DOCSLIB.ORG

Nationhood, National Identity and Democracy Submission 80

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Nationhood, National Identity and Democracy Submission 80 September 2018 Who’s in the room? Access and influence in Australian politics Danielle Wood and Kate Griffiths Who’s in the room? Access and influence in Australian politics Grattan Institute Support Grattan Institute Report No. 2018-12, September 2018 Founding members Endowment Supporters This report was written by Danielle Wood, Kate Griffiths and Carmela The Myer Foundation Chivers. Grattan interns Tim Asimakis, Matthew Bowes, Isabelle National Australia Bank Hughes and Anne Yang provided research assistance and made Susan McKinnon Foundation substantial contributions to the report. We would like to thank the members of Grattan Institute’s Public Policy Affiliate Partners Committee for their helpful comments. We also thank AJ Brown, Ken Medibank Private Coghill, Belinda Edwards, Darren Halpin, Serena Lillywhite, Cameron Susan McKinnon Foundation Murray, Joo-Cheong Tham and Anne Twomey for their suggestions, and staff of the Australian Electoral Commission, NSW Electoral Commission, NSW ICAC and other government and industry bodies for Senior Affiliates their technical input. Google Maddocks The opinions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Grattan Institute’s founding PwC members, affiliates, individual board members, committee members or McKinsey & Company reviewers. Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the authors. The Scanlon Foundation Grattan Institute is an independent think-tank focused on Australian Wesfarmers public policy. Our work is independent, practical and rigorous. We aim Westpac to improve policy outcomes by engaging with both decision-makers and the community. Affiliates For further information on the Institute’s programs, or to join our mailing Ashurst list, please go to: http://www.grattan.edu.au/. Corrs This report may be cited as: Wood, D., Griffiths, K., and Chivers, C. (2018). Who’s in GE ANZ the room? Access and influence in Australian politics. Grattan Institute. Jemena ISBN: 978-0-6483311-3-1 Urbis All material published or otherwise created by Grattan Institute is licensed under a Woodside Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License Grattan Institute 2018 2 Who’s in the room? Access and influence in Australian politics Overview Australians are rightly concerned about the role of special interests in then policy makers will usually follow. Major advertising campaigns are politics. Even a healthy democracy like Australia’s can be vulnerable the preserve of well-resourced groups: unions, industry peak bodies to policy capture. Well-resourced interests – such as big business, and GetUp! were major spenders in the past decade. Some groups unions and not-for-profits – use money, resources and relationships to commission consultants or think tanks to lend credibility to their case. influence policy to serve their interests, at times at the expense of the The media often publish their findings uncritically or fail to ask: ‘who public interest. Even if they are only sometimes successful, it’s not the paid for this research?’ ‘fair go’ Australians expect. Who’s in the room – and who’s in the news – matters for policy Access to decision makers is vital for anyone seeking to influence outcomes. Powerful groups have triumphed over the public interest in policy. But some groups get more access than others. Businesses with some recent debates, from pokies reforms to pharmaceutical prices, to the most at stake in government decisions lobby harder and get more toll roads and superannuation governance. meetings with senior ministers. Some industries – such as gambling and property construction – are hugely over-represented compared to This report shows how to strengthen checks and balances on policy their contribution to the economy. influence. Publishing ministerial diaries and lists of lobbyists with passes to Parliament House could encourage politicians to seek more Money and relationships can boost access: time with ministers and diverse input. More timely and comprehensive data would improve their shadows is explicitly ‘for sale’ at fundraising dinners, and major visibility of the major donors to political parties. Accountability should donors are more likely to get a meeting with a senior minister. And be strengthened through