“Australia,for example,is not directly involved in what is occurring in the Middle East and yet,if you look at the comments that have been made by some senators and[lower house MPs],you would think that that isn’t the case.

“Some of that is designed deliberately to encourage a partisan response in a way that isn’t appropriate. It’s not appropriate for people to encourage some of the actions outside electorate offices and to dismiss them as being just part of the normal political process.”

Albanese’s implicit tying of the Greens’ tactics to the official warning on domestic terrorism raises the stakes in his political fight with the minor party,which is trying to win Labor seats by harnessing anger over Israel’s military actions in the Gaza Strip.

Greens senator David Shoebridge hit back,saying Albanese was ignoring right-wing extremism and using the national security announcement to beat up his enemies.

“Dismissing people’s well-founded concern about Australia’s role in the genocide in Gaza and insinuating that these concerns are somehow associated with a rise in terrorism risk levels will only further divide the community and doesn’t keep us safe,” Shoebridge said in a statement.

Opposition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said it was absurd that new Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke was not at the press conference held by the prime minister on Monday even though his portfolio means he is responsible for domestic security.

Labor has moved ASIO under the umbrella of Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus,who spoke at the press conference.

Paterson said the unwindingof the Coalition’s 2017 move to bring all the domestic national security agencies together in one department proved Labor was “chaotic” on the issue.

Albanese and Burgess urged media companies and activists to turn down the temperature on political rhetoric.

Albanese’s concerns have been fuelled by eight incidents since April,either carried out or foiled by ASIO,that were believed to be motivated by extremism.

Intelligence sources,who were not authorised to reveal the incidents,said they included theWakeley church stabbing in western Sydney,in which a bishop was stabbed during a sermon being live-streamed on social media,and recent stabbingsin Perth and at theUniversity of Sydney.

Burgess said none of the terrorist plots were believed to have been directly inspired by the Israel-Hamas war,but warned the conflict’s spread to Lebanon could aggravate tensions.

Intelligence sources painted a picture of the type of person who could fall into the trap of online radicalism. They described a financially insecure man living in the suburbs of a big city,struggling to buy a home,judging that too many migrants were living around him,and watching global events with unease,all combining to foster a sense of dislocation that could turn sinister if the person turned to extremist ideology for easy solutions.

The sources said the new security environment was comparable to an El Nino weather system rather than a singular extreme weather event.

Said Burgess:“Now,individuals are being motivated by a diversity of grievances and personal narratives. In some cases I refer to,the alleged perpetrators appeared to be motivated by extreme religious beliefs. In others,nationalist and racist beliefs.

“These factors make ASIO’s job more difficult,[with] the threats becoming harder to predict and identify.”

Albanese added:“There are many things driving this global trend towards violence. Governments around the world are concerned about youth radicalisation,online radicalisation and the rise of new mixed ideologies.”

The raised terrorism threat meant ASIO believed there was a greater than 50:50 chance of an attack. ASIO said that unlike older ideologies that glorified sensational,well-planned attacks,newer movements gave less weight to sensationalism,meaning lone-wolf or small-cell attacks,using cheap weapons,were likely.

“Individuals are moving to violence with little or no warning and little or no planning. Acts of violence can be almost spontaneous or purely reactive,” he said,warning that teens were increasingly getting caught up in extremism.

“In the recent cases,the oldest[alleged] perpetrator was 21 and the youngest was 14. Extremist ideologies,conspiracies,misinformation,are flourishing in the online ecosystem and young Australians are particularly vulnerable.”

ASIO last raised the threat level to “probable” in 2014,when significant numbers of radicalised foreign fighters,including Australians,were travelling to Syria and Iraq to join Islamist terrorist groups. It was loweredto “possible” in November 2022 as the risk posed by religiously motivated violent extremists fell.

There are five terrorism threat levels,ranging from “certain” to “not expected”.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news,views and expert analysis from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletterhere.