The Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Act 2018 (Cth) (FITSA) is an Australian statute that creates a registration scheme for foreign agents in Australia.
FITSA is modelled on the American Foreign Agents Registration Act; when he introduced the bill that would become FITSA in Parliament, then–Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull described it as an "improved version" of the American statute.[2] The statute was part of a "package" of legislation aimed at countering foreign influence in Australia that the Turnbull government advanced beginning in December 2017.[3][4] When drafting the bill, the Turnbull government worked closely with the United States Department of Justice.[5] It was amended substantially following criticism from civil society groups that argued the original provisions would stifle freedom of speech.[6]
FITSA received royal assent on 29 June 2018.[7] It requires anyone who engages in lobbying or "any kind of communications activity for the purpose of political influence" on behalf of a "foreign principal"—a term that includes foreign governments and some other organizations—to register with the federal government, and imposes criminal penalties for failure to do so.[3]
In December 2023, former Liberal candidate and prominent fundraiser Di Sanh "Sunny" Duong became the first person to be criminally convicted for violations of the law.[8][9]
The Statute of Anne, also known as the Copyright Act 1709 or the Copyright Act 1710, was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1710, which was the first statute to provide for copyright regulated by the government and courts, rather than by private parties.
In politics, lobbying or advocacy, is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies, but also judges of the judiciary. Lobbying, which usually involves direct, face-to-face contact in cooperation with support staff that may not meet directly face-to-face, is done by many types of people, associations and organized groups, including individuals on a personal level in their capacity as voters, constituents, or private citizens; it is also practiced by corporations in the private sector serving their own business interests; by non-profits and non-governmental organizations in the voluntary sector through advocacy groups to fulfil their mission such as requesting humanitarian aid or grantmaking; and by fellow legislators or government officials influencing each other through legislative affairs in the public sector. Lobbying or certain practices that share commonalities with lobbying are sometimes referred to as government relations, or government affairs and sometimes legislative relations, or legislative affairs. It is also an industry known by many of the aforementioned names, and has a near complete overlap with the public affairs industry. Lobbyists may be among a legislator's constituencies, for example amateur lobbyists such as a voter or a bloc of voters within their electoral district acting as private citizens; others like professional lobbyists may engage in lobbying as a business or profession; while others are government relations support staff who work on behalf of professional lobbyists but do not actively participate in influencing or meeting face-to-face with targeted personnel enough to be considered registered lobbyists while working in the same professional circles as professional lobbyists who are legally designated as registered lobbyists.
Anthony John Abbott is an Australian former politician who served as the 28th prime minister of Australia from 2013 to 2015. He held office as the leader of the Liberal Party of Australia.
The 1996 United States campaign finance controversy, sometimes referred to as Chinagate, was an effort by the People's Republic of China to influence domestic American politics prior to and during the Clinton administration and also involved the fundraising practices of the administration itself.
British National (Overseas), abbreviated BN(O), is a class of British nationality associated with the former colony of Hong Kong. The status was acquired through voluntary registration by individuals with a connection to the territory who had been British Dependent Territories citizens (BDTCs) before the handover to China in 1997. Registration for BN(O) status was limited to the 10-year period preceding the transfer as a transitional arrangement for colonial subjects; current residents cannot newly acquire this nationality.
Marise Ann Payne is an Australian politician who was a Senator for New South Wales from 1997 until 2023, representing the Liberal Party. She held senior ministerial office in Coalition governments between 2013 and 2022, including as Minister for Defence (2015–2018) and Minister for Foreign Affairs (2018–2022).
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) is a joint committee of the Parliament of Australia which oversees Australia's primary agencies of the Australian Intelligence Community: Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS), the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), the Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO), the Australian Geospatial-Intelligence Organisation (DIGO), and the Office of National Assessments (ONA).
The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) is a United States law that imposes public disclosure obligations on persons representing foreign interests. It requires "foreign agents"—defined as individuals or entities engaged in domestic lobbying or advocacy for foreign governments, organizations, or persons —to register with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and disclose their relationship, activities, and related financial compensation.