clear standards for MPs’ conduct, enforced by more than one-quarter of politicians go on to post-politics jobs for an independent body. A cap on political advertising expenditure would special interests, where their relationships can help open doors. reduce the donations ‘arms race’ between parties and their reliance The major political parties rely on a handful of big donors: just 5 per on major donors. These reforms won’t cure every ill, but they are likely cent of donors contributed more than half of the big parties’ declared to help. They would improve the incentives to act in the public interest donations at the last election. Donations build relationships and a and have done no obvious harm in jurisdictions where they have been sense of reciprocity. And the fact that industries in the cross-hairs of implemented. policy debate sometimes donate generously and then withdraw once Australians want to drain the billabong: they don’t like the current the debate has moved on suggests they believe, perhaps rightly, that system and they don’t trust it. This report proposes some simple money matters. changes that would improve the quality of policy debate and boost the Special interests also seek influence through the public debate. The public’s confidence that policy is being made for all Australians – not idea is simple: if you can capture the ‘hearts and minds’ of the public just those in the room. Grattan Institute 2018 3 Who’s in the room? Access and influence in Australian politics Recommendations Australian political institutions are generally robust, but there is room for ∙ Independently administer codes of conduct, to build public improvement. This report proposes eight key reforms. confidence that people are complying with them. Appoint a separate ethics adviser to encourage current and former politicians Improve transparency in policy making to seek advice when they are in doubt. ∙ Publish ministerial diaries to enable public scrutiny of who ministers are meeting – and not meeting – and encourage them ∙ Establish a federal integrity or anti-corruption body to investigate to seek out a wider range of views. potential misconduct or corruption, publish findings, and refer any corrupt activity to the Commonwealth Director of Public ∙ Link the lobbyists register to ‘orange passes’ to identify Prosecutions. commercial and in-house lobbyists with privileged behind-the- scenes access to Parliament House, and ensure they comply with Level the playing field the lobbying code of conduct. ∙ Cap political advertising expenditure by political parties and ∙ Improve the visibility of political donations by lowering the third parties during election campaigns to reduce the imbalance donations disclosure threshold to $5,000, requiring political parties between groups with different means to broadcast political views, to aggregate multiple donations from the same donor and requiring and limit the reliance of major political parties on individual donors. more timely release of donations data. Strengthen accountability of policy makers ∙ Boost countervailing voices through more inclusive policy review processes and advocacy for under-represented groups to give ∙ Clarify conflicts of interest for all parliamentarians – particularly politicians and public officials better information with which to around hospitality, gifts and secondary employment – and set adjudicate the public interest. a standard for the public, media and parliament to hold elected officials to. These recommendations are detailed in Chapter 5. Grattan Institute 2018 4 Who’s in the room? Access and influence in Australian politics Table of contents Overview . 3 Recommendations . 4 1 Australia is vulnerable to policy capture . 6 2 The access problem in Australian politics . 16 3 The money problem in Australian politics . 31 4 Winning hearts and minds . 47 5 Proposals for reform . 56 A Case studies of special interest influence . 69 B Associated entities . 75 Grattan Institute 2018 5 Who’s in the room? Access and influence in Australian politics 1 Australia is vulnerable to policy capture This report examines the influence of special interests on policy making some cases they are getting weaker. That’s why many democracies in Australia. It demonstrates how individuals and organisations with have direct checks on the influence of special interest groups – the most to gain or lose from policy changes push their agenda. And particularly around political donations and access. it highlights the cost to other Australians when the voices of special interest groups are given too much weight in policy debates. 