Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Sounding very UMNO like, Australian Minister for Energy Chris Bowen and acting NT Chief Minister Nicole Manison continue to back failed Sun Cable project, and sound as if an Australian taxpayer funded government bail-out is underway for a failed project that remains under administration, and without the vital approvals from the Govt Of Singapore

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Chris_Bowen being optimistive about Sun Cable project Image: Facebook – Federal Energy and Climate Minister Chris Bowen

Energy Matters reported:

In a press conference on Thursday, the Federal Energy and Climate Minister Chris Bowen said, “I remain very upbeat and excited about Sun Cable’s future.”

“Certainly I’ve been speaking to very senior people in Sun Cable over the last 24 hours, they tell me that there is absolutely no reduction in their ambition, there is no change in their plans for this to be going forward as a very important investment in Australia.”

The project is also a key component of Australia’s plan to export renewable energy to Asia, a growing clean energy market. According to Minister Bowen, the project has the potential to “unlock a new era of energy exports and create jobs and economic growth in the Northern Territory and across Australia.”

The project has the potential to create thousands of jobs and generate significant economic benefits for the region and the country as a whole. He acknowledged the recent dispute between the project’s investors, but he assured that the government is in active discussions with all the stakeholders and that the project is moving forward.

“I certainly hope that they make their corporate decisions and then get on with the job,” he said.

Bowen spoke in support for the project after Sun Cable was put into voluntary administration (see story below).

Energy Matters also quoted. NT Chief Minister Nicole Manison talking up a company that has been put into administration, and which does not have any approvals from its primary client, the Government Of Singapore:

At a press conference, the acting NT Chief Minister Nicole Manison claimed that if the initiative hadn’t been viable, Mr Cannon-Brookes and Dr Forrest would never have supported it.
“I don’t think they’d back in projects like this unless
“The advice we had from Sun Cable yesterday was that are still proceeding forward business as usual.”

“This is going to be a globally significant project … Fantastic for the NT,” she said.

Meanwhile their Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has till not explained why he has so strongly backed a project that cannot happen without approvals from the Government Of Singapore, which has said nothing, despite this apparent ambush:

At a press conference in Canberra on 18 October 2022 Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister Of Australia, told Lee Hsien Loong,Prime Minister Of Singapore:

.............Sun Cable, which has the potential to export clean energy to Singapore, is the ultimate win-win. If this project can be made to work - and I believe it can be - you will see the world's largest solar farm, you will see the export of energy across distances, the production of many jobs here in Australia, including manufacturing jobs. And the prospect of Sun Cable is just one part of what I talk about when I say Australia can be a renewable energy superpower for the world.

It does seem as if the Labor Party to which Albanese, Bowen and Manison belong, is following in the footsteps of UMNO, who when in power have never been shy to back all sorts of outlandish projects which were never financially viable, with taxpayers money.

TO BE READ WITH

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

PM Albanese of Australia told PM Lee of Singapore that Sun Cable " is the ultimate win-win" just 3 months before Sun Cable collapsed - Australian media has never been shy to investigate and criticise Asian politicians and their fantasy projects, must now do the same to the their own Prime Minister who has misled Australians and Singaporeans

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Albanese tweeting a family photo with the Lees

At a press conference in Canberra on 18 October 2022 Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister Of Australia, told Lee Hsien Loong,Prime Minister Of Singapore:

Just under three months later the project collapsed, for some very obvious reasons( see story below).

Australian media has never been shy to investigate and criticise Asian politicians and their fantasy projects. The Bakun Dam project promoted by then Prime Minister Of Malaysia Mahathir Mohamad which was meant to transmit hydropower across the South China Sea is one eerily similar example.

Australian media must now do the same to the their own Prime Minister who has misled Australians and Singaporeans.

TO BE READ WITH

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Albanese's Sun Cable fantasy collapses - Albo must now explain why he misled Australians, and Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Albanese has used his position to promote Sun Cable, in Australia and overseas, despite Sun Cable having no power supply agreement with the Government Of Singapore.

A dispute between Mike Canon- Brookes and Twiggy Forrest is said to have been the reason why Sun Cable has been put into administration. The ABC is reporting that there are " disagreements about the funding and direction of the company......these included the significant amounts of cash that Sun Cable was spending, and its failure to achieve certain milestones".

As reported by this writer Sun Cable, Prime Minister Albanese of Australia, and the Chief Minister of The Northern Territory, Natahsa Fyles, all claimed that Sun Cable would supply Singapore with solar power from a solar bank in the Northern Territory, when in fact no agreement had been reached with the Government Of Singapore.

