{"id":346319,"date":"2018-02-01T12:30:29","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T11:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/australian-government-unveils-sweeping-anti-democratic-foreign-interference-bills\/"},"modified":"2018-02-01T12:30:29","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T11:30:29","slug":"australian-government-unveils-sweeping-anti-democratic-foreign-interference-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/australian-government-unveils-sweeping-anti-democratic-foreign-interference-bills\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian government unveils sweeping anti-democratic \u201cforeign interference\u201d bills"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3 class=\"nomargin\">\u00a0<\/h3>\n<h2>Australian government unveils sweeping anti-democratic \u201cforeign interference\u201d bills<\/h2>\n<h4>Part 2: Criminalising overseas links and donations<\/h4>\n<h5>\n<p>    By<br \/>\n    Mike Head<br \/>\n    <br \/>1 February 2018<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n<p><em>This is the second part in a three-part series examining the wide-ranging implications for basic democratic rights of five bills tabled in the Australian parliament<\/em> <em>in December<\/em><em>, which outlaw involvement in alleged<\/em> <em>\u201c<\/em><em>foreign interference<\/em><em>\u201d<\/em> <em>in Australian political and economic affairs.<\/em>\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsws.org\/en\/articles\/2018\/01\/31\/secu-j31.html\">Part one<\/a> was posted yesterday.\u00a0<\/em><em>In their sweeping language, the bills constitute an all-out assault on basic political and democratic rights.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Australian government\u2019s \u201csecurity\u201d bills target, first and foremost, anyone accused of links with China. In introducing them, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull accused the Chinese Communist Party of \u201ccovertly interfering\u201d with \u201cour media, our universities and even the decisions of elected representatives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More broadly, however, the bills outlaw any \u201ccollaboration\u201d with overseas organisations. One bill contains severe criminal penalties for crimes related to \u201cforeign interference.\u201d Another imposes a new regime of registration and monitoring by authorities of political parties and other groups.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201c<\/strong><strong>Foreign interference<\/strong><strong>\u201d<\/strong> <strong>crimes<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The National Security Legislation Amendment (Espionage and Foreign Interference) Bill creates unprecedented new offences for involvement in <em>foreign interference<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The language is sweeping. Prison terms of up to 20 years could be imposed for conduct \u201con behalf of, or in collaboration with, a foreign principal,\u201d that is intended to \u201cinfluence a political or governmental process\u201d or \u201cinfluence the exercise\u201d of an \u201cAustralian democratic or political right or duty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn collaboration with\u201d is not defined. It could cover&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsws.org\/en\/articles\/2018\/02\/01\/secu-f01.html\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Australian government unveils sweeping anti-democratic \u201cforeign interference\u201d bills Part 2: Criminalising overseas links and donations By Mike Head 1 February 2018 This is the second part in a three-part series examining the wide-ranging implications for basic democratic rights of five bills tabled in the Australian parliament in December, which outlaw involvement in alleged \u201cforeign [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2526,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-346319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2526"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}