Gladys relies on Chinese voters in Willoughby , has celebrated Chinese New Year with prominent United Front figures, & her boyfriend's business interests have links to Chinese intelligence: Obvious security issues arise from a deliberate courting of Chinese backers

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

Mr Maguire resigned first from the Liberal Party, and then from politics, in 2018 after a separate ICAC inquiry.Source:Supplied

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian's Willoughby constituency has a large number of Chinese voters. 

She has actively sought Chinese support, and backed  Chinese candidates for the NSW Parliament . She can be seen doing so in the company of United Front figures, as reported by China watcher Geoff Wade: 

Geoff Wade

@geoff_p_wade

· Feb 8, 2019

Australia: NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian gathers with Chinese community leaders, including some prominent United Front figures, at Circular Quay to watch the Opera House turn "China Red" (video) https://youtube.com/watch?v=Fet_F89DNAU…

As a result of her testimony before ICAC we now know that she is (or was until very recently) in a close relationship with Daryl Mguire whose business interests have links to Chinese intelligence. 

There are obvious security issues here that go beyond ICAC.

TO BE READ WITH 

Monday, October 12, 2020

Daryl Maguire's ICAC investigation includes parties linked to Chinese intelligence: Did Berejiklian ignore security briefings

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

                                            Berejiklian's Chinese connections 

 The story below is a copy of a story that was published by the SMH in July 2018. It is in the public domain, readily available on the Net. It details links between Daryl Maguire one Humphrey Xu,and Chinese intelligence. 

The facts reported would have concerned NSW and Commonwealth agencies, including ASIO. As premier, Gladys Berejiklian would have been made aware of these links by those agenscies; first given Maguire's position in her government, and then ( probably) given her close relationship with Maguire. 

The question then is this:Did Berejiklian ignore security briefings while maintaining her close relationship with Maguire until August 2020,if so why? 

Daryl Maguire accepted China travel 

from controversial businessman

Kirsty Needham

 Daryl Maguire. Picture: AAP

Beijing: Disgraced NSW MP Daryl Maguire accepted assisted travel to China from the same businessman who was allegedly pressured by Chinese intelligence agencies to cultivate Labor MPs Eric and Joel Fitzgibbon during an earlier all-expenses paid trip.

Mr Maguire flew to China for 11 days in August 2002 with financial assistance from ACA Capital Investments, his parliamentary disclosures show.



He had dealings with ACA Capital's sole director Humphrey Xu for the next decade, culminating in a failed bid by ACA Investments to build a $400 million international trade centre in his Liberal electorate of Wagga Wagga.


Humphrey Xu, 58, is the former boyfriend and business partner of Helen Liu. Ms Liu's personal friendship with then defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon made headlines in 2009 when Fairfax Media reported allegations that Ms Liu was suspected of having links to Chinese military intelligence.




But it was Mr Xu, a businessman with a property portfolio worth tens of millions of dollars in Sydney, who first befriended then Hunter MP Eric Fitzgibbon over a proposed wine deal and invited him, and his son Joel, then a Labor electorate officer, to visit Shandong in 1993.

 Humphrey Xu, Joel Fitzgibbon, Daryl Maguire, Eric Fitzgibbon and Helen Liu.

The Fitzgibbons' trip was funded by Mr Xu and Ms Liu's company Diamond Hill International.

Fairfax Media has reported that during the trip, Mr Xu and Ms Liu were approached by Chinese intelligence figures and asked to cultivate a relationship with the Fitzgibbons.

Company records show that Mr Xu ceased to be a director of Diamond Hill International in June 1995, and exited another joint company, Wincopy, in December 1995.

The pair, who had become Australian permanent residents under a sham marriage arrangement with an Australian couple, broke up, and a bitter court dispute over control of their property empire ensued.

Wincopy made a $250,025 payment to a Chinese military intelligence front company embroiled in a political donations scandal in the US in 1996, after Xu had left.

On November 30, 2012, Mr Maguire - by now a member of government after a decade in opposition - witnessed the signing in NSW Parliament of a memorandum of understanding between Wagga Wagga council, ACA Capital Investments, and Chinese state-owned company Wuai to build a $400 million trade centre.

In June 2013, Wagga Wagga council approved the sale of land to ACA Capital, shortly after Mr Xu had visited the rural town to inspect the site in Mr Maguire's electorate. Mr Maguire was on the Wagga Wagga council taskforce to establish the international trade centre, and was reported by the local newspaper to be its "driving force".

But the deal had collapsed by October, with a council report citing community concern over "lack of transparency". A month earlier, the switch to a Liberal government in Canberra saw the immigration department reopen an investigation into Mr Xu and Ms Liu's sham marriages, drawing media attention to Mr Xu's past in Wagga Wagga.

Mr Maguire, who is resisting pressure to resign from NSW parliament after revelations to the Independent Commission Against Corruption that he sought kickbacks from a Chinese company for finding property deals, declined to comment for this story. He has resigned from the Liberal Party