A "significant number" of foreign spies and their proxies have been removed from Australia or "rendered inoperative" in the past 12 months, according to the nation's domestic spy agency.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has also made a significant change to the way it speaks about threats, wiping out terms such as "Islamic extremism" and "right-wing extremism" in favour of addressing religious or ideological motivations.
ASIO's Director-General of Security Mike Burgess made the revelations on Wednesday night during his second annual threat assessment, declaring the labels were "no longer fit for purpose".
He said ASIO's focus was on the threat of violence, not a target's political views.
"In the same way, we don't investigate people because of their religious views — again, it's violence that is relevant to our powers — but that's not always clear when we use the term 'Islamic extremism'," he said.
"Understandably, some Muslim groups — and others — see this term as damaging and misrepresentative of Islam, and consider that it stigmatises them by encouraging stereotyping and stoking division."
Giving so-called "incels" — a portmanteau of involuntarily celibate — as an example, Mr Burgess said many individuals and groups simply didn't fit on the left-right spectrum.
Instead, they may be motivated by anything from fear of societal collapse to a specific social or economic grievance or conspiracy.
The comments came a year after Mr Burgess described an "unprecedented" threat from foreign espionage and interference operations and warned of the growing risk of right-wing extremism.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton was criticised at the time for responding to the comments by promising to fight lunatics on the "far right" and "far left", and associating Islamic extremism with the left.
On Wednesday, Mr Burgess said some of Australia's adversaries were trying to "undermine and exploit" Australia's recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.
"We have already seen extremists trying to stoke social divisions, and foreign intelligence services wanting intelligence about Australia's key export, technology and research industries," he said on Wednesday
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At the same time, the pandemic posed unique challenges because "more time at home online meant more time in the echo chamber of the internet on the pathway to radicalisation".
Those intent on violence were "able to access hate-filled manifestos and attack instructions, without some of the usual circuit breakers that contact with community provides".
Mr Burgess said the number of spies and proxies dealt with in the previous year was in the "double figures".
He described a "nest of spies" from a foreign intelligence service outside of the region, which had developed targeted relationships with current and former politicians, a foreign embassy and a state police service.
They even asked a public servant to reveal security protocols at a major airport and recruited someone with federal government security clearance and access to "sensitive details of defence technology".
"When ASIO finds a nest of spies, we will deal with what we find," he said.
Australia's terrorism threat level remains at probable.
