Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Hansard source

What I'm hearing you say is that there is no plan at this point in time for a register of participants in the upcoming referendum; that the AEC is not necessarily going to hold a list of all of the organisations participating; and that they're not going to hold a list of all of the organisations that could potentially breach the very laws that we are imposing upon those organisations today as part of this machinery bill. From the opposition's perspective, this is exactly the reason why we have requested official 'yes' and 'no' campaigns—to maintain the structural integrity around the referendum so that Australians know that those donation laws have been applied, that the organisations have complied, that foreign interference is limited and that foreign donations are banned. This is simply an impossible thing to manage and oversee unless there is either official 'yes' and 'no' campaigns or, at the very least, a register of organisations that the AEC and our intelligence agencies can go to to make sure that these organisations are complying with these very laws. I ask, then, of the minister: what is the quantum of funding that the government has provided to allow the Australian Electoral Commission to undertake its duties as part of this referendum?