February 14, 2023
The government’s response to the unanimous and bipartisan PJCIS report into national security risks in higher education is welcome.
I particularly welcome the end of the agreement between Monash University and COMAC, an issue I first publicly raised in October 2019. COMAC has long been sanctioned by the US government, is controlled by the People’s Liberation Army, is involved in industrial-state espionage and sits at the heart of Xi Jinping’s vision for civil-military fusion. This arrangement should never have been entered into in the first place.
I note media reports that the Foreign Minister will not approve new agreements for a Confucius Institutes at an Australian university if they are proposed, but has not used the powers available to her under the Foreign Relations Act to cancel any of the existing arrangements. It is up to the government to explain why a new Confucius Institute would be inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy but a current one is not.
Australia has made great progress in recent years hardening our systems and society against foreign interference and the higher education sector is now better equipped to protect our interests and safeguard our values.
The introduction of the foreign influence transparency scheme, the espionage and foreign interference act, the universities foreign interference task force and the foreign arrangements scheme are all important tools to ensure that our national interest is protected in the higher education sector.
The PJCIS inquiry and report also played an important part in that process by identifying vulnerabilities and shining a light on inadequate responses from some universities to these problems.
It is critical that this progress is maintained and not undermined or watered-down. We cannot afford to return to a mindset of complacency or naiveté and the government is now equipped with much stronger tools to ensure this does not happen.
