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

Yes, Senator Fawcett, I can. To address the serious gap in our existing legislation, a range of foreign interference offences will be introduced into the Commonwealth Criminal Code. These new offences will make it an offence to engage in conduct on behalf of, or in collaboration with, a foreign principal that is covert, deceptive or involves threats or menaces and is intended to serve the intelligence purposes of a foreign actor or cause harm to Australia's national security or influence a political or governmental process or the exercise of a democratic or political right in Australia. The new offences will also criminalise preparing for a foreign interference offence, which will allow law enforcement to interfere at an earlier stage, before damaging conduct occurs. In addition, there will be specific offences that criminalise supporting or funding a foreign intelligence agency, modelled on existing offences for supporting or funding terrorist organisations.