1.1.1 The policy-making process has a number of checks This chapter shows why – even in a healthy democracy like Australia’s against undue influence – special interests can sometimes successfully hijack the policy-making Policy making is rarely linear or neat – politicians and other decision- process. Indeed, many of the ‘risk factors’ for policy capture – financial makers draw information, analysis and views from a range of sources: dependence, cosy relationships and lack of transparency in dealings between special interests and parliamentarians – are present in our ∙ Individuals represent their interests by writing to or talking with system. a local member or minister,
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 1. Gina Rinehart 2. Anthony Pratt & Family • 3. Harry Triguboff
    1. Gina Rinehart $14.02billion from Resources Chairman – Hancock Prospecting Residence: Perth Wealth last year: $20.01b Rank last year: 1 A plunging iron ore price has made a big dent in Gina Rinehart’s wealth. But so vast are her mining assets that Rinehart, chairman of Hancock Prospecting, maintains her position as Australia’s richest person in 2015. Work is continuing on her $10billion Roy Hill project in Western Australia, although it has been hit by doubts over its short-term viability given falling commodity prices and safety issues. Rinehart is pressing ahead and expects the first shipment late in 2015. Most of her wealth comes from huge royalty cheques from Rio Tinto, which mines vast swaths of tenements pegged by Rinehart’s late father, Lang Hancock, in the 1950s and 1960s. Rinehart's wealth has been subject to a long running family dispute with a court ruling in May that eldest daughter Bianca should become head of the $5b family trust. 2. Anthony Pratt & Family $10.76billion from manufacturing and investment Executive Chairman – Visy Residence: Melbourne Wealth last year: $7.6billion Rank last year: 2 Anthony Pratt’s bet on a recovering United States economy is paying off. The value of his US-based Pratt Industries has surged this year thanks to an improving manufacturing sector and a lower Australian dollar. Pratt is also executive chairman of box maker and recycling business Visy, based in Melbourne. Visy is Australia’s largest private company by revenue and the biggest Australian-owned employer in the US. Pratt inherited the Visy leadership from his late father Richard in 2009, though the firm’s ownership is shared with sisters Heloise Waislitz and Fiona Geminder.
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese-Language Media Outlets
    澳大利亚-中国关系研究院 CHINESE-LANGUAGE MEDIA IN AUSTRALIA: Developments, Challenges and Opportunities Professor Wanning Sun Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences University of Technology Sydney FRONT COVER IMAGE: Ming Liang Published by the Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI) Level 7, UTS Building 11 81 - 115 Broadway, Ultimo NSW 2007 t: +61 2 9514 8593 f: +61 2 9514 2189 e: [email protected] © The Australia-China Relations Institute (ACRI) 2016 ISBN 978-0-9942825-6-9 The publication is copyright. Other than for uses permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without attribution. CONTENTS List of Figures 4 Executive Summary 5 Overview 5 Recommendations 8 Challenges and opportunities 10 Future research 11 Introduction 13 History of Chinese Media in Australia 15 Trends and Recent Developments in the Sector 22 Major Chinese Media (by Sector) 26 Daily paid newspapers 28 Television 28 Radio 28 Online media 29 Access to Major Chinese Media Outlets (by Region) 31 Patterns of Media Consumption 37 The Growth of Social Media Use and WeChat 44 Recommendations for Government, Business and Mainstream Media 49 Challenges and Opportunities 54 Pathways to Future Research 59 References 63 Appendix 67 Appendix A: Circulation Figures (Chinese-language Print Publications in Australia) 67 About ACRI 70 About the Author 71 CHINESE-LANGUAGE MEDIA IN AUSTRALIA 3 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Media sectors currently targeting Chinese migrants in Australia. 21 Figure 2. Time spent with media (hours per week) by Chinese in Australia aged 14-74 years, compared to overall Australian population. 37 Figure 3.
