. It remains plausible that someone will die at the hands of a terrorist in Australia within the next twelve months – although, of course, my Organisation will literally work around the clock to prevent that from happening."
Whilst the threat of terrorism and violent extremism had been reduced, other malicious threat actors pose significant risks to national security, "I also want to emphasise that a lower threat level does necessarily not mean a lower operational tempo," Mr Burgess said. "Espionage and foreign interference supplant terrorism as our nation's principle security concern but of course terrorism will remain a priority for my organisation; it's a threat to life and therefore will get the full attention."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he supported ASIO's decision. "I have absolute confidence in our security agencies … I won't second-guess them, and I won't comment on their behalf," Mr Albanese said. The Coalition has also welcomed the development.
The Director General's press conference can be watched here with the full media release located here.