SYDNEY - A landmark scheme in Australia to combat foreign influence has been criticised after high-profile Australians - including former prime ministers - were required to register as potential agents of influence.
The scheme was introduced three years ago amid growing concerns about China's alleged attempts to target politicians and universities. Part of laws heralded as a ground-breaking move against undue interference, it was clearly aimed at Beijing but did not specifically name China.
A centrepiece of the scheme was the introduction of a register of foreign agents, which requires people lobbying the government or seeking to sway policy on behalf of foreign entities to publicly list their interests.
But critics say the federal government, which oversees the scheme, has been casting the net too wide and indiscriminately capturing former political leaders and seemingly harmless entities such as think-tanks.
Several former Australian prime ministers have now been asked to register as potential agents of foreign influence, including Mr Malcolm Turnbull, who introduced the scheme. Mr Turnbull was reportedly asked to register his delivery of the keynote speech in 2019 at South Korea's Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity.
Mr Turnbull, who was prime minister from 2015 to 2018, said the scheme had not been intended to apply to speeches or media appearances by former ministers or prime ministers.
"We should ask whether the legislation's objective can be achieved with a lighter, simpler regulatory burden," he told The Sydney Morning Herald.
A former foreign minister and respected foreign policy commentator, Professor Gareth Evans, who was also asked to consider registering under the scheme due to his role on the Jeju Forum's global advisory committee, described the request as a "joke".
"I regard this communication as a joke, albeit one in very poor taste, and propose to treat it accordingly," he wrote in a letter to the government, according to a report in The Australian.
Former prime minister Tony Abbott was also asked to register as a potential agent of foreign influence for his address in 2019 to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Australia, an event backed by the American Conservative Union. Mr Abbott reportedly refused to do so, saying the request was "absurd". But he has since registered his role as an unpaid adviser to the British government's Board of Trade.
Another former prime minister, Mr Kevin Rudd, who is an active participant at global foreign policy events, has taken a different approach and registered a range of his activities, including interviews with the BBC and Radio New Zealand. He also registered his invitation to give a lecture on China organised by the National University of Singapore's East Asian Institute.
But he issued a scathing assessment of the administration of the scheme, saying the requirement that he register foreign media interviews defied "common sense".
"I wholly support this legislation, which, when properly implemented, has the potential to help safeguard Australia's core interests by highlighting potential agents of foreign influence," he said in documents registering his interest. "However, the (Attorney-General's) Department's sweeping interpretation will result in the waste of both officials' time and taxpayer funds."
Some analysts say the scheme should pay less attention to nations deemed friendly and should instead seek to focus on countries believed to be a threat to Australia's national security. According to The Herald Sun newspaper, such countries would include China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
A former adviser to Mr Turnbull, Mr Daniel Ward, an architect of the scheme, said the laws should apply more stringently to countries that are run by authoritarian regimes which had previously attempted to exert undue influence in Australia. He said the current scheme is wasteful and has imposed excessive regulatory costs.
"Australia's foreign influence laws should be amended to adopt a 'tiered model', under which conduct originating in certain 'designated countries' would be subject to greater regulation," he wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's Strategist website.
The scheme is now being reviewed by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. The committee is accepting public submissions until Nov 29.