All three, but in particular Albanese and Fyles, must now explain why they misled Australians, and account for all any government resources provided the project.

TO BE READ WITH

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-11/sun-cable-enters-administration/101845100

Monday, October 24, 2022

PM Lee Hsien Loong confronted with another Crooked Bridge dilemma. From the south, out of Australia, Australia's PM Albanese demands that Hsien Loong share his fantasy of a solar power cable connecting Singapore and Australia

by Ganesh Sahathevan

The crooked bridge project was mooted by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad before he retired as premier in 2003. PHOTO: GERBANG PERDANA

For much of the past decade Singapore has had to endure demands from Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad that the causeway connecting the two countries be replaced by what has become known as the Crooked Bridge. His resignation as prime minister of Malaysia in 2020 seems to have put that demand to rest but now it seems Singapore and its prime minster Lee Hsien Loong are being tormented by a similar demand, this time from the south, from Australia's PM Albanese who demands that Hsien Loong share his fantasy of a solar power cable connecting Singapore and Australia.

As this writer noted, Albanese seemed to be channeling BJ Habibie, the former Indonesian President (who is supposed to have described Singapore as a little red dot) when he told Hsien Loong at a press conference in Canberra:

"This island continent of ours is a little bit bigger than the island continent of Singapore...... And hence, a project like Sun Cable, which has the potential to export clean energy to Singapore, is the ultimate win-win. If this project can be made to work - and I believe it can be - you will see the world's largest solar farm, you will see the export of energy across distances, the production of many jobs here in Australia, including manufacturing jobs".

Hsien Loong said nothing in response, and that is to be expected for Hsien Loong, his government, and the relevant authorities have yet to provide Sun Cable any approvals whatsoever to Sun Cable:

Infrastructure Australia says Sun Cable's Darwin-Singapore solar cable qualifies for taxpayer funding, Singapore says Sun Cable does not have permission to import electricity into Singapore

While Mahathir's insistence on the Crooked Bridge despite a lack of interest from Singapore caused local Malaysian media to investigate the motivation for the project, there has yet to be any serious investigation in Australia into Albanese's fantasy.

END

Thursday, January 19, 2023

NSW Dept Of Justice, NSW LPAB documents say very senior judicial officers in NSW, including sitting judges found that the Realpoltikasia & related blogs had defamed many unnamed "eminent persons"- Many of these would include persons found by courts and tribunals in Malaysia and Australia to have committed fraud, theft, acts of terrorism, terrorist financing and corruption including corruption of judicial officers

by Ganesh Sahathevan

NSW Legal Profession Admission Board

In its written reasons finding this writer unsuitable for admission to practice the NSW LPAB stated that this writer had "defamed" a number of unnamed "eminent persons". This finding was made despite the fact that there has never been any finding in any court anywhere that this writer has defamed anyone. The findings were based on the NSW LPAB's detailed research of this blog, which is also linked to GSahathevan, Ganesh Sahathevan and Justice Pao blogs.

These include former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak who is in jail for the 1MDB theft,Goldman Sachs which has paid billions in settlement with regards investigations into its part in the 1MDB theft and Malaysian businessman Vincent Tan who was found to have interfered with the Malaysian judiciary by a Malaysian Royal Commission.

Then there are those involved in terrorist financing, including fraudster Adrian Ong who was charged and convicted after an ASIC investigation, and Zulfikar Shariff, who was detained for three years in Singapore for supporting ISIS.

The Australian public has a right to know who these judicial officers, including judges, are. The NSW LPAB is part of the NSW Department Of Justice, currently headed by Michael Tidball.

TO BE READ WITH

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Protection provided journalists,whistle blowers and sources by Carlovers v Sahathevan ,Bond v Barry undermined by NSW judicial body overseen by Chief Justice NSW, and AG Speakman

by Ganesh Sahathevan

In October 2001 the Supreme Court NSW handed down its decision in Carlovers Carwash Ltd v Sahathevan . The decision provided this writer and other journalists significant protection, and was later applied in Bond v Barry, where Paul Barry (better know now as host of MediaWatch) relied on the Carlover's decision to successfully defend himself against a charge of defamation by the late Alan Bond.

Quite apart from affirming the statutory safe harbor provisions protecting journalists found in for example the Fair Trading Act NSW, the cases were important for the defining the noun " journalist" in very broad terms.That broad definition is especially relevant today given the ability of researchers, investigators and writers to self-publish via their own blogs and social media such as Twitter and Facebook. Bond v Barry continues to be quoted to this day (and Sahathevan concedes he will never be as famous as Barry).

