Australia's top spy has delivered a bleak snap-shot of threats to national security and democracy in what he's described as his most "significant, serious, and sober" threat assessment to date.

According to the Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), we are living in a world where radicalisation can take just days, antisemitic attacks on home soil are yet to plateau, and multiple nations have plotted to physically harm people living in Australia.

Also, Parliament may not have been sitting, and the election may not have been called yet but could the Government have steeled itself for the ballot box after the events of this week?

And "reckless indifference" or "wilful bastardry".

They're the only things that former treasury secretary Ken Henry believes can explain the economic challenges and environmental catastrophe facing young Australians, thanks to successive governments and the voters who've supported them.