The refusal by the director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Mike Burgess, to reveal the name of the former Australian politician he said was recruited by an international spy ring, who subsequently suggested bringing a prime minister’s family member into contact with his foreign handlers, has certainly put the cat among the pigeons.

In an explosive speech on Wednesday, Burgess said the nameless politician had sold out their country, party and former colleagues to advance the interests of the foreign regime – surely the definition of treason.

Then, on Thursday, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s son Alex said he believed he may have been the target of the approach referred to by Burgess.

But beyond the tantalising speculation about the identity of the politician and wherever that leads, Burgess’ substantive disclosure was that more Australians were being targeted for foreign interference and espionage than ever before, and that a dedicated unit within a foreign intelligence service made us its primary target and operated for several years until at least last year.

“The team is aggressive and experienced, its tradecraft is good – but not good enough,” Burgess said, delivering his latest annual threat assessment in a speech delivered in Canberra.

“ASIO and our partners have been able to map out its activities and identify its members.”

In 2022, we reported Burgess saying ASIO had recently foiled a plot on behalf of China by a rich “puppeteer” to infiltrate a political party, which the Herald understood was the ALP. Back then, the Coalition crossed the line, accusing Labor of being the preferred party of the Chinese Communist Party, with then-prime minister Scott Morrison telling parliament that then-deputy opposition leader Richard Marles was a “Manchurian candidate” before withdrawing his allusion to the paperback/film about a brainwashed US Korean War POW sent to assassinate a presidential candidate.

The nature of the spy game is half-truths and secrets, and Burgess has stayed true to the archetype in his latest comments by only giving half the information instead of a fuller story. Burgess confirmed the Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce has conducted more than 120 operations since it was established in 2020, but his decision not to disclose who the retired MP was and what country was involved raises the inevitable question – why?