    [Show full text]
  • Australia's Silence on Tibet
    AUSTRALIA’S SILENCE ON TIBET Australia Tibet Council 2017 How China is shaping our agenda AUSTRALIA’S SILENCE ON TIBET: How China is shaping our agenda Author: Kyinzom Dhongdue Editors: Kerri-Anne Chinn, Paul Bourke Australia Tibet Council acknowledges the input from the International Campaign for Tibet for this report. For further information on the issues raised in this report please email [email protected] ©Australia Tibet Council, September 2017 www.atc.org.au CONTENTS Executive summary 3 Chapter 1 - China’s influence on ustralianA politics and Tibet Australia’s response to Tibet 6 Chinese influence on Australian politics 8 Two Australian politicians with connections to China 11 Recommendations 12 Chapter 2 - China’s influence on Australian universities and Tibet A billion-dollar industry 13 Confucius Institutes 15 Case studies of two academics 18 Recommendations 19 Chapter 3 - Australia’s Tibetan community 20 Conclusion 22 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Under the leadership of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetans have earned widespread public support, with the Tibet cause continuing to test the conscience of world leaders. While China is far from winning over the international community on its policies in Tibet, in recent years it has been making rapid progress in numerous areas. Through a proactive foreign policy, utilising both economic leverage and soft power diplomacy, the Chinese government is making determined efforts to erode the support the Tibet movement has built up over many years. In Australia, China’s influence has infiltrated political and educational institutions, perhaps more than in any country in the western world. In fact, extensive reports in the Australian media over the past year have revealed an alarming level of Chinese influence in Australia.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 3 Section 5
    SECTION 5: CHINA’S DOMESTIC INFORMATION CONTROLS, GLOBAL MEDIA INFLUENCE, AND CYBER DIPLOMACY Key Findings • China’s current information controls, including the govern- ment’s new social credit initiative, represent a significant es- calation in censorship, surveillance, and invasion of privacy by the authorities. • The Chinese state’s repression of journalists has expanded to target foreign reporters and their local Chinese staff. It is now much more difficult for all journalists to investigate politically sensitive stories. • The investment activities of large, Chinese Communist Par- ty-linked corporations in the U.S. media industry risk under- mining the independence of film studios by forcing them to consider self-censorship in order to gain access to the Chinese market. • China’s overseas influence operations to pressure foreign media have become much more assertive. In some cases, even without direct pressure by Chinese entities, Western media companies now self-censor out of deference to Chinese sensitivity. • Beijing is promoting its concept of “Internet sovereignty” to jus- tify restrictions on freedom of expression in China. These poli- cies act as trade barriers to U.S. companies through both cen- sorship and restrictions on cross-border data transfers, and they are fundamental points of disagreement between Washington and Beijing. • In its participation in international negotiations on global Inter- net governance, norms in cyberspace, and cybersecurity, Beijing seeks to ensure continued control of networks and information in China and to reduce the risk of actions by other countries that are not in its interest. Fearing that international law will be used by other countries against China, Beijing is unwilling to agree on specific applications of international law to cyberspace.
    [Show full text]
  • Material on Dr Chau Chak Wing from Honest History Website (Honesthistory.Net.Au)
    Material on Dr Chau Chak Wing from Honest History website (honesthistory.net.au) The War Memorial and Dr Chau Chak Wing [13 June 2017 updated] The ABC’s Four Corners last week said this about Dr Chau Chak Wing. NICK MCKENZIE: ASIO singled out two billionaire donors with especially close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. The first was enigmatic property developer Dr Chau Chak Wing, a man who keeps a low profile except when it comes to his big donations. [The other donor of interest to ASIO was Mr Huang Xiangmo.] Dr Chau at the Memorial, September 2015 (AWM Annual Report 2015-16) Dr Chau and his company Kingold have been significant donors to the Australian War Memorial. Kingold appears on the list of donors just inside the entrance of the Memorial and is in the Memorial’s 2015-16 Annual Report (Appendix 9) as a benefactor which has contributed over $250 000. His company is also listed as a donor in the recently released War Memorial Annual Report for 2016-17 (page 92). In September 2015, Dr Chau led a delegation to the Memorial to honour Chinese-Australian servicemen and to open the Memorial’s Kingold Education and Media Centre, a green screen studio with full facilities for broadcasting and recording. At the same time, Dr Chau was awarded an Australian War Memorial Fellowship and his name appears on the list of Fellows at the entrance to the Memorial. According to the recent ABC-Fairfax investigation, Dr Chau is referred to by the code name CC3 in a court case brought by the FBI over the bribery of the former president of the United Nations General Assembly, John Ashe.