There has however been a recent decision of a quasi-legal body that seems to suggest that the protection provided by those cases and the decisions that follow them is being restricted, if not discarded by the legal establishment, especially in NSW.

In a recent decision finding this writer not fit and proper for admission to practice law in NSW the Legal Profession Admission Board (LPAB), which is overseen by the Chief Justice of NSW Thomas Bathurst, the LPAB (which includes three sitting judges,) determined that the Carlovers decision did not concern the work of a journalist but rather a Carlovers employee who after being sacked by Carlovers, harassed, threatened and intimidated the company and its directors.

In doing so the LPAB is suggesting that the Carlovers decision was incorrectly decided, or that the NSW Supreme Court's views on the rights of journalists to report, and of press freedom generally, have become more restrictive.

The Carlovers decision attracted much media attention locally and in this region and it has relevance especially today given the recent raids by the Australian Federal Police In his story on that matter published in the SMH on 14 October 2000 the last Ben Hills reported:

Mr Sahathevan's counsel, Ms Judith Gibson (now Judge Judith Gibsion) , argued that it was an important press freedom case, because if injunctions could be used in this way it would ``place every whistle-blower and every source at risk''. She said her client had claimed that Carlovers had made false and misleading statements to the Stock Exchange.

The LPAB put its findings with regards Carlovers in the context of what it claimed was evidence of this writer's history of publishing material that was false or otherwise lacking any evidence and were in fact part of this writer's criminal enterprise (see story below published in The Australian on 17 January 2019).

So certain is the LPAB of its findings that it has included in its findings a determination that this writer has shown no remorse for his work as a journalist; it has made specific reference to the story this writer investigated and wrote for publication in The Sun newspaper in Malaysia in 1996, which earned him the sacking from that paper which in turn led to a number of related defamation matters in Malaysia and Australia, including the Carlovers matter.

In Carlovers submissions were made by Carlovers and its directors about this writer's sacking from The Sun,and the Malaysian matters which included an AUD 7 Million claim for damages.The directors included the Malaysian businessman Vincent Tan Chee Yioun, who owned The Sun,and still controls it via his Berjaya Group of companies. The LPAB has found that these submissions were "irrelevant".

Tan's role in a number of questionable high profile defamation and corporate matters in Malaysia were well known, and the subject of adverse media reports worldwide, even in 2000. In 2006 a Malaysian Royal Commission which investigated corruption of the judiciary found that there was prima facie evidence that Tan and two former chief justices of Malaysia had committed offences under Malaysia's Sedition Act, Official Secrets Act, Penal Code and the Legal Profession Act. Early this year the Malaysian Government announced that there will be a second RCI into judicial corruption; the events of the past continue to have an impact even today.

The LPAB's findings given the issues concerning Vincent Tan described above suggests that the current NSW Supreme Court will not tolerate investigation by journalists regardless of how serious the matter.It does suggest a degree of antagonism towards journalists that is so great that the Court would be happy to re-write its past decisions,no matter how well established those decisions might be. In doing so the Court 's seem prepared to re-interpret not merely the reasons but even the facts of past decisions.

Meanwhile, this writer continues to investigate and write about the issues and facts he discovered in 1996 which got him sacked, as well as other more recent events such as the 1MDB affair, Australia's submarines, and the NSW legal establishment's College Of Law.

END

END
Reference

Bizarre blog claims used to deny man right to practise law

Former Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak.

EXCLUSIVE
BEN BUTLER
BUSINESS REPORTER
12:00AM JANUARY 17, 2019
2 COMMENTS

The body overseen by Chief Justice Tom Bathurst responsible for deciding who can practise law in NSW relied on a wildly defamatory Malaysian blog depicting ABC journalists, former British prime minister Tony Blair, financier George Soros and others as part of a global conspiracy when deciding to deny a would-be solicitor a certificate to practise.

Chief Justice Bathurst and Legal Practitioner Admission Board executive officer Louise Pritchard declined to answer The Australian’s questions about how the article came into the board’s hands and why its members felt the conspiracy-laden material could be relied upon as part of a decision to deny Sydney man Ganesh Sahathevan admission as a lawyer. Nor would either say which of the 10 members of the LPAB, three of whom are serving NSW Supreme Court judges, was on the deciding panel.

Ms Pritchard has left her role at the LPAB since The Australian began making inquiries in September. The article, published in December 2017 on website The Third Force, accuses Mr Sahathevan of engaging in a conspiracy to attack then Malaysian prime minister Najib Razak.

Mahathir Mohamad, who returned as prime minister after toppling Mr Najib in elections held last May, is also smeared as a participant in the globe-spanning conspiracy.

