The politicisation of national security issues has been labelled as "not helpful" by the head of Australia's spy agency.
In an interview on the ABC's 7.30 program, ASIO director-general Mike Burgess also said both sides of politics had been targeted by foreign interference.
The comments come after Prime Minister Scott Morrison labelled Labor deputy leader Richard Marles a "Manchurian candidate" during question time on Wednesday.
Mr Morrison was forced to withdraw the comment made during another government attack on Labor as it continues to try to draw a link between China's communist regime and the ALP.
Defence Minister Peter Dutton has previously called Opposition leader Anthony Albanese as China's "preferred candidate" in the upcoming federal election.
Mr Burgess said he had been clear that national security issues - which are normally treated on a bipartisan basis - shouldn't be politicised.
"Foreign interference is against all members of parliament, so it doesn't go after one political party or the other," he said.
"ASIO is apolitical, my staff are apolitical, they put their lives on the line to actually protect Australians and Australia from threats of security."
It's the second such intervention by the head of ASIO this week after similar comments were made at a Senate estimates hearing.
Mr Burgess said there had been multiple attempts by more than one country to interfere in Australia's domestic affairs.
However, he stressed he didn't believe a foreign government could alter the result of an election.
"Espionage and foreign interference has supplanted terrorism as our nation's principal security concern," he said.
"Our election process and our system of democracy is robust, so I don't believe [foreign interference] can happen. Of course, we do see foreign interference attempts to influence candidates and influence members of parliament."
Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews denied the government was trying to politicise national security issues while defending the prime minister's "Manchurian candidate" comment.
"A whole range of issues are being tested at the moment, and what the prime minister is doing is bringing out the clear distinction between the Liberal and Labor parties on the issue of national security," she told Sky News.
"Question time is very robust and a lot of comments fly across the chamber from both sides."
Opposition home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally said the prime minister's comments were a desperate act.
"[The prime minister] was seeking to use national security in a domestic political context and that has been called out by the ASIO director-general," she told ABC Radio.
"I would encourage the prime minister to consider the risky rhetoric he is running."
Tasmanian Senator Jacquie Lambie said attack lines from the Coalition were familiar.
"Whenever there's a close election, you've got the government of the day carrying on the way it is, throwing everything from national security to China up and not selling their own policies," she told the Nine Network.
"I think parliament lost the plot a long time ago, but let's not go there."
