Australian PM denounces foreign vote meddling after NRA report
Australia’s prime minister on Tuesday expressed concern over an Al Jazeera report that revealed that an influential minor political party had asked the US gun lobby for donations to help undermine Australian gun laws.
A three-year Al Jazeera investigation showed One Nation party officials Steve Dickson and James Ashby travelling to the United States for meetings with the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun interests in September last year, weeks before the Australian parliament banned foreign political donations. It is unclear whether they secured any money.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government had made laws to “criminalise taking foreign political donations so foreign lobbyists cannot seek to influence our politics”.
The Al Jazeera report, using secret recordings made by Rodger Muller, a journalist posing as a gun lobbyist, with a hidden camera, comes ahead of Australian elections expected in May.