Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697632600126.pdf (Australia)
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.... .... ..__,_ BUREAUCRACY TARGETS CONSERVA'llVE CONFERENCE ORGANlSER, FORMER PM OVER INFLUENCE FEARS Abbott: I'm no foreign agent EXCLUSIVE .I\ \JEI ,\LBRECI n SE, .JOE r-EI.L\ Tony Abbott has been asked to register as an agent of foreign influence under controversial national security laws.
for address the Conservative Political ing Action Conference in August.

In the first action of its kind under the foreign-influence laws, the event's Australian organiser.

Andrew Cooper, whose small not- for-profit organisation Liberty Works co-hosted CPAC in Sydney with the American Conservative Union (ACU), was ordered to hand over documents and threat ened with jail time.

effect The revelations challenge the integrity of the Coalition's foreign influence registry, which came into last December.
Attorney-General Christian Por ter conceded the actions taken by his department did not represent an effective enforcement of the legislation.

The Weekend Australian can reveal that Mr Abbott was asked to register as an agent of foreign influence one day before he addressed CPAC.

The conference was held in Australia for the first time in August and included prominent international speakers including Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage and British political activist Raheem Kassam.
The former prime minister refused the request.

labeUing it "absurd" and saying "senior offi cials of the commonwealth have better things todo with their time".

an Mr Cooper received from October 21 the letter Attorney-General's Department demanding the production of documents under the govern ment's Foreign Influence Trans parency Scheme.

Like Mr Abbott.
Like Mr Abbott.

he has refused to comply and challenged the department about why it was not focused on more pressing "stories of Chinese Communist Party agents influencing university cam- puses or bankrolling political can didates".

The decision by the department to target Mr Abbott and Mr Coo per comes amid a national debate over Chinese influence at Austra lian universities and research organisations.
It coincided with a damning ICAC inquiry that has heard allegations the NSW ALP received a $100,000 donation in an Aldi shopping bag from a banned donor, hillionaire property rlevel oper Huang Xiangmo.

The government's crackdown on foreign influence has been attacked by legal expe1ts including Sydney University's Anne Twom ey, who warned it could force thou sands of people.

including authors, academics and publishers.

to regis ter as agents of other countries.


The letter to Mr Cooper, sent by Sarah Chidgey, the deputy sec retary of the Integrity and Interna tional Group, advised him to provide all documents "detailing any understanding or arrange ment between LibertyWorks and the ACU".

She asked for invita tions to the event, correspondence with speakers as well as the tran- scripts and recordings of the addresses.
It noted that failure to comply with the order within 14 days carried a maximum penalty of six months'jail.

In his reply, Mr Cooper said the department "appears less like the defender of freedom and more like that of the old East German Stasi".

"You hold a gun to our head and demand information that we do not have," he wrote.
He told The Weekend Austra lian: "I will not be complying with this notice despite the threat of Continued on Page 6 Ref: 1194207517 Weekend Australian Saturday 2/11 /2019 Page: 1 Section: General News Region: Australia Type: National Size: 624.00 sq.ems.

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__ -~-·- ··-·· ....... ·-- mrrar,C"W';;J 11, - Abbott declares: l'Ill not an agent off oreign influence Continued from Page J criminal prosecution and jail time.
I established LibertyWorks to type of argue against government control over speech and citizens.

this "I will not sell out our speakers and delegates by kowtowing to government overlords."

CPAC was aimed at develop ing ideas for the centre-right of politics and included addresses from conservatives and libertari ans.

It was heavily attacked by Labor's home affairs spokeswom an, Kristina Keneally, who warned of an "alt-right" takeover and rising white supremacism in Australia.
The first CPAC was held in the US in 1974 with then California governor and future president Ronald Reagan the first headline speaker.

Speakers at the August event included Mr Abbott, former deputy prime minister John Anderson, Liberal senator Aman da Stoker, Liberal MP Craig Kelly, fo rmer Labor leader Mark Lath am and US Republican congress man Mark Meadows.

Mr Cooper said he "just want ed to run a conference".
The department has sent about 500 letters to a range of individuals asking them to con sider whether they need to regis ter under the foreign influence transparency scheme.

Mr Abbott was informed that, as a former cabinet minister.

he had "a lifetime obligation to regis ter any activity you undertake on behalf of a foreign principal".
In a follow-up email, sent by the department last month, Mr Abbott's CPAC address and a September speech to a summit in Budapest, Hungary, were ident ified as potentially problematic.

In a sharply worded response, sent on Wednesday and obtained by The Weekend Australian, Mr Abbott said: "Neither speech of m ine was given ·on behalf of a for eign principal.

I spoke for myself, that's all.

"Any suggestion that I was speaking on behalf of a foreign entity is absurd ...
I decline to reg ister and suggest that you rethink the making of such misplaced and impertinent requests in the future.

"Surely senior officials of the better commonwealth things to do with their time."

have The department's handling of the Foreign Influence Trans parency Scheme angered Mr Porter.

"I have made it clear to my department that I expect it to demonstrate a focus on the most serious instances of noncompli ance," the Attorney-General said.
·'J'm not persuaded this focus has been perfectly demonstrated to date."

Mr Abbott said it was easy for the bureaucracy to turn "well intentioned government policy into something which turns out to be radically different to what their ministers and staffintended".
The letter to Mr Cooper was the first and only order for the production of documents issued under section 45(2) of the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme, which was introduced by Mal colm Turnbull to help counter the "serious threat posed to Australia and our interests by covert inter ference and espionage".

Mr Cooper told the depart ment on Friday that Liberty Works "cannot, and will not.

comply with this notice".


He in formed the department that it was impossible to produce the thou sands of documents requested within the 14-day timeline.

'The breadth and scope of the in your notice requirements betray a lack of specific concerns and you do not 'reasonably sus- pect' we are required to register with the scheme," he wrote.

The department sent the letter to Mr Cooper, asking h im to pass on the request by the close of busi ness on Friday, August 9.
"So they threaten me with jail, and then expect me to be their agent so they can go after some one else?"

Mr Cooper told The Weekend Australian.

"They can go and get stuffed."

The department also wrote to former Liberal politician Ross Cameron in August for speaking at CPAC, asking him to consider registering as an agent of foreign influence.

'Any suggestion that I was speaking on behalf of a foreign entity is absurd' TON \ " ARROTT FORMEK PKIME MINISTEH Ref: 1194207517