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Labor 'yet to act' on foreign laws

January 5, 2025

Sunday 05 January 2025
Olivia Ireland
The Age


 The federal government has yet to honour its own commitment to reform laws  that limit foreign governments from meddling with Australian society, almost  a year after a review found current legislation had abjectly failed.
 
 The Coalition has criticised Labor's sluggish response in reforming foreign  influence legislation, despite the government promising in June that it would  do so.
 
 The Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme, introduced with much fanfare by  the Turnbull government in 2018 amid heightened concern about covert activity  linked to the Chinese Communist Party, requires individuals and entities to  register activities undertaken in Australia on behalf of a foreign principal  for the purpose of political or governmental influence.
 
 The scheme's latest annual report released in December reveals a drop in  registered Chinese companies from 55 in 2022-23 to 37 in 2023-24, after a  powerful parliamentary committee found in March that ''enforcement activity  has focused almost exclusively on China with little success''.
 
 Federal Labor accepted the committee's recommendations in June.
 
 However, the government is yet to introduce legislation to make the scheme  more effective, with the amount of time available to present new legislation  to parliament narrowing ahead of a looming federal election.
 
 Coalition spokesman for home affairs and cybersecurity James Paterson said  the government had failed to act on reforming laws that would better improve  Australia's national security.
 
 ''The Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme is an important tool to shine  light on otherwise covert foreign government attempts to influence our  democracy but it has been clear for some time it is not working as intended.
 
 ''Given the heightened strategic environment, fixing it should be an urgent  priority. But despite having a report with recommendations to fix it from the  parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security for almost a year,  the Albanese government has failed to act.''
 
 In 2023, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull told the committee that it  was absurd former prime minister Kevin Rudd was required to declare his  interviews with the BBC while no representatives of the CCP's United Front  Work Department had registered their activities.
 
 Among 14 recommendations for reform, the committee called for the legislation  to be updated to allow the secretary of the Attorney-General's Department to  register individuals who should be listed under the scheme but had not done  so.
 
 George Brandis, the former attorney-general who was responsible for the  legislation in 2017, told The Age reform was necessary. ''The FITS  legislation was world-leading, and has since been copied by other countries,  including the UK.
 
 However, like all legislation that introduces a new regulatory regime, it is  important that it be fine-tuned in light of operational experience.''
 
 Last year's budget allocated $2.1 million to undertake legislative reform of  the act. ''The substantive task of legislative reform is under way,'' a  spokesperson for Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said.
 
 'It has been clear for some time it is not working as intended.' James  Paterson, Coalition spokesman for home affairs

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