Herzog, ASIO, and the Truth Gap
- Gregory Andrews
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
Remember when Anthony Albanese framed Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit as “healing”. That mattered because it asked us to read a highly charged diplomatic moment through the language of grief, solidarity, and community reassurance. It subtly positioned scrutiny as unkind - even suspect. It made Australians lower our guard. It said: “don’t ask questions - this is about comfort, not politics.”
But now we’ve learned that Herzog had a private meeting with ASIO. And it wasn’t just “a quick hello”. Herzog met secretly with Australia’s domestic intelligence chief, the Director-General of ASIO. And when asked directly, Penny Wong dodged the question. That wasn’t an accident. She made a deliberate choice to keep Australians in the dark.
Yes, secrecy is sometimes necessary for national security. But when it is, our leaders should be honest about it and explain the necessity. They should say: there are elements of this visit we can’t discuss publicly, and here’s why - and here are the limits and safeguards. That’s how democratic consent works.
But what Albanese and Wong did instead was much more slippery. It reeked of Scott Morrison. They put a “healing” sticker on the whole thing. “Healing” is a powerful word. It is moral and manipulative language. It carries an implied accusation: if you object, you are worsening wounds. If you press for transparency, you are undermining unity.
And let’s be very clear about the stakes. When a foreign head of state meets with ASIO, Australians have a right to know the meeting occurred and to ask the obvious questions:
What was the purpose of the meeting, broadly?
What categories of information were discussed or shared?
What guardrails were in place to protect our independence and rights?
You don’t get to demand trust while refusing accountability. If Albanese wanted to frame the visit as healing, he could have done that - and still told the truth. He could have said: I met with President Herzog to offer condolences and stand with Australians grieving and fearful, and separately, as part of standard protective security arrangements, there were meetings with relevant agencies including ASIO. We won’t discuss operational details.
That would have been honest. Instead, we got spin and deceit: look over here - healing, unity, solidarity - while the real action happens behind closed doors.
And that leads to the deeper issue: the Albanese Government keeps outsourcing hard questions to “security”, and then using that shield selectively. When it suits them, they invoke national security to shut down debate. When it suits them, they switch to emotion and symbolism to make dissent look ugly. This isn’t new, but it is getting worse: “don’t ask” has become the default posture, and “trust us” has become the substitute for consent.
Healing isn’t a communications strategy. It doesn’t happen by hiding what you’re doing and manipulating the public into subservience. Healing is built on truth, accountability, and the respect that comes from treating citizens as adults.
If the Albanese Government wants to be taken seriously on social cohesion, it needs to be honest and start answering straightforward questions with straightforward answers.