Mr Najib was under pressure at the time over the country’s sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB, which the US Department of Justice says has been looted of billions of dollars that was spent on property, art, jewels and the Leonardo DiCaprio film, The Wolf of Wall Street.

Malaysian authorities have charged Mr Najib with dozens of corruption offences that could attract decades in jail over his role in the 1MDB scandal, which allegedly included the flow of about $US1 billion through his personal bank account.

The article’s author, Malaysian political operative and Najib loyalist Raggie Jessy, also accused Rewcastle-Brown, Stein and Besser of receiving money, totalling millions of dollars, to participate in a Four Corners program exposing the 1MDB scandal that aired on the ABC in March 2016.

There is no suggestion any of Mr Jessy’s bizarre allegations are true. However, the LPAB cited the piece when denying Mr Sahathevan admission as a lawyer in an undated and unsigned set of reasons sent to him on August 3 last year.

It used the article as evidence in a passage dealing with legal conflicts between Mr Sahathevan, who has largely worked in the past as a journalist, his former employer, Malaysia’s Sun Media Group, and the company’s owner, tycoon Vincent Tan.

In that context, the board said the Third Force article reported “that Mr Sahathevan was investigated for blackmail, extortion, bribery and defamation”. While the article claims that blackmail, extortion, bribery and defamation “are but some of the transgressions many from around the world attribute” to Mr Sahathevan, The Australian was unable to find any reference in it to an investigation into him on these grounds.

It is unclear why the board felt the need to rely on the article, as it also made adverse findings about Mr Sahathevan’s character based on a series of other allegations including that he used “threatening and intimidating” language in emails to the College of Law and the NSW Attorney General and did not disclose his sacking from a previous job to the board.

Mr Sahathevan has denied the allegations in correspondence with the board.

The board also cited evidence that one of Mr Sahathevan’s blogs on Malaysian politics was banned by the Najib regime as indicating his poor character.

In an email to Chief Justice Bathurst, sent on August 30, Rewcastle-Brown said her site, Sarawak Report, which exposed much of the 1MDB scandal, was banned by the Malaysian government.

“I along with other critics of the 1MDB scandal (which includes Mr Sahathevan) became the target of immense state-backed vilification, intimidation and online defamation campaigns on behalf of the Malaysian government,” she said.

She said the board’s use of the Third Force article against Mr Sahathevan displayed “a troubling level of misjudgment and poor quality research, giving a strong impression that someone seeking to find reasons to disqualify this candidate simply went through the internet looking for ‘dirt’ against him”.

“The Third Force has consistently been by far the most outlandish, libellous, vicious and frankly ludicrous of all the publications that were commissioned as part of former prime minister Najib Razak’s self-proclaimed ‘cyber army’ which he paid (and continues to pay) to defame his perceived enemies and critics,” she said.

Besser, who now works in the ABC’s London bureau, told The Australian: “It’s clearly nonsense and comes from the darkest corners of some pretty wild Malaysian conspiracy theorists.”

Mr Sahathevan’s application is to be reconsidered at an LPAB meeting next month (Admission has since been denied, for the same reasons, but without explicit reference to the Thirdforce story).

BUSINESS REPORTER

Business reporter Ben Butler has covered everything from tractors to fashion to corporate collapses. He has previously worked for the Herald Sun and as a senior business reporter with The Age and Sydney Morning... Read more

Jacinda Ardern's resignation an opportunity to lift her goofy ban on oil and gas exploration and production -New Zealand needs the cash, relying on Chinese money was never really an option

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Jacinda Ardern

Jacinda Ardern's resignation is an opportunity to lift her goofy ban on oil and gas exploration and production. On April 12, 2018 Ardern announced " a dramatic ban on future offshore oil exploration, saying the transition to a zero-carbon economy “must start somewhere”. Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges called the ban “a wrecking ball” for regional New Zealand.

A poor economy has led to poor polling. The Guardian reported in December last year:

Polling in early December showed that support for Labour had dropped to its lowest point since it came into power in 2017, and the party would not be able to form a government with its available coalition partners. Personal support for the prime minister had also dropped to its lowest level ever, with her approval rating at 29% compared with opposition leader Christopher Luxon’s at 23%.

Meanwhile, Ardern, like her compatriot Daneil Andrews of Victoria seemed to think that she could rely on Chinese investment and trade to finance her goofy ideas. In December 2022, just a month and a half before announcing her resignation, she announced her intention to lead a trade delegation to China.

Chinese investors are the largest foreign investors in primary products exports, waste management, electrical whiteware, and tourism infrastructure. That however has meant making equally goofy statements about China.

