Australian academics can sidestep new foreign interference laws by collaborating directly with enemy scientists after the Albanese government rejected Coalition calls to close the risky research loophole. Days after Foreign Minister Penny Wong torpedoed two university collaborations with China on national security grounds, Coalition and Labor MPs voted in the House of Representatives on Wednesday to strengthen Australia's Foreign Relations Act by forcing universities to disclose their own research programs with foreign entities. But the government rejected Coalition amendments that would force universities to disclose their employees' independent research condemned as a "massive gap in our national security" by opposition foreign affairs spokesman Ted O'Brien. "It was only a few months ago we learned that we had academics from the University of NSW, University of Sydney and University of Adelaide collaborating with an Iranian university on unmanned drones," Mr O'Brien told federal parliament. "There is often a dual use when it comes to technology. It is completely unacceptable that the Australian people, the Australian government, finds out through The Australian newspaper reports of university researchers engaging with foreign powers that have not been assessed by the Australian government." Defending the bill which has yet to clear the Senate Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Matt Thistlethwaite said Australia already had "strong foreign interference and espionage laws that do capture researchers". "Our security agencies actively monitor and respond to threats to the national interest," he told parliament. "If an Australian researcher passes sensitive information to a foreign power, that is espionage, and it is already a crime under Australian law. "Our government has been consistently clear that universities must play their role in managing risks, including through the University Foreign Interference Taskforce." The Australian revealed in March that academics from three Australian universities had collaborated with Iranian scientists on drone research, prompting the federal Education Department to write to vice-chancellors warning them not to co-operate with universities in Iran, Russia or North Korea. The department intervened again in June after The Australian revealed that Macquarie University still had PhD researchers from Iran despite Senator Wong's 2023 ban on collaborations with "sanctioned" countries including Iran and that Sydney University had sent an academic to Iran last year in defiance of government Do Not Travel warnings. Mr O'Brien demanded the government close a loophole letting researchers collaborate on risky research with foreign scientists. "An academic need not believe he or she is partaking in some nefarious activity they could be doing very honestly, albeit naively. Technology developed for civilian purposes can have military applications. "Research can move across borders quickly and foreign governments understand the strategic value of gaining access to Australian science, technology and understanding." Mr O'Brien said existing safeguards have "not been working". "Unfortunately these things are not coming to light because of government assessment they're coming to light because of the media," he said. "What sort of confidence does that give the Australian people that we have our national security well looked after when we're relying on newspapers ... (to) find out there've been researchers in Australia dealing with foreign universities that have not been assessed under the right regime? "Our national security should not rely on media it should rely on government and its agencies and its laws." Mr O'Brien said researchers would be able to sidestep the requirement for universities to notify the government of any foreign collaboration if they arranged it independently. "We have such collaborations able to take place and not fall within the (Foreign Arrangements) Scheme for one reasoninstead of the research agreement having the university logo at the top of the paper, it's just got the name of the professor or the academic," he said. "Every other risk can be the same same university, same research, same topic, same academics." Mr O'Brien called on the government to do more than send "limp letters" to vice-chancellors. "Letters are limp where you need a statutory obligation," he said. Mr O'Brien said the government reforms would fail to capture foreign collaborations involving Australian researchers, if a university was not formally a party to the arrangement. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, which inquired into the legislation, urged "greater care" in collaborations with foreign researchers.
