"If the agencies need more laws then we will provide that support because this is a very serious threat and I think Mike Burgess dealt with this very effectively when he said we were at unprecedented levels in terms of the foreign interference in our country.
"We need to acknowledge that threat,we need to deal with it,we need to provide support to the agencies,and we're doing that because we want to keep Australians safe."
Along with foreign interference,Mr Burgess raised concerns about the growing threat of right-wing extremism and revealed ASIO was investigating twice as many terrorism leads as at the same time last year.
United Kingdom has added two right-wing extremist organisations to its list of prescribed terrorist groups in recent days.
Asked why Australia had no current right-wing groups on its list of terrorist organisations,Mr Dutton said the government was"very open"to a new listing but it relied on advice from ASIO,other agencies and the Department of Home Affairs.
ASIO boss Mike Burgess warned foreign interference was at unprecedented levels.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
"ASIO has been working on right-wing extremism literally for decades in our country,"Mr Dutton said."I don't really care where people are on the spectrum. I don't care what country it is we're talking about,whether it's China or Russia or Iran - if people pose a threat to our country,they will be dealt with according to the level of that threat.
"And ASIO is blind as to somebody's ideology. If they pose a threat to human life in our
country,then they can expect a knock on their door from ASIO or from the Australian
Federal Police or from our other agencies.
"And if we have people who are interfering with our diaspora communities here in Australia or they're interfering with the democratic process,or they're stealing intellectual property,they can expect to face the full force of the law,regardless of whether they're a state actor or a sophisticated non-state actor and that's the way you would expect us to act."
Mr Burgess's first annual threat assessment on Monday night was unprecedented in the revelations about recent operations conducted by ASIO and the challenges facing the organisation.
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Rory Medcalf,the head of the National Security College at the Australian National University,said Australia was entering a new level of"proactive transparency"from its security agencies and it should be welcomed.
"It marks a new maturity in the Australian national security community,"Professor Medcalf said.
"This is different[from previous speeches] as it was aimed at the broader public domain and not primarily at parliament."