Australia's PM Anthony Albanese gives up (quietly) his fantasy of cheap, reliable wind and solar, instead promises ongoing household energy bill rebates to subsidise wind and solar-Meanwhile Singapore 's Tan See Leng continues to look forward to cheap Australian solar power , shipped over to Singapore via a 3000 KM undersea cable

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promises ongoing household energy rebates, and no longer promises reliable wind and solar as he did when campaigning three years ago.

Meanwhile Singapore  Minister Tan See Leng continues to look forward to cheap solar, shipped over to Singapore via a 3000 KM undersea cable to keep energy cheap and clean. 

TO BE READ WITH 

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Australia could not keep the lights on in Broken Hill, population 17,624, despite the town having solar, wind and a huge battery-How then does Singapore (pop 5.5 Million) expect SunCable and its 3000KM undersea cable to power Singapore and be "a meaningful complement to the Asean Power Grid"

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

                                             

See first the above  about blackouts in the well known small town of Broken Hill, which is small even by Singapore standards.

In light of the above read on this earlier post:

Friday, October 25, 2024

ASEAN Power Grid agreements do not include Australia- Singapore's declaration that Sun Cable will be "a meaningful complement to the Asean Power Grid" meaningless

 by Ganesh Sahathevan

                Singapore aspires to become Asia's renewable energy hub:Nikkei Asia

The Edge reported , quoting Singapore's Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng: 

Singapore’s Energy Market Authority (EMA) has granted conditional approval to Sun Cable to import 1.75 gigawatts (GW) of low-carbon electricity from Australia’s Northern Territory to Singapore, says Minister for Manpower and Second Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng.

Sun Cable’s US$24 billion ($31.6 billion) Australia-Asia Power Link (AAPowerLink) project involves laying a 4,300km subsea power cable connecting a solar farm in Australia’s Northern Territory to Singapore via Indonesian waters.


Considering the scale and distance of the project, Tan expects the Sun Cable project to only come online after 2035. “When completed, the project will be a meaningful complement to the Asean Power Grid and it will serve as an additional source of low-carbon electricity for Singapore.”

Minister Tan's ambition for Sun Cable to be a "a meaningful complement to the Asean Power Grid" is admirable and it is in keeping with his Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's ambition  for Singapore to be a renewable energy hub.

However the ASEAN Power Grid agreement does not provide  Australia to be part of the Grid.   Typical of ASEAN it has taken 15 years between the signing of the ASEAN Power Grid agreement in 2009 and the   ASEAN Power Grid Advancement Programme (APG-AP), which is likely to be a series of further talks which will see little if anything being actually done. In any case, none of this involves Australia. 

Singapore's declaration that Sun Cable will  be "a meaningful complement to the Asean Power Grid" is in fact meaningless, and it is hard to see why Minister Tan See Leng has chosen to make his unillateral declaration including Australia in the ASEAN Power Grid.

END 

Recovery of tax payer funded FEE HELP from the College Of Law Australia can begin with the Commonwealth clawing back all funding provided the College Of Law for its now worthless PLT,and then cancelling PLT course debt

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

The College Of Law Australia's reliance on tax payer funded FEE HELP to finance its PLT course  has been shown to be a wasteful use of limited Commonwealth resources and now that Andrew Bell, the Chief Justice NSW has condemn the College Of Law PLT  (see story below)  it would be unfair  that those who have undertaken the PLT bear any FEE HELP debt associated with that PLT.

Given the Chief Justice's comments the Commonwealth ought to claw back all FEE HELP funding provided the College for its PLT and having done so, cancel the  FEE HELP debt of students who have incurred that debt as a result of having to fund the PLT.  The Chief Justice himself has declared the College Of Law PLT overpriced so students did not really have a choice but to suffer the  debt.

Saturday, February 15, 2025

The Chief Justice NSW Andrew Bell's public condemnation of the College Of Law PLT provides an avenue for PLT students to seek a refund -PLT course and certificate are worthless without the Chief Justice's imprimatur

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

                         Andrew Bell has been described as ‘one of the most brilliant in a generation’

The College of Law Australia's  Practical Legal Training (PLT) course  has been condemned  by the  Chief Justice NSW Andrew Bell, for offering a PLT course that is not worth the money. Bell has now embarked on a campaign to reform the PLT. 

Bell is not only Chief Justice but also chairman of he MSW Legal Profession Admission Board that accredits  the College as a PLT provider so it is not surprising that Bell's outburst has caused others to offer their own frank assessment of the College's PLT.

According to Maxim Shanahan of the Australian Financial Review:

Senior practitioners and recent graduates from the 15-week practical legal training course, which requires only five days of in-person attendance and is taught mostly online, criticised its lack of rigour and utility.

They acknowledged a normalisation of cheating by sharing past answers to recycled exam questions and deploying ChatGPT to generate responses.


One junior lawyer, who completed the course last year and now works in the public sector, said prior fees of up to $12,000 were “transparently extortionate, and everyone knows that’s going in. It’s a necessary prerequisite for admission, and students know they won’t gain anything from it”.


