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

Yes, I can, Senator Macdonald. Of course, what this legislation seeks to do is to plug some important gaps in both the Criminal Code and the legislation governing our security agencies. It's being carefully developed, as I said a moment ago, in collaboration with those agencies, for the purposes of investigating, disrupting and prosecuting acts of espionage and covert interference in the Australian political process. It will strengthen and modernise a range of offences, and introduce new offences. As well, it will establish a new transparency scheme, providing for the first time visibility of the nature and extent of influence over Australia's government and political processes by foreign interests. It will introduce new offences targeting foreign interference and economic espionage, including offences that criminalise covert and deceptive activities that support the intelligence activities of foreign actors.