The University of Technology Sydney has contested the federal government’s claims that its Australia-China institute should be listed on a register of foreign influence agents.
Australia’s new foreign influence register, designed to publicly track the role of foreign agents, initially revealed only nine separate entities or individuals when the grace period for registrations ended on Sunday. The register was part of a suite of reforms designed to combat foreign meddling in Australia’s democracy.
They included a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, several lobbyist firms working on behalf of foreign entities, and Brendan Nelson, the Australian War Memorial director, who is a member on the advisory board of Thales, a multinational arms manufacturer.
The attorney general, Christian Porter, in rejecting criticism of the register’s usefulness, said he expected more organisations to declare themselves in the near future. He named the UTS Australia China Relations Institute, which received a significant donation from the Chinese property developer Huang Xiangmo, as one.
“Bob Carr recently resigned from the Australia China Relations Institute, which is one of those organisations that I think a lot of people might have considered would need to ask itself, ‘is it a foreign principal within the definition of the act?’,” he told the ABC.
But a UTS spokeswoman told the Guardian that the university had no plans to place itself or the institute on the register.
“UTS does not consider any of its activities, including those of ACRI, to be registerable under the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme (FITS), but will continue to monitor this over time,” the spokeswoman said.
Carr, Australia’s former foreign minister, also rejected Porter’s assertion that he resigned from the institute because of the introduction of the foreign influence register. He told the Australian that Porter was wrong and didn’t seem to understand his own legislation.
The register is designed to publicly list individuals or entities undertaking activities on behalf of “foreign principals”.
Late on Monday, it included Woodside Petroleum, which declared links to a string of exploration companies associated with China, Kuwait and Senegal. The register also listed Shell Australia, which declared its links to companies in Taiwan and Japan.
Lobbyist firms Barton Deakin, Hawker Britton and CMAX Advisory all declared their links to foreign clients.
The Perth USAsia Centre declared links to the Japanese and US governments.
