Friday 19th of April 2024
Home » Blogs » Gus Leonisky's blog

no influence whatsoever...

cash for policies?...

ASIO has warned the major parties about taking donations from two billionaires because its intelligence reveals worrying links to the Chinese Communist Party.

Key points:
  • Concerns raised over property developers Huang Xiangmo and Dr Chau Chak Wing
  • $6.7 million donated to the Liberal, Labor and National Parties over a decade
  • Liberals and Labor continued to accept donations from the men and their associates

 

The agency has also briefed Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, his predecessor, Tony Abbott, and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.

A Four Corners-Fairfax investigation has discovered the two are property developers Huang Xiangmo and Dr Chau Chak Wing. Between them and their associated entities they have donated around $6.7 million to the Liberal, Labor and National Parties over a decade. Dr Chau is an Australian citizen. Mr Huang's citizenship application has been stalled by ASIO.

The secret briefings to the parties' administrative heads were delivered by ASIO's director general, Duncan Lewis, in 2015. But the Liberals and Labor continued to accept donations from the men or their associates — the Coalition taking $897,960 and Labor $200,000.

Dr Chau is referred to by the code name CC3 in a court case brought by the FBI over the bribery of the former president of the United Nations General Assembly, John Ashe. The FBI alleged Australian-Chinese consultant, Sheri Yan, used $200,000 of Dr Chau's money to bribe Mr Ashe in November 2013. Ms Yan pleaded guilty to bribery charges and is currently serving a 20-month prison sentence. Dr Chau has never been charged or accused of wrongdoing.

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-05/asio-warns-political-parties-over-...

Note: a few spelling mistakes have crept on in my subsequent comments below. The apostrophe man was lurking when some "were" became "where" and an "or" was spelled "nor" or such. Like Hillary Clinton, I will blame someone else for this caper. My keyboard is getting old and some keys are reluctant, recalcitrant and even do not work... Time to go and visit the Apple store in George Street, the main street of Sydney, which under the management of the KONservative government has been looking like a war zone for the last couple of years. This K government has decided to dig up to install 1915-style tram lines to stop the car traffic... This has been killing many businesses along the way, with delays due to having to deal with the "utilities" (gas, electricity, water, telephone) running under the street and the Tank Stream. George Street used to follow the swamp that meanders either side of this river which soon after Sydney was founded, around this pristine rare fresh water, became a sewer and had to be covered up to stop the stink... You can still visit the Tank Stream, with gum-boots, hard hats and torches when it's not raining...

 

not all rotten apples are bad...

 

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has ordered a major inquiry into the nation's espionage and foreign interference laws, amid concerns about Chinese influence in Australian politics.

A Four Corners-Fairfax investigation has discovered Australia's spy agency ASIO warned the Coalition and Labor about taking donations from two billionaires with links to the Chinese Communist Party.

But the parties did not stop, with the Coalition then accepting $800,000 and Labor $200,000.

Attorney-General George Brandis said he was examining whether the espionage offences in the criminal code are adequate.

"The threat of political interference by foreign intelligence services is a problem of the highest order and it is getting worse," Senator Brandis said in a statement.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-06/turnbull-orders-inquiry-following-...

 

Another inquiry? As if the government did not know what was going on !!!! Why not take the cash and suggest it never happened?... Because that's what the inquiry will do "find" with a caveat not to take to much cash ror take a job with a Chinese firm too soon after leaving government... What's the mourning period? 2 days, three weeks?

 

quite uncanny...

It's quite uncanny that Australia is awaking to a "problem" dealing with politics "influenced" by China... at the same time, the USA has to deal with Russia having "influenced" (not) the Presidential elections... If I was less cynical, say like a barrel of anchovies, I would not try in a million years to make a parallel between the two "discoveries" -- one designed to bring Trump down and one to highlight that our "liberal" (KONservative) government is on top of "the problem"... launching another inquiry into the ether...

Russia and China are the up and coming kids on the block and the bully-in-chief (you know who) will try to kick them as much as possible in the arse while still make sure it does not hurt the trade of marbles (marbles where the school yard currency "in my days" -- most were made of clay because we could not afford the cat's eye ones in glass. It's possible that these days ecstasy tablets are the official money in school yards. I don't know, though I know it's not lumps of coal...) 

Of course, "the problem" has been long time known in the government circles, and I was made aware of "spying" by Chinese visiting ships (a few decades ago -- military ships more recently) by Aussie "secret" officials with signal detectors.

So what are we to make of this? The Four Corners investigation did not happen by accident... It "got lucky" it managed to uncover so much "from ASIO"... So, It's bash Russia and China some more in the media to make sure we don't relax the sphincter in our arse -- and while we might still get the cash or the position like Andrew Robb did, our pollies will be more careful with the brown paper bags. We, the plebs under the thumb, need to fear something subconsciously bad when the words "Russia" and "China" are uttered in the news or in the streets...

So, as long as we keep our eyes opened, as long as we sell coal and iron ore to the Chinese -- and strawberries to the Serbians to resell to the Ruskies (bypassing sanctions), we are told we won't be as embarrassing as the "True Story" of the very nice lady who was invited to dinner with one of "her" students in China, husband in tow... They talked about their family 20 footer sail-boat, as soon as the husband of the "student" mentioned he was a shipping magnate owning a full-on shipping fleet and a 250 foot yacht as well (I might have made this one up), on the Amish and Andy show... Either the irony was in full swing, but I guess it was sheer Aussie embarrassing naive "brains" devoid of ability to make a reality fix...

Meanwhile our economy is "so strong" that we are about to beat the Netherlands for the most consecutive quarters without being in a recession... Keep your illusions though, the next quarter after this "feat", lately possibly including "fiddling the books" by the KONservatives, will most likely be brutal. Remember, it is thanks to the Labor Government excellent management, that this record had not gone kaput during the Global Financial Crisis.

 

and what about our 'special friends' ...

the Bandits from the Potomac & their proxies ... Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UK ...