    [Show full text]
  • Access and Influence in Australian Politics
    Who’s in the room? Access and influence in Australian politics Grattan Institute Support Grattan Institute Report No. 2018-12, September 2018 Founding members Endowment Supporters This report was written by Danielle Wood, Kate Griffiths and Carmela The Myer Foundation Chivers. Grattan interns Tim Asimakis, Matthew Bowes, Isabelle National Australia Bank Hughes and Anne Yang provided research assistance and made Susan McKinnon Foundation substantial contributions to the report. We would like to thank the members of Grattan Institute’s Public Policy Affiliate Partners Committee for their helpful comments. We also thank AJ Brown, Ken Medibank Private Coghill, Belinda Edwards, Darren Halpin, Serena Lillywhite, Cameron Susan McKinnon Foundation Murray, Joo-Cheong Tham and Anne Twomey for their suggestions, and staff of the Australian Electoral Commission, NSW Electoral Commission, NSW ICAC and other government and industry bodies for Senior Affiliates their technical input. Google Maddocks The opinions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Grattan Institute’s founding PwC members, affiliates, individual board members, committee members or McKinsey & Company reviewers. Any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the authors. The Scanlon Foundation Grattan Institute is an independent think-tank focused on Australian Wesfarmers public policy. Our work is independent, practical and rigorous. We aim Westpac to improve policy outcomes by engaging with both decision-makers and the community. Affiliates For further information on the Institute’s programs, or to join our mailing Ashurst list, please go to: http://www.grattan.edu.au/. Corrs This report may be cited as: Wood, D., Griffiths, K., and Chivers, C.
    [Show full text]
  • The Congressional-Executive Commission on China
    The Congressional-Executive Commission on China Statement by Clive Hamilton Professor of Public Ethics, Charles Sturt University 26th April 2018 My background is not in China studies but in politics and public policy. I decided to write Silent Invasion: China’s Influence in Australia in 2016 when it became obvious from newspaper reports that interference by the Chinese Communist Party in Australian politics is a serious issue that demands greater public awareness. Conversations with China experts soon established that the threat is more serious and deep-rooted than I had realised. Nevertheless, the scale and nature of the threat is one lay people need to understand. Since publication of Silent Invasion on 26th February this year it has become clear to me that many Australians have had an intimation that something is wrong and want it explained to them. When I formulated the idea of the book, Allen & Unwin, a highly respected independent publisher that had published eight previous books by me, could immediately see its importance and commercial appeal and we soon signed a contract. However, last November, as the finished manuscript was about to go to typesetting, Allen & Unwin notified me that it would not proceed with publication. The CEO wrote saying that, based on advice it had received, the company was reacting to ‘potential threats to the book and the company from possible action by Beijing’. He went on to write: ‘The most serious of these threats was the very high chance of a vexatious defamation action against Allen & Unwin, and possibly against you personally as well.’ The company’s defamation lawyer had pointed out that it would not be possible to make textual changes to the book that would protect the company from vexatious legal actions by Beijing’s proxies in Australia, legal actions that would tie up the company in expensive legal action for months or longer.
