Albanese warns Musk: stay away, we’ve got foreign interference laws

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has pre-emptively warned the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, not to get involved in the upcoming federal election, noting that Australia has anti-foreign interference laws.

Musk backed president-elect Donald Trump with $US277 million ($447 million) during the United States election and is supporting far-right parties in the United Kingdom and Germany, where the billionaire’s posts on his X platform have generated debate about mass migration, crime and identity politics.

X owner Elon Musk has previously sparred with Australian officials over internet regulations.Credit: AP, Dion Georgopoulos

Asked about Musk’s interventions in an interview, Albanese said his job was to focus on Australia’s national interest.

“We have foreign interference laws in this country and Australian elections are a matter for Australians,” Albanese said. “I have no intention of being a … commentator on what people overseas want to engage in. People will make their own judgments and have their own views about that.”

The prime minister did not specify which of Australia’s laws to protect from foreign interference would apply to Musk. The laws – passed by the Turnbull government in 2018 largely in response to allegations of Chinese Communist Party involvement in Australian politics – were mostly targeted at foreign governments.

They include a transparency scheme that requires people lobbying Australian politicians on behalf of foreign interests to register and laws that make it a crime to influence a political or government process at the behest of another country’s government.

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One section of the laws would apply to Musk: a ban on donations from non-Australians to political parties. His company X has a local Australian subsidiary.

The Tesla boss’ donations and public support for Trump’s campaign have secured him a place in Trump’s inner circle , but he has also involved himself in overseas elections.

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