Burned by Labor's successful Mediscare federal election strategy, the Turnbull government is preparing to introduce new criminal penalties including jail time for anyone convicted of impersonating a Commonwealth entity.
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In the wake of the Coalition's July 2 electoral disaster, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called in the Australian Federal Police over Queensland Labor's text messages to voters that many recipients thought were from Medicare.
The messages warned: "Mr Turnbull's plans to privatise Medicare will take us down the road of no return. Time is running out to Save Medicare".
The Prime Minister called the messages "an extraordinary act of dishonesty" and said they falsely targeted elderly and vulnerable people, but in August the Australian Federal Police said it wouldn't take action over the messages.
Last year, the parliamentary committee reviewing the election said it would make recommendations about strengthening laws on impersonating a Commonwealth official and Commonwealth entities in 2017, effectively ending the tactic of presenting information as if it came from a government department or agency.
Existing laws make it an offence to impersonate a Commonwealth official, but do not extend to a Commonwealth entities.
A report from the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters, chaired by Liberal senator Linda Reynolds, said impersonating or purporting to act on behalf of Commonwealth officers or entities "is unacceptable and that steps should be taken to ensure that neither occurs in future".
It said the use of government logos and symbols without authorisation should not occur during election campaigns.
Sky News reported on Thursday Mr Turnbull was "determined" to make similar tactics criminal offences and had identified a mechanism to do so.
Assistant Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science Craig Laundy said he was surprised it wasn't already a crime to impersonate Commonwealth entities.
"Let's face it, if you are prepared to say you are someone you're not and it's a government authority... and use it to scare people into voting for you, that should be a crime.
"I'm surprised it's not and if it's not, we need to change the law to make it," he said.
Labor's Mark Dreyfus called the push to criminalise tactics like Medicare part of "the longest dummy spit in Australian political history".
"Malcolm Turnbull needs to stop fighting the last election," he said.
"He needs to stop worrying about this sort of campaigning and get on with governing the country."