New Zealand has no choice but t to lift it oil and gas exploration ban. It then has to convince oil and gas companies that they can work its basins without the fear of another goofy, investment destroying intervention.

END

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Anthony Albanese, PM Australia said the Sun Cable project is an example of what he means when he says Australia can be a renewable energy superpower - Despite Sun Cable's collapse he continues to destroy Australia's coal, oil and gas industries that have earned billions in real export dollars

by Ganesh Sahathevan

At a press conference in Canberra on 18 October 2022, just three months before Sun Cable collapsed, Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister Of Australia, told Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister Of Singapore:

Sun Cable is just one part of what I talk about when I say Australia can be a renewable energy superpower for the world.

Albanese has not said anything about the impact Sun Cable's collapse will have on his plans to transform Australia into " a renewable energy superpower for the world".

Meanwhile he continues to destroy Australia's coal, oil and gas industries that have powered the country and earned billions in export dollars.

TO BE READ WITH

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

PM Albanese of Australia told PM Lee of Singapore that Sun Cable " is the ultimate win-win" just 3 months before Sun Cable collapsed - Australian media has never been shy to investigate and criticise Asian politicians and their fantasy projects, must now do the same to the their own Prime Minister who has misled Australians and Singaporeans

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Albanese tweeting a family photo with the Lees

At a press conference in Canberra on 18 October 2022 Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister Of Australia, told Lee Hsien Loong,Prime Minister Of Singapore:

Just under three months later the project collapsed, for some very obvious reasons( see story below).

Australian media must now do the same to the their own Prime Minister who has misled Australians and Singaporeans.

TO BE READ WITH

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Albanese's Sun Cable fantasy collapses - Albo must now explain why he misled Australians, and Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Albanese has used his position to promote Sun Cable, in Australia and overseas, despite Sun Cable having no power supply agreement with the Government Of Singapore.

All three, but in particular Albanese and Fyles, must now explain why they misled Australians, and account for all any government resources provided the project.

TO BE READ WITH

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-01-11/sun-cable-enters-administration/101845100

Monday, October 24, 2022

PM Lee Hsien Loong confronted with another Crooked Bridge dilemma. From the south, out of Australia, Australia's PM Albanese demands that Hsien Loong share his fantasy of a solar power cable connecting Singapore and Australia

by Ganesh Sahathevan

The crooked bridge project was mooted by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad before he retired as premier in 2003. PHOTO: GERBANG PERDANA

Hsien Loong said nothing in response, and that is to be expected for Hsien Loong, his government, and the relevant authorities have yet to provide Sun Cable any approvals whatsoever to Sun Cable:

Infrastructure Australia says Sun Cable's Darwin-Singapore solar cable qualifies for taxpayer funding, Singapore says Sun Cable does not have permission to import electricity into Singapore

END

realpolitikasia

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Albanese's Sun Cable fantasy collapses - Albo must now explain why he misled Australians, and Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong

Monday, October 24, 2022

PM Lee Hsien Loong confronted with another Crooked Bridge dilemma. From the south, out of Australia, Australia's PM Albanese demands that Hsien Loong share his fantasy of a solar power cable connecting Singapore and Australia

Infrastructure Australia says Sun Cable's Darwin-Singapore solar cable qualifies for taxpayer funding, Singapore says Sun Cable does not have permission to import electricity into Singapore

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Protection provided journalists,whistle blowers and sources by Carlovers v Sahathevan ,Bond v Barry undermined by NSW judicial body overseen by Chief Justice NSW, and AG Speakman

Bizarre blog claims used to deny man right to practise law

BEN BUTLER

READ NEXT

BEN BUTLER

Jacinda Ardern's resignation an opportunity to lift her goofy ban on oil and gas exploration and production -New Zealand needs the cash, relying on Chinese money was never really an option

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Anthony Albanese, PM Australia said the Sun Cable project is an example of what he means when he says Australia can be a renewable energy superpower - Despite Sun Cable's collapse he continues to destroy Australia's coal, oil and gas industries that have earned billions in real export dollars

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

Albanese's Sun Cable fantasy collapses - Albo must now explain why he misled Australians, and Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong

Monday, October 24, 2022

PM Lee Hsien Loong confronted with another Crooked Bridge dilemma. From the south, out of Australia, Australia's PM Albanese demands that Hsien Loong share his fantasy of a solar power cable connecting Singapore and Australia

Infrastructure Australia says Sun Cable's Darwin-Singapore solar cable qualifies for taxpayer funding, Singapore says Sun Cable does not have permission to import electricity into Singapore