Concerns have been raised that foreign interference targeting the Australian government and politicians is slipping under the radar due to poorly designed laws.
The foreign influence transparency scheme requires those lobbying on behalf of foreign governments or actors in order to influence politicians or the federal government to be put on a register.
Security expert Katherine Mansted says the scheme is seen as a name-and-shame list, with there being no distinction between authoritarian states like China and Australia's democratic allies.
"The enforcement regime ... doesn't capture the right information," she told a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday.
Ms Mansted added some organisations were changing how they operate in order to use grey zones and loopholes to hide relationships.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said the regime needed to focus more on Chinese-associated entities and less on Kevin Rudd appearing on the British state-owned broadcaster, the BBC.
"There is apparently no organisation in Australia that has any association with the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China," he told the inquiry.
"I would love to think that was true, but regrettably, I can say absolutely that it is not true."
The UFWD is a long-standing organisation which seeks to co-opt ethnic Chinese people living outside China.
Mr Turnbull said using the influence portal needed to be as easy "as buying a book on Amazon" in an effort to increase compliance.
The former prime minister called for better enforcement, saying he was puzzled as to why the legislation hadn't been vigorously enforced.
"If the people administering it are doing so grudgingly and they're going to do no more than comply with the letter of the law, then it's not going to work," he said.
He also flagged having a list of countries that didn't pose a threat, such as Australia's Five Eyes partners.
Home affairs department deputy secretary Andrew Kefford said keeping the obligations from actors of all nations "allows us to say, in effect, we don't like this behaviour, whether it's interference or influence, that's not properly registered and declared".
But he acknowledged there was then a concern higher-risk countries may then not receive enough attention.
Group of Eight chief executive Vicki Thomson said there needed to be a clear distinction between foreign influence and foreign interference to improve the scheme's effectiveness.
"Influence is by its nature open, transparent and part of normal diplomatic relations," she said.
"Interference in contrast is clandestine, coercive, deceptive or corrupting."
ASIO said the scheme wasn't about interference and "catching spies".
"The scheme encourages transparency and is the first step to hardening the environment against interference," deputy director-general Chris Teal said.
Mr Kefford added that there were other mechanisms and processes to identify foreign interference from fronts such as the UFWD.
"I don't agree it's the case that the (UFWD) is not registered under the influence scheme means ... they're not known about," he said.
"The key part here is the (register) is one part of a framework that addresses this sort of activity."
The attorney-general's department, which oversees the register, says the scheme has been effective in building greater awareness about foreign influence targeting the federal government but could be improved.