    [Show full text]
  • Councillor Robert Kok
    ATTACHMENT B ATTACHMENT B REPORT ON 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SYDNEY-GUANGZHOU SISTER-CITY RELATIONSHIP ATTACHMENT B Overseas Travel Report 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE SYDNEY-GUANGZHOU SISTER-CITY RELATIONSHIP — Report for Lord Mayor Clover Moore & Councillor Robert Kok EXECUTIVE SUMMARY From Sunday 29 May to Friday 3 June 2016, as Lord Mayor I led a 100-person delegation to China with Councillor Kok for a Sydney Week in Guangzhou to celebrate the 30th anniversary of our Sister City relationship with Guangzhou. Over the past 30 years, there have been many successful visits between the two cities, furthering our economic and cultural relations. In May 2014, I signed a memorandum of understanding with former Mayor of Guangzhou Chen Jianhua, further strengthening ties and collaboration on education, trade, culture, business and sustainability. Sydney and Guangzhou are natural partners. Both are outward-looking, economically-dynamic cities with thriving services and innovation sectors. This milestone presents a significant opportunity to promote Sydney’s global economy and world-class cultural institutions in southern China. Guangzhou is a city of over 13 million people, in a province of 110 million. We have close historic ties and many of our international students, visitors and business partners come from southern China. Image 1: Visit to Guangzhou People's Government with Guangzhou Mayor Mr Wen Guohui. 1 | Page ATTACHMENT B NSW is also a sister state to Guangdong Province. Signed in 1979, the NSW-Guangdong relationship is underpinned by yearly meetings promoting economic collaboration between the two economies. This was a significant campaign promoting Sydney’s economy overseas and our events – a business summit, sustainability forum, alumni reunion, Sydney Symphony concert and art exhibition – provided opportunities to celebrate and strengthen our longstanding economic, cultural and civic connections with Guangzhou.
    [Show full text]
  • Huawei's Smart Cities and CCP Influence, at Home and Abroad
    Huawei’s Smart Cities and CCP Influence, At Home and Abroad What do international espionage concerns, a Chinese truckers’ strike, and the smart cities of the future all have in common? All are part of the story of how the commercial ambitions of Huawei—one of the PRC’s leading developers of high-tech electronics and telecommunications equipment—could be leveraged by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to protect its wealth and prerogatives at home, and extend its surveillance reach abroad. 21st-Century Strike Breaking On June 8, truck drivers at locations across China began a loosely coordinated national strike (China Labour Bulletin, ​ ​ June 11). The CCP immediately banned any mention of the strike by social or traditional media (China Digital Times, ​ ​ June 12). The information blackout, a common tactic for preventing the spread of large-scale industrial action, indicates that the CCP’s response to the strike is likely to follow a well-worn path: Strike leaders will probably be detained by state security organs. Some strike participants may be subject to criminal punishment, or stripped of their employment (China Labour Bulletin, December 2017) [1]. ​ ​ ​ ​ These time-honed strikebreaking tactics have been given a new edge by the CCP’s widespread deployment of tools such as networked surveillance cameras, facial recognition algorithms, and big data-enabled monitoring of social ChinaBrief Volume 18 • Issue 11 • June 19, 2018 ​ media communication. These tools make it easier to identify, track, and punish people—like strikers—who threaten social stability (SCMP, May 31). ​ ​ Huawei is doing its part to contribute, through its development of what it calls “safe city solutions”—a marketing term for smart city platforms that integrate and analyze the torrent of data generated by this proliferation of automated surveillance technology.
    [Show full text]
  • The China Narrative, Part One: War-Machine Propaganda Republished from Australian Alert Service, 12 August 2020
    Australian Citizens Party Postal address: PO Box 376 Coburg VIC 3058 | Phone: 03 9354 0544 Website: http://citizensparty.org.au | Email: [email protected] Authorised by R. Barwick, 595 Sydney Rd Coburg VIC 3058. Printed by Citizens Media Group Pty Ltd, 595 Sydney Rd Coburg VIC The China Narrative, Part One: War-machine propaganda Republished from Australian Alert Service, 12 August 2020. By Melissa Harrison occupation with “sovereignty”— Clive Hamilton’s books exposing China “interference”, used as an imperialist buzzword Silent Invasion and Hidden Hand, are important, not be- justifying anti-China protection- cause of the quality of the content—paranoid propagan- ism—and Hamilton’s embrace da—but because the influencers behind Hamilton’s cru- of a US-centric foreign and stra- sade reveal his role as a cog in a vast narrative-management tegic policy perspective. He machine. The public, as well as MPs and other government warns of “Beijing’s plan to shift officials, are being directed how to think about China by a Australia away from the US al- small group of ideologically driven propagandists, funded liance…. A military standoff or by institutions of the section of the Anglo-American power engagement between the Unit- establishment that seeks war without end, even risking nu- ed States and China is quite pos- clear warfare that would annihilate mankind. sible in the foreseeable future. It Clive Hamilton is a Professor of Public Ethics at Charles may be the only way to stop Chi- Sturt University. His first book on China, Silent Invasion na annexing and controlling the entire South China Sea.… (2018), continued the obsession with Chinese spies, dissi- In these circumstances Australia would be under an obli- dents and foreign interference that had been escalating in gation to back the United States.” A year later, US Secretary Australia through 2016-17.
