III. Risks of Reaction: Australia's Experience with Aggregation.

Hastie has argued that, through its media discourse and legislative response, Australia is 'a helpful case study of a democracy that has taken action to protect itself' against threats from the PRC.[86] This chapter has indicated that other states would benefit from looking to Australia's response for cautionary as well as salutary lessons. Footnotes 1 Amy Searight, "Countering China's Influence Operations: Lessons from Australia", Center for Strategic and International Studies, 8 May 2020; Daniel Tobin, 'How Xi Jinping's "New Era" Should Have Ended U.S. Debate on Beijing's Ambitions', Testimony Before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, Hearing on 'A "China Model?" Greenpeace argued the new laws would 'have the effect of criminalising public participation in Australia's democracy'.[54] Legal experts were particularly concerned with the finalised EFI Law's expansion of the scope of "national security" to include Australia's "political, military or economic relations with another country". In fact, a criminal offence of "interference with political liberties" had already existed in Australia since 1914.[67] Since its passage through parliament, the Australian government has established a cross-departmental National Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce, under the National Counter Foreign Interference Coordinator (NCFIC), who is an officer from the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) seconded to the Department of Home Affairs. [Extracted from the article]