Al Jazeera gun sting beyond spy laws’ scope
Al Jazeera’s taping of One Nation officials chasing $20m from the NRA has not broken foreign influence rules, a law expert says.
International news organisation Al Jazeera has not broken any Australian laws against foreign influence by secretly recording One Nation officials seeking donations from America’s gun lobby, a legal academic says.
One Nation yesterday referred the Qatari-owned broadcaster to the Australian Federal Police, accusing it of acting as a “foreign agent” and interfering in Australia’s electoral process.
However, Monash University constitutional law expert Luke Beck said Al Jazeera’s reporting did not breach laws against foreign interference introduced last year. He said the legislation regulated lobbying that took place in Australia on behalf of foreign agents.
“This was not lobbying and this was not in Australia so this conduct falls outside the foreign influence transparency scheme,” Dr Beck said.
The legislation requires all lobbyists for foreign agents be registered and imposes penalties of up to five years’ jail for failing to do so.
Dr Beck said Al Jazeera’s activities fell short of espionage and were also not captured by electoral laws requiring electoral communications to include a disclosure as to who authorised them. “This is just a media sting,” he said.
The Al Jazeera story, released on Monday night, involved an investigative reporter going under cover for three years to infiltrate the US National Rifle Association.
Using hidden cameras, the reporter filmed Pauline Hanson’s chief of staff, James Ashby, and One Nation’s Queensland leader, Steve Dickson, meeting with NRA members and other lobby groups, including chemical and energy giant Koch Industries.
The pair sought up to $20 million in donations for One Nation while offering to help water down Australia’s gun laws.
A One Nation spokesman yesterday said the party did not recognise Al Jazeera’s legitimacy as a media outlet and had referred the broadcaster to Australia’s domestic spy agency and the AFP.
Dr Beck said the referral would not lead anywhere and was merely an “attempt to deflect attention” from the party’s activities.
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The Albanese government provides no rationale or narrative for its disconnected actions. Everything is spin. We’ve seldom seen a government this poor in such critical fields at such a dangerous time.