Australia Rejects Any 'Foreign Interference' in Election Amid Claims That China Backed Albanese

The former Australian government, headed by Scott Morrison, accused China of interfering in the Australian election process. The previous government also claimed in the lead-up to a federal election in May, that Beijing wanted Anthony Albanese to be the next Prime Minister of Australia.

An Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) panel has said that there is no evidence of “foreign interference” in the federal election held in May, which saw the Labor Party storming to power after more than a decade.

"The Board has advised Taskforce agencies did not identify any foreign interference, or any other interference, that compromised the delivery of the 2022 federal election and would undermine the confidence of the Australian people in the results of the election,” Australian Election Commissioner Tim Rogers said on Tuesday.

The statement by the top election official came after the Board of the Electoral Integrity Assurance Taskforce, tasked with keeping “foreign interference” out of Australia’s election process, submitted its findings to the AEC.

The Taskforce was established in 2018 and is overseen by a Board, co-chaired by the AEC and the Department of Finance.

The top federal authority's findings were released on the first sitting of the Australian Parliament after the Labor Party’s election win in May.

The previous Australian government had accused China of interfering in Australian elections.

In February, the chief of domestic spy agency, the Australian Security and Intelligence Organization (ASIO), claimed that the authorities had “foiled” an alleged plot by Beijing to influence the electoral process.

ASIO chief Mike Burgess claimed that an Australian businessman with “deep ties” to China acted as a “puppeteer” to finance potential Labor party candidates who would be sympathetic towards Beijing.

The Labor Party said that the candidates in question didn’t even make it to the pre-selection round.

The former Morrison-led government on several occasions alleged that the Labor Party had a secret understanding with China.

Former Home Minister Karen Andrews claimed in April that the announcement about the unveiling of the Sino-Solomon security pact by Beijing constituted “political interference” in the Australian election process.

“Why now, why right in the middle of a federal election campaign, is all of this coming to light? I mean we talk about political interference and that has many forms," Andrews controversially claimed.

Ex-Defense Minister Peter Dutton, who now leads the Liberal Party, claimed in Parliament in February that Beijing was batting for a Labor Party victory.

"The Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese government, has also made a decision about who they're going to back in the next federal election, Mr. Speaker, and that is open and that is obvious, and they have picked this bloke (Anthony Albanese) as that candidate," Dutton said at the time.

Similarly, former PM Morrison called Richard Marles, now the Minister of Defense, as a “Manchurian candidate” over a speech he had delivered during a visit to Beijing in 2019. Marles stated that “Australia and China working together to help the Pacific (countries) is extremely important.”

At the time, Albanese hit back at the Liberal Party, saying that “the government was “desperate for distraction” ahead of the election and warned that “national security is too important to engage in game-playing.”

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