Foreign interference has been an issue of growing global concern in the past decade. A key recommendation from this inquiry is for the Australian Government to require all large social media platforms operating in Australia to meet a minimum set of transparency requirements, enforceable with fines.

This article critically analyses the legal accountability mechanisms for grants funding through public finance legislation, ‘soft law’ such as grants, guidelines and ministerial standards, and the availability of legal redress. It also examines political accountability mechanisms, including the operation of parliamentary committees, the Auditor-General and the Ombudsman.

Political parties cannot operate without income and, as a consequence, matters of political finance are of great importance to the quality of democracy. This paper explores the challenges to the current regulatory system for political finance in greater depth. It also discusses how the system may need to develop to deal with those challenges.

This research shows how the Chinese Communist Party uses tailored, reactive messaging in response to regional events, and analyses the effectiveness of that messaging in shifting public discourse online.

This committee report recommends that the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Amendment Bill 2022 be passed, if amendments are made to strengthen enfranchisement and participation in the referendum, particularly of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and clear, factual and impartial information is made accessible to all voters.