Foreign veto laws: Labor warns of ‘unprecedented power’ and lack of oversight
Labor has fired a warning shot to the Morrison government over its planned foreign veto laws, accusing the Coalition of trying to give “unprecedented power” to the foreign affairs minister without adequate oversight.
In a toughening of the opposition’s position on the proposed powers to scrap certain international agreements, Labor’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, told Guardian Australia the government had rushed out the proposal “to grab a headline” without planning for how the law would work in practice.
The foreign affairs spokesperson also said the bill would “create a lot of confusion” because the government had failed to spell out key terms.
While Labor still says it supports the stated objectives of the legislation, the comments suggest the party is inclined to pursue amendments to give greater certainty to stakeholders – including universities, which say they were blindsided and fear the law could have a chilling effect on international research collaboration.
Wong’s comments follow two days of parliamentary hearings this week examining the proposed scheme allowing the foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, to review and potentially cancel a range of international agreements reached by state and territory governments, councils and public universities.
The government says the new review power is needed to ensure arrangements entered into with foreign governments “do not adversely affect Australia’s foreign relations and are not inconsistent with Australia’s foreign policy”.
But the constitutional law expert, Prof George Williams, told the inquiry on Tuesday the legislation contained “very serious” drafting problems and raised “fairly deep constitutional concerns”.
He said the definition of foreign policy was so broadly worded that it could include the views of the minister even if no decision had been made or the policy was not written down on paper.
The bill also did not specify how the government would decide if foreign universities had institutional autonomy – a status that would be key to whether a deal with an overseas higher education entity would be subject to ministerial intervention.
The government is still working on the draft accompanying rules – which will include the definition of institutional autonomy of universities – and has promised to release them in time for the main legislation to be debated in parliament. Those rules will be set by the minister rather than being enshrined in law.
On the day Scott Morrison announced the new measures in late August, Wong told reporters Labor supported the proposed powers, but she left the party some wiggle room by saying it would “look carefully at legislation as it comes forward to make sure it is both workable and consistent with the powers of the parliament”.
Guardian Australia subsequently revealed there was disquiet within Labor ranks about the powers, particularly as they related to universities, and that the party was also considering an amendment seeking to unwind the lease of the Port of Darwin to a Chinese company.
In light of the concerns raised at this week’s hearings, Guardian Australia asked Wong for an update on the Labor party’s position.
She said Labor still believed it was important that Australia “speaks with one voice internationally” but it was now apparent that the bill had been rushed.
“Key terms in the legislation are undefined, so it will create a lot of confusion,” Wong said.
“Moreover the bill gives unprecedented power to the foreign minister but requires no explanation of the minister’s decisions in exercising that power – and allows no review or oversight of the minister’s decisions, either judicial or parliamentary.
“And there is no clarity about how the government will work proactively to explain its foreign policy to Australian governments and universities, and how they can ensure they act in the national interest.”
Wong said Labor would not yet lock in its position because the parliamentary inquiry was still ongoing, but would “consider our final position on the legislation as it concludes”.
Morrison has said the bill is aimed at protecting “Australia’s national sovereign interest” rather than being directed against China or any other country.
But the federal government is expected to use the new bill to review Victoria’s Belt and Road agreement with the Chinese government, while also scrutinising universities’ arrangements with foreign universities that lack institutional autonomy, likely to include China.
The new powers come amid ongoing tensions with China, with the Australian government this week seeking assurances from Beijing over reported curbs on Australian coal imports.
One of the Labor parliamentarians critical of the proposed powers, the veteran Victorian senator Kim Carr, has urged his party not to be drawn into a “McCarthyist campaign, part of culture wars to attack the university system”.
Carr was himself drawn into national political discussion on Wednesday when Morrison was asked at a media conference in Townsville about a China Daily video that included extracts from one of his speeches to the Senate.
“Well, I suspect Kim’s pretty happy about that,” Morrison said. “But it was a bit surprising that Kim Carr found himself in a state-owned media Communist party promotional video.”
The video in question, published by China Daily earlier this week, is a 15minute clip that purports to unmask “hypocrisy and propaganda” in western media.
The video includes several short extracts from a past speech to the Senate in which Carr said there were “hawks intent on fighting a new cold war” with China and had “found eager acolytes in sections of the Australian media”.
A spokesperson for Carr said his office had received an interview request from the China Daily in early August.
“The request for an interview was declined, and the media outlet referred to previous comment that Senator Carr had made in the Senate,” the spokesperson said.
“Neither Senator Carr, nor his office were aware of the publication of this video and had no part in its production.”