Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Hansard source

I'm very confident, Senator Paterson, that the AEC are dealing with any issues that might relate to foreign interference in exactly the same way they deal with them at general elections—that is, very competently. If there were any issues that I needed to be made aware of, I'm sure the AEC would have done that. As I said, I was in conversation with the commissioner only yesterday afternoon. He certainly didn't raise with me any issues in relation to foreign interference.

The government continues, of course, to monitor these things in a variety of ways which I'm sure you're very familiar with. We don't want any foreign interference in this referendum. We want it to be about the Australian people and we want it to be the Australian people, and not foreign entities, who make the ultimate decision about whether or not we have a Voice to Parliament.