ASIO head Mike Burgess says 'cookers' are taking up less of its case load

Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation director-general Mike Burgess said the number of cases his agency was dealing with relating to anti-vaccine mandates and COVID-19 conspiracies, sometimes referred to as "cookers", had "reduced significantly".

It comes months after the domestic spy agency lowered the threat level from "probable" to "possible".

Mr Burgess told a senate estimates committee on Monday morning there was "less angst" these days but a small number of individuals continued to cause concern.

"The volatility has reduced somewhat, in particular around the COVID [related issues and conspiracies], so there's less angst these days," he said.

"Some of that feeling does live on but the number of cases we've been looking at, they've reduced significantly.

"There are less people in this country who want to conduct active violence in the name of their cause.

"But there is still some volatility in that mix with people who have a range of grievances around social economic or some conspiracy theory-driven grievance, and a small percentage of them think violence is the answer."

Greens senator David Shoebridge asked the spy boss whether neo-Nazi, and other violent extremist groups, had used the rage-fuelled protests to recruit for their causes.

Mr Burgess said some might have been recruited during the peak of protests but the overall case load the agency was dealing with had reduced.

"We did not see nationalist and racist, violent extremism or Neo Nazis, egging [the protests] on or running to that cause other than, of course, they were using the dissatisfaction and angst towards a potential recruitment mechanism," he said.

"Sadly, they do manage to recruit some people. Would I say it's been it was a bumper campaign for them? Probably not, but they continue to focus on how they will attract people to their cause."

Religiously-motivated extremism had risen again to around 70 per cent of ASIO's counter-terrorism case load while ideologically-motivated violence, such as those undertaken by extremist right-wing groups, had declined to 30 per cent, Mr Burgess said.

Previously, the agency head said it had reached around 50 per cent.

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Canberra first became a magnet for thousands of "sovereign rights", anti-vax, "freedom" and anti-government protesters in late January 2022 in the wake of similar events happening overseas.

Those within the sovereign movement don't believe the Australian government, including any of its laws or structures, has legitimacy and seek to overthrow it.

Up to 10,000 members of the Convoy to Canberra group camped within Exhibition Park for weeks before being evicted and moved out by federal and local police.

A small contingent of protesters have remained in the capital, moving between camping sites and carparks around Canberra.

ASIO confirmed in its 2021-22 annual report it had kept its eye on the ongoing protests within Canberra.

"In some cases protesters advocated the use of violence, and in a smaller number of cases, they used violence - the factors that trigger ASIO's interest," he wrote.

"Over the last year we have seen an increase in the willingness of a minority of protesters to adopt violence as a tactic including attacking police, damaging property, or inciting others to do so."

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