New laws target foreign agents, political influence amid ‘worse than Cold War’ threat

MAJOR changes to the nation’s espionage laws are set to pass Parliament this week in a bid to crackdown on Chinese and Russian-style interference in Australian politics.

MAJOR changes to the nation’s espionage laws are set to pass Parliament this week in a bid to crackdown on Chinese and Russian-style interference in Australian politics.

Both major parties agreed to pass the laws this week after the powerful Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security recommended 52 changes, including amendments that would exempt charities and religious organisations from registering as agents of foreign influence.

Under the new laws, spies who pass on, possess or receive information will face criminal prosecution, foreign political donations will be banned and a new register to publicly list agents of foreign influence will be established.

The new laws come after spy agency ASIO told Parliament in May that foreign interference activities were now occurring at a higher rate in Australia than during the Cold War.

Intelligence and security committee chair Andrew Hastie said the committee’s 52 recommendations today had taken ASIO’s advice into account.

Chinese Ambassador to Australia Cheng Jingye. China has sharply criticised Australia’s new anti-influence laws, despite having far more draconian limits itself. Picture Kym Smith

“ASIO advised the Committee that there has been a significant increase of covert influence activities within Australia,” Mr Hastie said.

“These represent a threat to Australia’s sovereignty, the integrity of our national institutions and the exercise of our citizens’ rights.

“The Foreign Influence and Transparency Scheme responds to this threat by positioning Australia to counter attempts by authoritarian foreign states to exert improper influence over our political landscape.”

The committee has recommended charities and religious institutions be exempt from the transparency register.

It also recommended that former Cabinet Ministers be forced to register if they engage in influence on behalf of foreign powers at any time after they leave politics, rather than just in the ten years after they quit parliament.

Labor Party Senator Sam Dastyari fronting media. He quit parliament on December 12, 2017, over his links to China in a scandal that coincided with Canberra proposing new foreign interference laws. Picture: AFP

Senior political staffers will also be forced to register for similar reasons for 15 years after they leave politics.

Media broadcasters, carriage service providers and publishers will also not be required to register for simply editing information or materials produced by a foreign power or agent of foreign influence.

Attorney-General Christian Porter said the government would accept all of the Committee’s recommendations and aimed to debate and pass the legislation this week.

He said the foreign interference register would provide transparency for the Australian Government and the Australian community about foreign influence in Australia.

“We don’t seek to restrict those activities through this Bill, rather to ensure such activity is undertaken in a lawful, open and transparent way,” he said.

Charity groups called the changes to the bill a victory for common sense.

“Without these measures being implemented, the international partnerships that underpin international development, aid and conservation work could require independent charities to register as agents of foreign principals,” Greenpeace Australia Pacific chief executive David Ritter said.

The government earlier this year announced it would conduct the biggest review of Australian spy and law enforcement agencies’ powers in 40 years in coming months.