A Chinese Communist Party-linked group has become the first body to be forcibly listed under the federal government's Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme, five years after it was introduced.
The Attorney-General's Department revealed the Australian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China's (ACPPRC) listing as a foreign-government-related entity during a committee hearing as part of a review of the scheme on Tuesday.
The ACPPRC was issued with a final transparency notice on February 6 after failing to comply with the requirements of the scheme's transparency register, known as FITS.
Appearing before the federal parliament's Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS), Simon Newnham, a senior official with the Attorney-General's Department, defended the length of time it took to register the group.
"The notice provides literal transparency that that body is related to a foreign principal. It also provides clarification for persons who may be undertaking activities on behalf of the ACPPRC that those activities may be registrable under the scheme," deputy secretary Newnham said.
"We are working as fast as we can, prioritising the situations where there is a concern about lack of transparency coupled with the highest risk activities.
"Here I would particularly point to where that activity is geared to or focused on a particular decision or a political process or goes to systemic and sustained failure to comply with obligations."
Shadow Minister for Countering Foreign Interference Senator James Paterson has called for a radical shift in the scheme's enforcement, labelling the listing as a case of "closing the gate behind the horse".
"The ACPPRC is a notorious United Front Work Department body of the Chinese Communist Party and has been since before the foreign influence transparency scheme was introduced," Senator Paterson said.
"After almost five years of operation, the fact that the Attorney-General's Department has only this year exercised its powers against them is frankly remarkable," he said.
"Because of its notoriety, the group has since reduced its overt activities and has been supplanted by other UFWD bodies.
"Hopefully, it doesn't take another five years before they are pursued by the department.
"Clearly, there are changes necessary to improve the operation of the law — but the approach the attorney-general takes to enforcement also needs a radical shift."
Scheme's architect questions enforcement
The FITS regime was introduced by then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull in December 2017.
Tuesday's 6-hour committee hearing centred on critiques that the scheme had been under-enforced, with former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull accusing the department of lacking enthusiasm to list Chinese-government-connected entities.
"If the register simply contains reports of associations that are innocuous and many are already in the public domain, then it may be that officials can congratulate themselves on faithfully implementing the law but they're essentially doing a work to rule and not fulfilling the object of the legislation," Mr Turnbull said.
"It is noteworthy that there is apparently, according to the transparency register, no organisation in Australia that has any association with the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China. I would love to think that was true but regrettably, I can say absolutely that it is not true," he said.
"I rather wonder why time would be spent seeking Kevin Rudd to record his interviews with the BBC … time might be better spent finding out why a whole range of organisations are not reporting associations that are widely known to occur."
Former prime ministers Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd have been listed after delivering speeches and interviews overseas, while Tony Abbott is on the register due to his role advising the UK government on trade.
National security experts have criticised it as ill-defined, arguing it leaves attempts to influence politicians and institutions unchecked.
Mr Newnham from the Attorney-General's Department said the scheme was achieving its purpose of providing transparency of foreign influence.
"I would not speak to the specific circumstances of any group, the time taken to analyse its activities or make judgements," Mr Newnham said.
"The vast majority of registrations do cover entities linked with China in terms of the top jurisdiction that we are seeing with 130 registered activities.
"[The department has] undertaken more than 25 preliminary assessments and more than 30 investigations, leading the secretary to issue 24 information gathering notices, two provisional transparency notices declaring organisations to be foreign-government-related entities, one of which became a final transparency notice," Mr Newnham said.
