Kevin Rudd’s staff accused an Australian government department of taking a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach to News Corp after finding the media company did not need to register under the foreign influence scheme.
Documents obtained by Guardian Australia reveal the Attorney General’s Department dismissed two cases that the former prime minister suggested may require News Corp to disclose activities under the scheme.
In a letter released under freedom of information laws, Rudd cited the reporting by the Saturday Telegraph in May 2020 about Covid’s origins, which appeared under the headline “China’s batty science: Bombshell dossier lays out the case against the People’s Republic”.
The details in this “world exclusive” were attributed to “a dossier prepared by concerned western governments”. Rudd drew attention to previously published advice by Bret Walker SC.
“This advice noted that, in the absence of an exemption for media activities, any decision of News Corp Australia to receive and distribute information on behalf of a foreign government seeking to influence political discourse in Australia would be registrable,” Rudd wrote in the October 2021 letter.
“As you would be aware, numerous individuals have raised concern about the broad interpretation of the Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Act including Gareth Evans, Malcolm Turnbull and me.
“It would be damaging to public confidence in the scheme if your department, having taken such a firm approach with critics of the present [Morrison] government, were seen to continually give the government’s greatest supporter an easy ride.”
The department’s secretary, Katherine Jones, sent a formal response four months later, saying the department had considered the issues raised and “does not have any information indicating” that the report on “China’s batty science” was registrable under the scheme.
“In particular, it is not clear that any activities related to publishing the report were undertaken on behalf of an identified foreign principal,” she wrote in February 2022.
In the letter, Rudd also asked the head of the department for “advice on whether News Corp Australia has undertaken a registrable act on behalf of Audi, an entity related to governments in Qatar and Germany”.
In its general advice to the public, the department says people “undertaking communications activities for the purpose of political or government influence on behalf of a foreign principal must register their activity, unless an exemption applies”.
Rudd cited a 12-page liftout in the Australian newspaper called “Electric Vehicles Special Report” in September 2021, which included a number of full-page Audi advertisements and also included “several articles lobbying government to enact policies favourable to Audi’s electric vehicles”.
“It is my understanding that such ‘special reports’ have the appearance of news coverage, but they are in fact produced under a formal commercial arrangement in which News Corp Australia undertakes to supply coverage in exchange for a large advertising commitment,” Rudd wrote.
The lift-out also included an article authored by Paul Sansom, the chief executive of Audi Australia, which said there was “much more to discuss around a federally led EV incentive strategy” and the company would “like to hear more about EV incentives from the federal government”.
Rudd also pointed out that the series was accompanied by sponsored posts on Facebook.
His letter said Audi was a fully owned subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, whose largest shareholders included the State of Lower Saxony (20% of the voting rights) and Qatar Holding LLC (17%). He said these were, respectively, a foreign sub-national government in Germany and an arm of the Qatar sovereign wealth fund.
Jones wrote back to Rudd saying the department dealt with issues on a case-by-case basis, and its compliance strategy preferred to resolve matters through voluntary cooperation with registrants or potential registrants wherever possible.
She acknowledged Rudd’s feedback about the potential need for amendments to clarify the laws as they applied to media organisations and said the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security was reviewing whether the scheme remained “fit for purpose”.
Jones said the department believed “that the available information is not sufficient to indicate that the special report constitutes a registrable activity undertaken on behalf of a foreign principal”.
“Those parts of the special report that are clearly labelled as Audi-produced material, including the article from the CEO of Audi Australia, would fall under the Act’s ‘disseminator exemption’ for material produced by third parties,” Jones wrote.
“For other articles in the special report containing discussion of federal policy settings in relation to electric vehicles, the department is not able to determine that they constitute an activity undertaken on behalf of a foreign principal within the meaning of the Act.”
A staffer to Rudd replied to the public servant who had emailed a copy of the letter: “So in summary: News Corporation can be paid by a foreign government-related entity to assign their journalists write articles supporting their interests vis-à-vis regulation of their interests in Australia, but because neither News Corp or the foreign principal elects to tell the department, the department doesn’t want to know?
“Don’t ask, don’t tell.”
The department declined to provide further comment when contacted by Guardian Australia, with a spokesperson saying the letter from Jones set out the department’s views. News Corp did not respond to a request for a response.
Since leaving politics, Rudd has become one of News Corp’s most trenchant critics and has spearheaded a campaign for a royal commission. The Labor state conference in Queensland on Sunday passed a resolution calling on the federal government to establish a royal commission into media diversity in Australia.
The newly obtained documents cover all correspondence between former prime ministers and the Attorney General’s Department since September 2021, and mostly showed Rudd’s office contacting officials to clarify his own registration requirements.
Based on expansive departmental advice, Rudd has used the register to disclose a wide range of activities, including interviews with state-owned broadcasters.
But in one case, the department informed Rudd that his registration lodged in December 2021 for a book launch on behalf of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne was unnecessary.
“The department’s understanding is that individual dioceses and archdioceses of the Catholic church in Australia are, for relevant purposes, separate from the Holy See and Vatican City State, and individual dioceses and archdioceses do not form part of a foreign government in their own right.”
The documents also show the former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull having difficulty signing in to the website after the start of the 2022 election campaign, when registrants are required to update and confirm any disclosures.
In one email to the department, subject line “Re: reset password”, Turnbull wrote: “Thanks for this email. I have despite several attempts not been able to log on to the website. I have no changes to report to my earlier filing. So pls take note of that.”
It is not the first time Turnbull – whose government brought in the foreign influence transparency scheme – has had issues with the website. In a previous tranche of documents, Turnbull said it was “such a difficult website to use”.
• Disclosure: Guardian Australia produces a variety of content with funding from outside parties, including EV manufacturers. All sponsorship is declared.
