Foreign interference represents a serious threat to Australian communities, sovereignty and security.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has announced that they will launch an education campaign to advise culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) Australian communities what to do if they believe they are being threatened or intimidated by foreign governments. This article explores the key considerations.
What is foreign interference?
Foreign interference generally involves the exertion of foreign influence in another country. A country typically engages in foreign interference to support their intelligence activities or to otherwise prejudice another nation’s national security.
Recently, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) assessed foreign interference as being one of the greatest threats to Australia’s national security.
ASIO highlighted that foreign interference is being used by foreign nations to:
- Shape political and business decision-making to their advantage.
- Monitor, threaten and even harm members of diaspora communities.
- Manipulate messages among communities, through foreign language media, and by establishing community organisations.
The AFP’s educational campaign will focus on combatting the community threat.
It is important to note that to be considered foreign interference under Australian law, an activity must be linked to a foreign government or its proxy. If an individual who is loyal to a foreign government takes it upon themselves to threaten or intimidate community members, this would not be classified as foreign interference.
The threat to Australian communities
“On a community level, foreign interference is defined as threats and intimidation directed, supervised or financed by foreign governments and targeted towards CALD communities in order to cause harm and impact on Australia’s multicultural way of life”, said AFP Special Investigations Commander Stephen Nutt.
Foreign governments may target Australian communities for a number of reasons, including:
- To silence criticism of the foreign government’s policies.
- To monitor the activities, including online, of members of CALD groups.
- To promote the views and policies of a foreign government.
- To obtain information for the benefit of the foreign government.
- To influence the views and opinions of the broader population.
Examples of foreign interference
Commander Nutt provided several examples of foreign interference that could affect Australian communities:
- A foreign government agent pays an Australian citizen to undertake surveillance of people attending an Australian community discussion about the foreign government, and then reports back on people who were critical of the foreign government.
- A person in Australia willingly assists a foreign government by going to a person’s home or contacts them by telephone to threaten them with serious harm unless they stop criticising the foreign government in online forums.
- A foreign government agent or proxy threatens to release sensitive private information of a person on the internet unless they agree to sponsor a visa of a person to travel to Australia.
The AFP’s education campaign
AFP community liaison teams across Australia will meet with CALD groups and religious leaders to explain what foreign interference is, how it manifests and where victims can seek assistance.
A factsheet, which will be translated into more than 30 languages, will urge individuals to call the National Security Hotline if they believe they are the victim of, or have witnessed, foreign interference in Australia.
How law enforcement is tackling foreign interference
Commander Nutt said the AFP has worked closely with ASIO and other agencies as a member of the Counter Foreign Interference Task Force to identify and counter foreign interference in Australia.
Regarding the action that will be taken in response to reports from the community, Commander Nutt said “The AFP cannot investigate every report of foreign interference in the community, but each report to the National Security Hotline is taken seriously and actively assessed on a case-by-case basis to determine if any criminal offending is identified.”
