Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party, Special Minister of State) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for La Trobe for his question and his service not just to this House but as a police officer prior to coming to parliament. No-one could ever question the loyalty or integrity of the member for La Trobe.

The Morrison government will always work to strengthen our democracy and the integrity of our democratic system. As members in this House know, worldwide today, there are increasing threats to democratic systems. We've seen in recent years the terrible toll wreaked on democracies where foreign influence has penetrated even sophisticated democracies. That's why the Morrison government has legislated to make sure that the integrity of Australia's electoral system is safe. We've banned foreign interference in Australian elections, and the Morrison government believes that foreign governments, foreign billionaires and foreign companies have no legitimate role in funding any activities that influence Australian politics or Australian elections. From 1 January this year, foreign donations have been banned by the Morrison government.

It's the view of this government that it is only Australians who should determine who forms government in Australia. Foreign sourced funds threaten this principle and they threaten our democratic process. The new legislation restricts political parties, candidates and political campaigners from receiving foreign donations of $1,000 or more, regardless of the purpose. But, importantly, third parties are allowed to receive foreign gifts still unless they are for the express purpose of influencing Australian elections. We've put in place severe penalties for breaching the act: up to a $42,000 fine or three times the amount of the original gift in case of a breach. I want to place on record that this government has put strong anti-avoidance measures into this bill, which is important, because who could possibly oppose stopping foreign influence in Australian elections? Who could possibly think that there would be a problem with doing that? On the front page of The Daily Telegraph the other week, I read an article entitled 'Dastyari's untold story'. I think this might be volume 12 of the untold story—the untold story that never gets told. In the untold story, former Labor luminary and Senator Dastyari says, 'The ban on foreign donations did not solve the problem because there are loopholes you could drive a truck through.'

So what are we supposed to believe former Labor Senator Dastyari has been doing with his time since leaving parliament? Is he reading legislation from the Australian parliament and identifying loopholes in our foreign donation system? Is he sitting there thinking, 'How can we avoid this act?' It begs a lot of questions. Has the Leader of the Opposition rung his mate Sam and asked him, 'Would you get off the front page of the paper telling Australians how to subvert our foreign donation laws?' Of course, we know the Leader of the Opposition wouldn't do such a thing because he is weak. We banned foreign donations and this weak Leader of the Opposition will not.