{"id":367276,"date":"2018-06-29T14:14:02","date_gmt":"2018-06-29T13:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/anti-china-foreign-interference-bills-rammed-through-australian-parliament\/"},"modified":"2018-06-29T14:14:02","modified_gmt":"2018-06-29T13:14:02","slug":"anti-china-foreign-interference-bills-rammed-through-australian-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/anti-china-foreign-interference-bills-rammed-through-australian-parliament\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-China \u201cforeign interference\u201d bills rammed through Australian parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3 class=\"nomargin\">\u00a0<\/h3>\n<h2>Anti-China \u201cforeign interference\u201d bills rammed through Australian parliament<\/h2>\n<h5>\n<p>    By<br \/>\n    Mike Head<br \/>\n    <br \/>29 June 2018<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n<p>Working in lockstep with the Labor Party, the Liberal-National Coalition government last night pushed through the Australian parliament the most extensive, anti-democratic legislation in the country since World War II.<\/p>\n<p>With the two parties using their combined numbers to cut off debate, two massive \u201cforeign interference bills\u201d were passed by both houses of parliament in near-record time\u2014less than three days.<\/p>\n<p>Totalling some 150 pages, the Espionage and Foreign Interference (EFI) and Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme (FITS) laws constitute a far-reaching assault on fundamental legal and democratic rights.<\/p>\n<p>Drawn up entirely behind the backs of the Australian people, the bills are key parts of a sweeping package of draconian legislation. It has a twin purpose: to prepare for Australian involvement in a US-led war against China, and to create police-state conditions that criminalise opposition to the war drive and the accompanying deepening attack on working class living conditions.<\/p>\n<p>The haste to bulldoze the laws through parliament is bound up with intensifying pressure from Washington, where the legislation is regarded as a precedent-setting model.<\/p>\n<p>The legislation is also seen by the Trump administration and throughout US ruling circles as a test of the Australian political establishment\u2019s commitment to the escalating US trade and military confrontation against China, Australia\u2019s largest export market.<\/p>\n<p>When he first introduced the bills last December, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull cited \u201cdisturbing reports about Chinese influence\u201d as justification for the measures.<\/p>\n<p>Those still-secret \u201creports\u201d were delivered by the Australian intelligence&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsws.org\/en\/articles\/2018\/06\/29\/inte-j29.html\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Anti-China \u201cforeign interference\u201d bills rammed through Australian parliament By Mike Head 29 June 2018 Working in lockstep with the Labor Party, the Liberal-National Coalition government last night pushed through the Australian parliament the most extensive, anti-democratic legislation in the country since World War II. With the two parties using their combined numbers to cut [&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-367276","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\/367276","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=367276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}