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AAP
AAP
Politics
Tess Ikonomou

Bad foreign actors to be named after Iran plot foiled

Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil says it's time to bring foreign interference "into the light". (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

Australia will name countries found to be undermining the nation's political processes.

And spy agencies will be tasked with designing programs for identified communities most at-risk of being targeted for foreign interference.

In a speech given to the Australian National University, Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil also revealed ASIO recently foiled a foreign interference operation by the Iranian regime.

The plot was aimed at an Iranian-Australian linked to locally held protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after she was detained by Iran's morality police for failing to wear her hijab correctly.

Ms O'Neil said the government would call out the "egregious acts" of individual countries when it was in the national interest to do so.

She said ASIO and the Department of Home Affairs would be asked to develop a new program for people at risk of being targeted for foreign interference, which would help them understand what this looked like and how they could respond.

"It's time to bring foreign interference out of the shadows and into the light," she told the ANU National Security College on Tuesday.

"As minister for home affairs, there is something direct and practical I can do to help equip Australians to fight this problem - to talk as openly as I can about foreign interference in Australia."

Ms O'Neil also referred to unnamed countries that had tried to "collect sensitive personal information of individuals seen as dissidents by the foreign government due to their activism".

"There are examples of individuals arranging counter-protests to instigate arguments with activists with the intent of provoking violence - all at the request of a foreign intelligence service," she said.

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