Federal ICAC could be susceptible to foreign spies, disinformation campaigns: expert

The anti-corruption watchdog's manipulation by state actors could bring down the country's top leaders and national institutions, National Security College policy director Will Stoltz said.

Parliamentary committee hearings into the Labor government's proposed National Anti-Corruption Commission model continued on Wednesday as state and territory integrity counterparts offered insights into the bill.

But the former national intelligence bureaucrat raised the possibility foreign intelligence agencies would begin turning their eye to the watchdog.

Australia's domestic spy agency, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, has previously warned foreign interference remains one of the country's most serious threats, saying politicians make attractive targets.

Dr Stoltz said he was also concerned the committee review's fast pace would result in complex national security areas, including how the bill interacts with foreign interference concerns, being overlooked.

"We need to be alive to the reality that the NACC will be finding its feet, and conducting its investigations, in the most aggressive era of foreign interference and espionage that we've witnessed since the worst days of the Cold War," he told MPs and senators.

"Unlike existing state commissions, the NACC potentially provides an avenue for malicious actors to mobilise false allegations against our nation's most senior leaders and elected elected officials, to generally attempt to discredit the integrity of our national institutions and to stoke apathy and disillusionment among some Australians toward our government."

Under the proposed bill, it is an offence to provide misleading or false information to enact investigation.

Dr Stoltz said the bill could limit the risk of disinformation and destabilisation campaigns by also making it an offence to publicly reveal a referral to the watchdog without prior approval by the commissioner.

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Recent elections in the United States were an example of how foreign entities used false allegations and conspiracy theories to disrupt trust among society, he said.

While it was important not to overstate how successful those efforts had been, it was important legislators and policymakers were enlivened to the threat of them.

"In the context of foreign interference, that can compound disillusionment, disengagement and disenfranchisement with democracy," Dr Stoltz later told The Canberra Times.

"It's compounding this sad phenomenon in the Western world of people starting to not trust democratic institutions and instead become deeply skeptical of them.

"There is evidence to show that that trend is being stoked and exploited and exacerbated by foreign countries, like Russia and China in particular, as a way to actually weaken democracies."

The intelligence agency's director-general Mike Burgess has previously called the level of threat from foreign interference toward politicians "unprecedented", cautioning them to be extra vigilant.

Foreign interference laws first passed parliament in 2018, carrying heavy jail time for political interference attempts that are deemed coercive, covert or deceptive.

Only one individual has been charged under the laws since they were introduced.

Hearings into how the anti-corruption body is shaped continue on Thursday and Friday.