    [Show full text]
  • Parliament of Australia
    Submission to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security Inquiry into the National Security Legislation Amendment (Espionage and Foreign Interference) Bill 2017 Clive Hamilton and Alex Joske1 Contents Preface 2 Part 1 Origins, objectives, modus operandi and organisational structure of UF work 3 1.1 Origins and objectives 3 1.2 New objective 6 1.3 Modus operandi 8 1.4 The structure of UF activity in Australia 10 1.5 The importance of media 15 1.6 Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference 16 1.7 The scope of foreign interference 17 Part 2 United Front organisations active in Australia 20 2.1 Australian Council for the Promotion of Peaceful Reunification of China 20 2.2 The ACPPRC Network 22 2.3 Chinese Students and Scholars Associations 34 2.4 Scientific associations 42 1 Clive Hamilton is Professor of Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University in Canberra. Alex Joske is a researcher, and a student at the ANU. UNITED FRONT ACTIVITIES IN AUSTRALIA Preface This submission details and explains certain foreign interference activities carried out by agencies of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), activities that are aimed at influencing political processes and the exercise of democratic rights in Australia. It focusses on the CCP’s United Front (UF) work in Australia. Although its endeavours extend beyond them, UF work is at the heart of the influence operations of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Therefore, the most important test of the new foreign interference legislation will be how effectively it suppresses UF activity in this country. It is most important to stress that UF work is directed at both ethic Chinese and non- ethnic Chinese people in Australia, with more emphasis on the latter in recent years.
    [Show full text]
  • Countering China's Influence Activities
    JULY 2020 Countering China’s Influence Activities Lessons from Australia AUTHOR Amy Searight A Report of the CSIS Southeast Asia Program JULY 2020 Countering China’s Influence Activities Lessons from Australia AUTHOR Amy Searight A Report of the CSIS Southeast Asia Program About CSIS The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is a bipartisan, nonprofit policy research organization dedicated to advancing practical ideas to address the world’s greatest challenges. Thomas J. Pritzker was named chairman of the CSIS Board of Trustees in 2015, succeeding former U.S. senator Sam Nunn (D-GA). Founded in 1962, CSIS is led by John J. Hamre, who has served as president and chief executive officer since 2000. CSIS’s purpose is to define the future of national security. We are guided by a distinct set of values—nonpartisanship, independent thought, innovative thinking, cross-disciplinary scholarship, integrity and professionalism, and talent development. CSIS’s values work in concert toward the goal of making real-world impact. CSIS scholars bring their policy expertise, judgment, and robust networks to their research, analysis, and recommendations. We organize conferences, publish, lecture, and make media appearances that aim to increase the knowledge, awareness, and salience of policy issues with relevant stakeholders and the interested public. CSIS has impact when our research helps to inform the decisionmaking of key policymakers and the thinking of key influencers. We work toward a vision of a safer and more prosperous world. CSIS is ranked the number one think tank in the United States as well as the defense and national security center of excellence for 2016-2018 by the University of Pennsylvania’s “Global Go To Think Tank Index.” CSIS does not take specific policy positions; accordingly, all views expressed herein should be understood to be solely those of the author(s).
    [Show full text]