AFP investigating Eden-Monaro spam links to 2018 Wentworth by-election

As voters hit the polls, the AFP is investigating an alleged disinformation campaign targeting Labor’s candidate.

Labor candidate for Eden-Monaro Kristy McBain. Picture: AAP

The Australian Federal Police is investigating whether an alleged sophisticated disinformation campaign targeting Labor’s Eden-Monaro candidate Kristy McBain is linked to other spam emails that were distributed during the 2018 Wentworth by-election.

There are also concerns in political circles about possible foreign interference in the by-election. The Weekend Australian can reveal the 32-year-old man from Blacktown in western Sydney, who has been charged over allegedly spreading the emails, is an Australian citizen who was born overseas.

It is understood the way the man allegedly distributed the emails from his devices and monitored the Eden-Monaro candidates’ social media footprints used a high level of sophistication.

He was arrested early on Friday morning and charged with one count of using a telecommunications service to “menace, harass or cause offence”.

It can also be revealed that the national Electoral Integrity Assurance Taskforce will be expanded to oversee state and territory elections — in addition to federal elections — to combat the threat of foreign interference and cyber ­attacks targeting Australian political parties and candidates.

Voters hit the polling booths in Queanbeyan on Saturday.

The taskforce, which includes the nation’s leading security agencies, will provide real-time and uniform advice to electoral commissions across the country amid concerns over vulnerabilities in state election systems.

Labor sources said there were at least six different spam emails that were sent to voters during the Eden-Monaro campaign. Some landed in inboxes as recently as this week claiming Ms McBain had withdrawn from the race ­because she had tested positive to COVID-19.

Ms McBain and Labor’s national secretary, Paul Erickson, both warned that the emails could ­affect the outcome of what is set to be a close electoral contest that will come down to preferences.

“We welcome the AFP investigation. The spread of disinfor­mation online is a threat to democracy, and the claims made in these emails were malicious and totally untrue,” Mr Erickson told The Weekend Australian.

“It would be very disturbing if this had an impact on the result.”

Liberal MP Dave Sharma and former independent MP Kerryn Phelps have also referred emails distributed about them during the 2018 Wentworth by-election and last year’s federal election to the AFP that they said were bigoted, racist and anti-Semitic. No arrests have been made or charges laid.

It is unclear if the McBain emails are connected to the Phelps and Sharma emails, but the link is being investigated.

The AFP commenced an investigation into the McBain emails following a report from the EIAT and the Australian Electoral Commission on June 10.

“The report related to spam emails, which appeared to be from legitimate sources, being sent from an unidentified user to the Australian community and various organisations. The emails were assessed as offensive and harassing in nature,” the AFP said.

“The investigation identified a number of telecommunications services subscribed using suspected fraudulent identification documents. Investigators will allege in court that these activities were linked to the 32-year-old man.”

The man was released on bail and is due to appear before Blacktown Local Court on September 2.

Meanwhile, Electoral Commission Quee­ns­land is working to ­ensure its Election Management System, which was developed in China’s Wuhan and crashed during the March 28 local government elections, was “fully functional” ahead of the state ­election to be held on October 31.

At a Queensland parliamentary inquiry on May 15, the state government’s chief customer and digital officer, Chris Fechner, confirmed stress and vulnerability tests undertaken by ECQ revealed “unacceptable weaknesses” in the election results of its EMS.

“There is a very low tolerance in accepting risk in this area, with historical attacks such as on the commonwealth census. Denial of service was one of the vulnerabilities that was exposed in this testing,” Mr Fechner said.

In the lead-up to last year’s federal election, the EIAT undertook 24-hour monitoring to safeguard against cyber attacks.

The Weekend Australian understands the Australian Signals Directorate, the Australian Cyber Security Centre, the Department of Finance and other agencies are providing advice through the taskforce to federal and state electoral commissioners.

An AEC spokesman said the EIAT had agreed to “stand-up the taskforce in support of not only federal elections but state and territory events as well”.

The AEC is also closely following overseas elections, including the US election in November, as part of its monitoring of electoral integrity and cyber security.

It will introduce “new or amended protection measures accordingly”.

The AEC said it had implemented its Stop and Consider social media advertising campaign ahead of the Eden-Monaro by-election alerting voters to “disinformation” and was looking at rolling-out the campaign at the next federal election “potentially in an expanded capacity”.

An ECQ spokeswoman said they were working to ensure its “election management system is fully functional well in advance of the state government election in October”.

“It’s important to note that while there was a delay in publication of the results to the ECQ website, there was no impairment to the careful counting of the votes, nor to the outcomes. Similarly, there is no indication of any cyber activity or attempt to hack the site,” the ECQ spokeswoman said.

NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane had his home and ­office raided last week as part of a joint AFP and ASIO operation.

If charged, Mr Moselmane — who had his Labor Party membership suspended amid allegations that Chinese government agents had infiltrated his office — would become the first person to face legal action under the federal government’s legislation to counter foreign interference in Australian political affairs.