Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme Act 2018

If a person who is registered under the scheme in relation to a foreign principal becomes aware that information provided to the Secretary for the purposes of the registration:

is, or will become, inaccurate or misleading in a material particular; or

omits, or will omit, any matter or thing without which the information is or will be misleading;

It is an offence for a registrant not to give this notice (see subsection 58(1)). It is also an offence under the Criminal Code to give false or misleading information in compliance with a law of the Commonwealth (see section 137.1 of the Code).

The notice must be given before the end of the period of 14 days after the day the person becomes aware of the matter.

The notice must be:

in writing; and

in an approved form (if any); and

given in an approved manner (if any); and

accompanied by any information or documents required by the Secretary.

The following are examples of circumstances in which a person who is registered in relation to a foreign principal must give a notice to the Secretary under this section:

the person starts to undertake another kind of registrable activity on behalf of the foreign principal;

another kind of registrable activity is added to the activities the person is to undertake under an arrangement with the foreign principal;

the person ceases to be exempt under Division 4 of Part 2 in relation to an activity the person undertakes on behalf of the foreign principal;

consideration starts to be paid, or there is a change in consideration payable, to the person in relation to registrable activities undertaken on behalf of the foreign principal.

Subsection (1) does not apply in relation to information that would, apart from this subsection, be required to be included in a notice given under this section, if the information has been included in a notice given in accordance with:

section 36 (reporting on registration review when voting period begins); or

section 37 (reporting registrable activity during voting periods).

A defendant bears an evidential burden in relation to the matters in this subsection (see subsection 13.3(3) of the Criminal Code).