Australia’s foreign influence curbs an ‘abject failure’

Foreign interference in Australian democracy poses a growing risk to our national sovereignty.

It refers to coercive, corrupt or deceptive activities by or on behalf of a foreign actor designed to undermine Australia’s democracy.

It can involve foreign actors secretly cultivating and manipulating Australians to influence their decision-making, or distorting our public discourse by spreading misinformation or disinformation on social media.

Australia’s Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme, implemented in 2018 by the Turnbull government, is supposed to prevent foreign interference through increased transparency. But it’s not working – and a recent review of this scheme is unlikely to fix the flaws.

The legislation that created the scheme established a public online register of “foreign influence.”

Australians must register “communications activities”, and lobbying and disbursement activities, undertaken on behalf of a “foreign principal.” There are criminal penalties for non-compliance.

But the scheme is not working to increase transparency or prevent foreign interference. The registration site attracts little traffic, and most Australians probably don’t know it exists.

As we have argued before, the complex registration requirements could chill free speech.It may discourage normal international engagement, creating onerous red tape for Australians who are not doing anything wrong.

‘Abject failure’

Last month, a parliamentary review noted the scheme’s “significant flaws.”

It found the scheme had “failed to achieve its intended purpose” of increasing “visibility of the nature, level and extent of foreign influence on Australia’s government.” This is despite onerous compliance requirements.

The report noted more transparency