ASIO’s sensational Iran claims raise plenty of questions. Why isn’t the media asking them?

Allegations that Iran is behind antisemitic attacks in Australia demand further scrutiny – but our media is already treating them as gospel

There is a reason dystopian fiction often depicts the ruling class as attending balls while the world burns – it’s the easiest narrative tool to show the disconnect between society and those who rule it.

The day after Australia expelled the Iranian ambassador, the first time such an action has been taken since World War II, the federal press gallery held its annual ball.

The timing of the ball was pre-determined. The expulsion of the ambassador and his staff, and the shuttering of the Australian embassy in Tehran, was not.

That came after an ASIO determination that Iran was behind at least two antisemitic attacks, with more under investigation, having allegedly hired ‘cut out’ operatives (people unaware of who they are working for) to carry out the plans. This came, the ASIO director tells us, following an investigation since October led by ASIO and the AFP “in liaison with foreign partners”.

We don’t know who those foreign partners are. No one at the press conference thought to ask, and ASIO chief Mike Burgess isn’t exactly readily available for follow-up interviews.

The disconnect, though, isn’t in how the information was delivered, or even received. It’s in the seeming inability of both mainstream media and political leaders to see that the world has changed. Audiences have worked it out – following the Iran announcement the immediate reaction from the public was to ask the questions not immediately asked by the press gallery: why would Iran do this? Who assisted ASIO in its operations? If the Iranian ambassador can be expelled this quickly, why is Australia not acting to expel the Israeli ambassador, considering Israel’s breach of international and humanitarian law and the killing of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom? What are the red lines for Australia’s relationship with Israel?

Some of those questions were answered on Wednesday, at least in regards to why now for Iran.

“For us, the line was crossed when action was taken, orchestrated in this country against Australians,” the foreign minister, Penny Wong, said at a press conference.

“We cannot countenance that and that's why the ambassador has been expelled.”

The issue for people watching this all play out seems to be the complete disconnect between this and Israel’s actions. It wasn’t raised until Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer gave Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu credit for the decision to expel the Iranian envoy in a press conference covered by the ABC.

“Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu has made a very forthright intervention when it comes to Australia, a country in which we have a long history of friendly relations,” Mencer said.

“He made those comments because he did not believe that the actions of the Australian government had gone anywhere near far enough to address the issues of antisemitism. He made very forthright comments about the prime minister himself. We certainly see it from Israel that Australia taking the threats against Israel and the Jewish people, Jewish Australians living in Australia – for the Australian government to take those threats seriously is a positive outcome."

Tony Burke responded that was “complete nonsense” in an ABC radio interview, but there has been little acknowledgement that even if not true, many Australians feel Israel has too much influence over Australian affairs.

It has been part of the business-as-usual approach most media outlets are taking to the extraordinary shift in global affairs. America, supposedly the world’s most successful democracy, is about to celebrate its 250th anniversary as it slides into authoritarianism and fascism. But rather than report on this as the serious moment it is, everything Donald Trump and his administration does – from snatching people off the street and disappearing them; to declaring “capital punishment in the capital” after sending in armed military units to jurisdictions he views as hostile; to attacking the independence of the Federal Reserve; to arbitrarily applying tariffs and trade sanctions on allied nations; to attempting to bargain away the sovereignty of European nations – is viewed in isolation.

We are not supposed to draw motives from any of these acts or Trump’s own words – unless there is an authorised statement spelling it all out, it seems that motives are to remain fundamentally inscrutable, even as America slides further into the abyss. But none of this happens in isolation. Trump’s attacks on the Federal Reserve risk global financial stability. That impacts Australia, even as our media pretends that this is just a blip in the matrix and come the mid-terms, all will be corrected, rather than address it like the authoritarian takeover it is.

But American authoritarianism doesn’t look like what the history books show us, so the obvious lines are drawn. And Israel is an ally, so simple things become ‘very complicated’. And all of this is very normal and fine, which is why there is nary a thought as to how holding a ball in Parliament where journalists host politicians, lobbyists and corporate tsars behind closed doors – and choose who is allowed to fill the 640 seats on offer – looks to a public already losing trust in the media’s ability to hold power to account.

Our media is not fit for purpose in covering these moments. And history will judge us all harshly.