A foreign agent is any person or entity actively carrying out the interests of a foreign principal while located in another host country, generally outside the protections offered to those working in their official capacity for a diplomatic mission.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Australia since 9 December 2017. Legislation to allow it, the Marriage Amendment Act 2017, passed the Australian Parliament on 7 December 2017 and received royal assent from Governor-General Peter Cosgrove the following day. The law came into effect on 9 December, immediately recognising overseas same-sex marriages. The first same-sex wedding under Australian law was held on 15 December 2017. The passage of the law followed a voluntary postal survey of all Australians, in which 61.6% of respondents supported legalisation of same-sex marriage.
Scott John Morrison is an Australian politician who served as the 30th prime minister of Australia from 2018 to 2022, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. He is currently the member of parliament (MP) for the New South Wales seat of Cook, a position he has held since 2007.
Stuart Rowland Robert is an Australian former politician who served as Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business from 2021 to 2022, following his appointment as Minister for Government Services and Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme in 2019. He was also appointed Acting Minister for Education and Youth in December 2021 and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Fadden upon winning the seat at the 2007 federal election, until his resignation in May 2023.
Philip Maxwell Ruddock is an Australian politician and the current mayor of Hornsby Shire. He is a Vice Chair of the Global Panel Foundation Australasia.
Katter's Australian Party (KAP) is an agrarian populist political party in Australia that advocates for a synthesis of agrarian socialist economic policies and conservative social policies. It was founded by Bob Katter, an independent and former Nationals MP for the seat of Kennedy, with a registration application lodged to the Australian Electoral Commission in 2011.
The Russian foreign agent law requires anyone who receives "support" from outside Russia or is under "influence" from outside Russia to register and declare themselves as "foreign agents". Once registered, they are subject to additional audits and are obliged to mark all their publications with a 24-word disclaimer saying that they are being distributed by a "foreign agent". The phrase "foreign agent" in Russian has strong associations with Cold War-era espionage. The law has been heavily criticized both in Russia and internationally as violating human rights, and as a tool used to suppress civil society and press freedom within Russia, particularly groups opposed to Vladimir Putin.
Devanand Noel "Dave" Sharma is an Australian politician and former public servant and diplomat who has served as Senator for New South Wales since November 2023. Prior to that, he served as the member for Wentworth in the House of Representatives from 2019 to 2022, when he lost the seat to independent challenger Allegra Spender. He is a member of the Liberal Party.
The Morrison government was the federal executive government of Australia, led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison of the Liberal Party of Australia, between 2018 and 2022. The Morrison government commenced on 24 August 2018, when it was sworn in by the Governor-General of Australia. It was composed of members of the Liberal–National Coalition and succeeded the Abbott (2013–2015) and Turnbull (2015–2018) coalition governments in office, competing against the Australian Labor Party as the major Opposition party. Nationals Leader Michael McCormack was Deputy Prime Minister of Australia from the formation of the Morrison government until June 2021. He was replaced as Leader of the Nationals and Deputy Prime Minister by Barnaby Joyce.
Gladys Liu is a Hong Kong-born Australian former politician, who represented the Division of Chisholm in Victoria for the Liberal Party of Australia from her election in May 2019 to her defeat at the 2022 Australian federal election. Liu was the first ethnically Chinese woman ever elected to the House, defeating the Australian Labor Party's Jennifer Yang. Liu was defeated by Carina Garland in the 2022 Australian federal election.
Foreign funding of NGOs is a controversial issue in some countries. In the late Cold War and afterward, foreign aid tended to be increasingly directed through NGOs, leading to an explosion of NGOs in the Global South reliant on international funding. Some critics of foreign funding of NGOs contend that foreign funding orients recipients toward donor priorities, making them less responsive to the communities they work in.
The Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act 2021, or Fica/FICA, is a statute of the Parliament of Singapore. Enacted in 2021, it seeks to "protect the public interest by counteracting acts of foreign interference". The Bill was introduced on 13 September 2021 and passed on 4 October 2021.
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