Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

The Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Amendment Bill 2022 was recently considered by this chamber. That bill, which has now passed both houses, replicates the same restrictions on foreign donations and campaigning that apply to federal elections.

That means, thanks to work by a Labor government, the referendum legislation will prohibit referendum entities from receiving gifts of $100 or more from foreign donors. It will prohibit foreign persons and entities from authorising referendum material and will prohibit foreign persons and entities from fund raising or directly incurring referendum expenditure of $1,000 or more in a financial year. As this most recent legislation confirms, it is the Labor Party that leads electoral reform in this country. This includes protecting our democracy from foreign influence and interference.

The Albanese government takes the integrity of electoral events, including referendums, very seriously. It's important that Australians can have confidence in the conduct and outcomes of our electoral processes. Our government has an appetite for more electoral reform this term. However, we recognise that electoral reform is best when it is broadly supported across the parliament, as we saw with the recent referendum machinery legislation, and broad, considered, genuine consultation works best for electoral reform.

This term, Labor will be focused on lowering the disclosure threshold for donations to a fixed $1,000, reining it in from the current disclosure threshold of $15,200. The Special Minister of State is also committed to delivering a mechanism for pursuing truth in political advertising within Australia's electoral arrangements. Both these issues need careful consideration and are currently before the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters. When that committee reports back on its review of the 2022 federal election, the Special Minister of State will be keenly considering how we can implement these electoral reforms most effectively.

Coming back to the motion at hand, senators will be pleased to know about structures already in place. Currently, the Australian Electoral Commission works with other federal government agencies to ensure that Australian electoral systems are secure and resilient to threats of physical or cyber disruption and foreign interference. In 2018 the AEC established the Electoral Integrity Assurance Taskforce to safeguard the integrity of our elections from threats, including foreign interference.

This taskforce is comprised of relevant agencies, across federal government, working together to provide information and advice to the electoral commissioner on matters relating to the integrity of the process of federal elections and referendums. There are a range of federal portfolios that are members of that task force across different departments, including the AEC, Department of Finance, Australian Signals Directorate, Office of National Intelligence and a number of others.

The task force is also supported by members of the national intelligence community as required. Members of that task force consult with online media platforms, including prior electoral events, including referenda, and have also established escalation processes for the referral of content in breach of Commonwealth legislation or the social media platform's terms of service. Agencies that participate in the task force are already working to provide appropriate support to protect the integrity of the proposed referendum, including from foreign actors.

Senators will be pleased to know that on 26 July last year the Australian Electoral Commissioner released a public media statement confirming that task force agencies did not identify any foreign interference or any other interference that compromised the delivery of the 2022 federal election and would undermine the confidence of the Australian people in the results of the election. The government will continue to work through the members of the task force on risks to the integrity of the referendum, including the threat of foreign interference, to ensure the public can continue to have confidence in the conduct and outcome of this and other electoral events.

Senators will also be familiar with the work that was done by the Australian Electoral Commission during the last federal election to counter misinformation and disinformation. Ahead of the last election, in response to an estimates question, the AEC advised the AEC federal election advertising campaign budgeted $615,000, excluding GST, for media placement to deliver disinformation awareness messages to voters via digital media channels across the election period. Further, that the AEC would also undertake a range of proactive media resources and public relations activities to further promote and distribute disinformation awareness messages as part of the Stop and Consider campaign. We anticipate the AEC will build on its capabilities in this area as we head into the upcoming referendum. With that small contribution, I'm happy to indicate that the government will be supporting this motion.