【The Australian】Labor's China Inc is starting to smell fishy

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Labor's China Inc is starting to smell fishy
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25838637-7583,00.html

Glenn Milne| July 27, 2009               
Article from:The Australian                                                

WHENit comes to Kevin Rudd and his government's relationship with what'sincreasingly known as China Inc, it's really the Gordon Nuttallquestion that comes to mind. Or more precisely the now famous RoddMartin question.

Nuttall, the former QueenslandLabor minister, was recently convicted on corruption charges involvingpayments of $360,000. As a result he now resides at her majesty'spleasure.

The fact that it took the jury only a matter of hours to reach itsguilty verdict was in no small part due to the work of Rodd Martin SC.The chief prosecutor's opening question to Nuttall in the witness boxquite probably sealed his fate. His inquiry was as simple as it wasdeadly: "Three hundred and sixty thousand dollars for absolutelynothing?" he asked.

"That's correct," replied Nuttall, not comprehending that he was already toast.

Nobody, not the Prime Minister nor any of his senior governmentcolleagues in federal politics are yet toast or anywhere near it on theavailable evidence of their increasingly complex and detailed ties toChina Inc: the personal, political and state-run hydra of contacts thatit is now clear has given its sustained support to Rudd, his frontbenchand the Labor Party in Queensland over a number of years.

But the question that hangs heavy in the air surrounding Labor andits links to China Inc is Martin's. To paraphrase: "All this fornothing?" All is in fact a great deal, and I'll get to thatmomentarily. Put another way, the charge facing Rudd and many in hisadministration is just what did they do or, just as importantly, whatdid the players in China Inc expect from the money, trips and influencepeddling they showered on Rudd et al and which took them in turn tovery top of the regime in Beijing?

From Rudd down the answer is Nuttall's: "Nothing." Yet it is thescale of the China Inc project that in many people's minds renders thisanswer unbelievable. And because of that there are a lot of peopledoing a lot of work to find out more. And many of the lines of inquirylead to Rudd's old mate Bernie Ripoll.

Ripoll, Labor MP for Oxley, shared an apartment in Canberra withRudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan when they were in opposition. He is amember of the Brisbane 51 Club, the group of local movers and shakersthat also counts Rudd as a member. Of course, Rudd denies this, despitepictures recently emerging of him holding court in Parliament Housewith club members, in the secure cabinet ante room no less.

It's the same club that also counts as its president for life JohnGrant. You remember Grant: he's the most famous used-car dealer inAustralia, the one who gave Rudd the ute that morphed into theso-called fake e-mail affair. And of course, Grant is a big wheel inwhose electorate? You guessed it, Ripoll's. And he lives in the samestreet as the Prime Minister.

Yet Rudd says he "can't recall" if he ever met Grant in China inconnection with Grant's business interests. Grant certainly knowsRipoll. He sat at the same table as him at the fundraiser that paid forRudd's personal legal fees when Rudd as a local member took on theBrisbane Airport Corporation in court and lost.

Now it emerges Ripoll's wife Margy is something of a propertydeveloper who bought some land just before it was targeted by asubsidiary of Chinese mining giant Chinalco. There's more to come onher and her Chinese business partnerships, believe you me. But there'sno point asking Bernie Ripoll about any of this.

In my experience he either refuses to answer any phone calls ore-mails about China Inc. When the tip of the iceberg of his wife'sChina Inc dealings emerged last week he simply played dumb. Rudd isonly marginally more helpful. Whenever you put any question to hispress office on China Inc they're smothered. The usual style of answeris that the PM has "no record" of any meeting with the person inquestion and "can't recall any such meeting". But at the same time it'salways asserted his dealings with that person have been appropriate. Nodenials. No confirmations.

They don't like the questions, of course. When I recently asked hadthe PM ever met Grant in China, I was initially told there would be noanswer: "If you have a specific allegation, put it." To which Ipolitely pointed out that asking if Rudd had ever meet his Brisbaneneighbour, fellow club member and political benefactor in China seemedreasonably specific to me.

How long Rudd and his ministers can maintain their stonewall onChina Inc remains to be seen. But the depth of involvement and layersof contact run deep.

Take businessman Ian Tang. Tang gives travel, hospitality, gifts anddonations to the Labor Party. Those involved: Rudd, Swan, AgricultureMinister Tony Burke and Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister StephenSmith. Tang is the chief executive of AustChina Investment andDevelopment and Beijing AustChina Technology.

He is so closely tied to the Chinese government that he has claimedhis connections would allow him use of a Chinese military helicopterfor tourist flights around Beijing. He also boasts of having placedchildren of Chinese "officials" in Australian colleges.

Through AustChina Tang has been a large donor to Labor. In 2007, anelection year, he donated $150,000. Tang has sponsored Rudd on fourtrips to China, Swan on two trips, Burke on five and there's been oneeach for Smith and Ripoll.

"In terms of detail," Rudd once said of Tang. "I'm not really acrosswhat he does." Tang is a wholly owned subsidiary of Macau gaming figureStanley Ho. Ho and his associated entities donated $900,000 to theLabor Party in the run-up to the previous election. A US Senatecommittee hearing named Ho as having "associates" who are "involved inorganised crime". And the US Library of Congress has cited Ho as havinglinks to several illegal activities and the triad group Kong Lok.

US president Bill Clinton underwent intense scrutiny after hepersonally accepted a $250,000 cheque from Ho at a White Housereception in 1997. International gaming regulators have denied Ho'sattempts to expand gaming interests in Las Vegas and Canada on thebasis of character. Australian gaming regulators have found Ho anunsuitable person for gaming applications he has made in Melbourne,Perth, Sydney and Cairns.

Then there's Helen Liu, the member of China Inc whose contacts withthen defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon helped bring him undone. Hervarious gifts, donations and travel sponsorships for Fitzgibbon arewell known. Then there's the fact the second biggest shareholder inLiu's Sydney property development firm Wincopy was the Bank of China,owned by the Chinese government. Wincopy made donations to Fitzgibbon.

And now we have Margy Ripoll. She purchased two pieces of vacantland in Bowen in March 2008. Only weeks later the Queensland governmentdesignated the area covering the Bowen land as an industrial hub.Following that announcement, the Chinese government-owned miningcompany Chalco declared it the likely site for a $2.2 billion refinery.

Meanwhile, Bernie Ripoll is hard at work as honorary president ofChinese businesswoman Deborah Lei's China Australia Co-operationSociety. Lei is a former member of the Queensland China Council and hasbeen appointed by the Ipswich City Council an honorary ambassador toChina. She has donated to the Labor Party and to Ripoll's 2004electoral campaign.

The logical next question is what links Lei has to the Chinese state apparatus? Those answers will come.

Meanwhile, the government's answer to all of the above remains "all for nothing". For how long we'll see.