George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

No, I can't confirm that because I don't know. But I can tell you, Senator Pratt, that members of the government, and I'm sure members of the opposition, meet with businessmen, including—

Senator Pratt interjecting—

Senator Pratt, would you like me to answer your question?—meet with businessmen, including Chinese businessmen, all the time, as we should. That is not the point. Sometimes those business people make donations to political parties—to the Liberal Party, the National Party, the Australian Labor Party, the Australian Greens—as they are entitled to do and as, indeed, the High Court has said is part of the implied freedom of political communication. But those donations are subject to a rigorous disclosure regime, and what I can confirm to you, Senator Pratt, is that the Liberal Party, in all its state divisions, is absolutely compliant with its disclosure obligations under the Commonwealth Electoral Act. What we are talking about in the case of Senator Dastyari is not political donations, it's undue influence. It's about undue influence, about the fact that Senator Dastyari has, so it is alleged, engaged in covert behaviour in a way to potentially frustrate the operational activities of the Australian security agencies. Senator Dastyari has sought to undermine the foreign policy position of your own party on an issue of the greatest foreign policy sensitivity, namely the South China Sea and freedom of navigation exercises through islands in the South China Sea—nothing whatever to do with political donations but everything to do with undue foreign influence.