Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Stoker for the question. The Morrison government is committed to protecting our nation, our people and our sovereignty. Our government takes allegations of foreign interference and espionage seriously, and the allegations raised this week are concerning. As the Director-General of Security has consistently stated, the Australian public faces an unprecedented level of foreign interference, and we are going to deal with it. The government is not naive to the threats that we face. We have been actively strengthening our capacity to protect Australia from foreign interference.

In April last year the government appointed the first-ever National Counter Foreign Interference Coordinator to coordinate whole-of-government efforts to respond to acts of foreign interference and administer Australia's Counter Foreign Interference Strategy. In the last parliament we enacted a ban on foreign political donations to ensure that election campaigning that targets Australians is not sponsored by foreign governments, foreign billionaires or foreign companies. We have introduced a number of legislative measures to tighten our laws to make it more difficult for foreign actors to interfere. These include the National Security Legislation Amendment (Espionage and Foreign Interference) Act, the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Act, the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act and the Electoral Legislation Amendment (Electoral Funding and Disclosure Reform) Act.

The Australian people should have confidence that our nation is better equipped to deal with this issue, thanks to the strong action that the government has taken. The Morrison government will do everything possible to keep the Australian public safe.