Brendan Nelson first former politician to register on foreign influence scheme

Brendan Nelson has become the first former politician to register for a scheme designed to manage meddling in Australia’s politics.

Australian War Memorial Director Brendan Nelson. Picture: AAP

Brendan Nelson has become the first former politician to register on the new Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme, designed to manage external meddling in Australia’s political processes.

Mr Nelson is the director at the Australian War Memorial which has attracted scrutiny for accepting donations from arms manufacturers including French company Thales Australia.

Mr Nelson has registered for his membership of the Thales Australia Advisory Board.

The war memorial received a $30,000 donation from Thales for the Napier Waller art prize.

So far just eight individuals or companies have appeared on the register ahead of the grace period for registrations ending on Sunday.

One of those, however, is from an individual named David Palmer who claims to represent a group advocating a conspiracy theory that the September 11, 2001 terror attacks were an inside job by the US government.

In his registration he said his “foreign principal” is the United States.

The United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney has also registered for a lobbying project they are undertaking with the US State Department.

The centre said in the registration they had been awarded a contract from the state department to conduct workshops and seminars in Australia in 2019.

The centre said one of the aims was to “create a small but well-informed cohort of ‘next generation leaders’ who will “amplify” messages from research the centre will do on the “the rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific” and the US-Australian alliance.

They said they intended to lobby Australian government officials.

“Participants in these activities — and the intended audience for the project’s dissemination activities — will include members of Australian government departments with direct connection and input into government decisions.”