The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, says ALP will not support changes to foreign interference legislation

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

Labor has accused the Coalition of putting the “good work” of Australian charities at risk through its “inept” handling of foreign interference laws.

The foreign interference legislation before parliament puts significant curbs on not-for-profits, including to prevent charities from using foreign donations for political campaigning.

The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, continued his tough rhetoric on the foreign donation bans in parliament on Monday, after saying on Sunday he would not support changes that silenced charities.

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“Why is the good work of Australian charities being put at risk because of the prime minister’s inept handling of foreign donation laws?” Shorten asked in question time.

Malcolm Turnbull said the bill would have no effect on foreign donations to charities, as long as they did not use it for political campaigning. The prime minister said only 0.1% of charities would be affected, with only seven out of 55,500 registered charities reporting political expenditure last financial year.

“Surely, surely we have enough pride in ourselves, in our nation, that we would say it is Australians that should be determining who is sitting on the treasury benches here,” Turnbull said. “And that we shouldn’t have foreign organisations or foreign billionaires pouring money into Australian political campaigns.”

The Greens, meanwhile, have called for Labor to reject the bill outright.

Senator Rachel Siewert said the opposition’s current position left open the possibility of amendments. Siewert said the bill was “so flawed it needs to be rejected”.

“The current moves by the Government to silence charities and not-for-profits is a clear part of their campaign to silence civil society,” she said.



The changes have united a diverse range of not-for-profits in opposition, including GetUp and the Institute of Public Affairs. A key threshold question about the legislation is how it would define political campaigning.

On Monday the Australian reported that the Liberal MP Ben Morton had written to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to express concerns about $2m in grants it gave to Campaign for Australian Aid. Campaign for Australian Aid advocated to boost aid expenditure at the last federal election.

Morton is one of 10 members of the parliamentary joint standing committee on electoral matters, which is scrutinising the foreign donations bill. He was reportedly concerned that Campaign for Australian Aid had produced a policy rating guide, which marked Australian political parties with a smiling or frowning face, depending on their commitments to boosting the foreign aid budget.

The group had also doorknocked and distributed printed material, Morton said.

But the Australian Council for International Development, a peak group for aid organisations, has previously said that Campaign for Australian Aid’s actions met all legal and regulatory requirements.

The council recently told the parliamentary committee that the material produced by Campaign for Australian Aid at the last election could not be described as “how-to-vote cards”.

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The documents simply assessed and compared the various foreign aid policies of the different parties, and were considered permissible materials under Australia’s charities laws and the guidelines issued by the charities regulator.

“[The Australian Council for International Development] has sought to keep the government regularly appraised of the campaign since its inception and as the aim of the campaign is to promote the government’s official aid program every effort is made to ensure the campaign does not inadvertently undermine government aid efforts,” the council said in a submission.

“By our charitable nature, member organisations of the campaign will not seek to act in a partisan way.”

On Sunday Labor declared it would not support foreign interference laws that silenced charities and not-for-profits.

“I believe we can clean up donations without silencing our charities and not-for-profits,” Shorten said. “Labor is not interested in laws which punish Australian charities.”

His comments came after GetUp decided to target the ALP in its campaign against the proposed laws.