Senate debates
Thursday, 28 June 2018
Bills
National Security Legislation Amendment (Espionage and Foreign Interference) Bill 2018, Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Bill 2018; In Committee
11:25 am
Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Science, Jobs and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source
I might have to clarify: part of this, I think, would probably be better dealt with in the discussion of the other bill, because this, as opposed to the other bill, which talks about politicians specifically, has criminal offences in relation to certain conduct and so doesn't specifically engage parliamentary privilege in that way. It's difficult for me to answer all of what you've described, because, if I heard you correctly, you're talking about a situation where someone was actually offered money to try to get a specific outcome at a party conference. Obviously there are the corruption and bribery elements of that, and other offences no doubt would deal with that, and I'm not going to give a comment on that. In terms of foreign interference, it would go to some of the elements we've been drawing out in terms of whether all of the elements in relation to acting on behalf of a foreign principal et cetera were engaged. If you wanted to drill down a little bit on that, as Senator Leyonhjelm has, I'll do my best to answer those questions, but I think we're perhaps dealing with two slightly separate concepts.
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