> The Turnbull government will ban foreign donations to Australian political parties, introduce new laws targeting spies and foreign interference, toughen laws that ban disclosure of classified information and make it a crime to support foreign intelligence agencies.
> The sweeping package of counter-intelligence law changes, which follows a lengthy review led by Attorney-General George Brandis and which is designed to stop interference in Australia's democratic institutions, will be released in the final week of Parliament for 2017.
- http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/turnbull-government-to-unveil-crackdown-on-foreign-spies-lobbyists-donations-this-week-20171203-gzxmfk.html
> Over the past 12 months ASIO says it identified "foreign powers clandestinely seeking to shape the opinions of members of the Australian public, media organisations and government officials" to try to "advance their country's own political objectives".
> The domestic spy agency found "ethnic and religious communities" were also "the subject of covert influence operations designed to diminish their criticism of foreign governments".
> The country's top intelligence agency says it has been unable to investigate all "harmful espionage" and "foreign interference" against Australia due to the large scale of "malicious" activity directed here in the past year.
- http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-18/asio-overwhelmed-by-foreign-spying-threats-against-australia/9061728