December 1, 2024
The Coalition has voiced concerns about Beijing-aligned tech companies lobbying politicians and departments without declaring their activities on a register set up to combat foreign interference.
In September, executives from Chinese surveillance giant Hikvision travelled to Canberra to sway public officials ahead of the passage of major new cyber-security legislation.
Details of a contract with Labor-linked lobby firm Hawker Britton were declared in the government's foreign influence transparency register, which was set up as part of a broader package of laws introduced by the Turnbull government in 2018.
The opposition's spokesman for home affairs, James Paterson, who led an audit into the presence of the Chinese-linked CCTV cameras in federal offices, said other entities with links to foreign states should publicly declare their lobbying activities.
"Hikvision's decision to register on the foreign influence transparency scheme blows away the excuses for other Chinese-headquartered companies with close connections to the Communist Party for their failure to do so," he told ACM.
"Huawei, DJI, TikTok, Dahua, BYD, and WeChat should all be transparent about their attempts to influence public policy in Australia and their close relationships with the Chinese government."
Under foreign agent registration laws, individuals and organisations who undertake certain activities on behalf of a foreign government or related entity are required to publish it on a public register.
A parliamentary committee called for sweeping changes to the laws this year after it found significant flaws in the scheme, pointing to a low number of registrations and minimal levels of compliance.
It's understood the Attorney-General's Department is considering the changes but changes are not imminent.
Hikvision, whose largest shareholder is owned by the Chinese government, launched its lobbying efforts as the government pre- pared to pass its overhaul of cyber-security laws.
The tech giant and its competitor, Dahua, had hundreds of its CCTV devices stripped from federal public service buildings and electorate offices last year following concerns over national security.
The ban followed similar moves from governments in the US and the UK, which blacklisted Hikvision after it was implicated in Beijing's treatment of Muslim minority groups in China.
A media representative from Hawker Britton told ACM the lobbying group had met its legal obligations to declare its relationship with the firm.
The Department of Parliamentary Services, the entity responsible for provisioning services in Parliament House, said its representatives did not meet Hawker Britton and Hikvision during the visit in September.
Home Affairs was unable to say whether its officials met Hikvision because it does not hold a department-wide diary.
The Department of Defence and the Department of Infrastructure refused to say whether their officials held meetings with the lobbyists. The Attorney-General's Department did not respond before deadline.