“I didn’t feel like I was getting value for money once. Coming from university where academic rigour was held in high regard, to be paying for mundane and reductive online tasks felt like a slap in the face. In order to justify that price, the standard should be a lot higher,” said the lawyer, who asked for anonymity to speak more freely. 

Another junior lawyer, who paid for the course themselves and now works at a community legal centre, said staff did little to combat students’ dim view of the course.

“There’s kind of this unspoken vibe between teachers and students that it’s all pretty bullshit,” they said.

“Written assessments follow the same formula for every subject … but no one puts any effort into them. People either copy someone else’s [answers] or use ChatGPT.

“You can upload the course documents to ChatGPT and ask it to write a letter of advice. I did that and passed everything.”

In light of the above PLT graduates have now a certificate that cannot be said to add anything to their professional standing and if anything embarrasses them. It follows that PLT graduates and students are entitled to recovery of their fees.The College should in fact be providing past and current students with proposals for refund of fees paid for services that were obviously not of the standard promised. Failure to do so, very soon, can be remedied by a class action. 

Complaints about the College's PLT are not new, but the College and its senior managers have always enjoyed the protection of their Chief Justice, which has allowed them to act with impunity.

TO BE READ WITH 

Government funding for the College Of Law PLT where students are assessed on the quality of their reflection on their work experience , not the quality of their work experience

February 02, 2022

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

The above has been extracted from the latest College Of Law Ltd's annual report. The substantial government funding is provided via the Commonwealth's FEE HELP facility. 

The Practical Legal Training (PLT)  which the College runs, and which is a prerequisite for admission to practise  in NSW, has the imprimatur  of the Chief Justice NSW, Tom Bathurst, in his capacity as Chairman of the the NSW Legal Profession Admission Board. 

College Academic Director Lewis Patrick has said that in assessing the work experience component of the PLT  " the College is not assessing the quality of (the student's) work experience, but rather the quality of (the student's) reflections on that experience.

The College's PLT course is now mostly on-line, and there are problems with delivery and infrastructure. Its FEE HELP cashflow is being utilised to finance its expansion overseas.

TO BE READ WITH 

Failed in KL try London: The College Of Law's latest overseas venture raises further questions about the abuse of FEE HELP to fund vanity projects 

by Ganesh Sahathevan





Very many questions remain unanswered with regards the College Of Law's joint venture with Malaysia's Bar Council.





UK's The Lawyer reported recently that the College Of Law Sydney has decided to break into the UK market, to"battle BPP and ULaw for super-exam supremacy".


Quoting College CEO Neville Carter The Lawyer reported:
“The hallmark of the Australian model is delivery of learning directly into the workplace within a very flexible framework of work placement. The model drives access to the legal services market and fuels the growth of employment opportunities. We believe that the reforms in England and Wales provide an opportunity for us to share what we have learnt in Australia and across Asia and assist in shaping new models and pathways in England and Wales.”


Carter has yet to explain his exaggerated claims of having reformed Malaysian legal practise in the mid 80s; in fact the College's latest venture into Malaysia seems to have ended in failure, again leaving many unanswered questions.
The College has refused to explain why its website dedicated to its "LLM" in Malaysia no loner works, nor has it been replaced with anything similar.

As previously reported, the College seems to have a tendency to invest its mainly government funded revenue in vanity projects in  exotic locations at the expense of its core business of providing the Professional Legal Training course that must be completed by anyone seeking admission to practise in NSW. 

Complaints against the College are ignored by its regulator, the NSW Legal Profession Admission Board, which is chaired by the Chief Justice of NSW,who considers it the height of bad behaviour to question the relevance and  quality of the College's teaching standards, despite students here having to normally take on a debt of about AUD 10,000 to pay for about 3 months worth of on-line learning, most of which is self taught with minimal input from instructors.
END 

Posted 13th December 2019 by Ganesh Sahathevan

Collapse of "College Of Law Asia" a matter that concerns the conduct of Singapore International Commercial Court International Judge Thomas Bathurst, who as regulator refused to act on information about the College's misconduct in Singapore ,Malaysia, ASEAN

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

The "College Of Law Asia" which used to reside virtually at https://www.collaw.edu.au/collegeinasia is now no longer in existence, even virtually. Readers will recall that there was good reason to doubt if it ever existed, despite The College Of Law Australia advertising it, or using it as a vehicle, for its scandalous attempt to recruit students in Malaysia, Singapore and the rest  of ASEAN.

Readers will also recall that the NSW Legal Profession Admission Board, then chaired by Tom Bathurst who as  Chief Justice NSW at the relevant time, refused to act on information about the College and its officers misconduct  in Malaysia and Singapore. Bathurst chose instead to discredit the information.

Bathurst has since retired as chief justice NSW and has been appointed  an international judge  o of the Singapore  International  Commercial Court . His conduct as Chairman NSW LPAB in the matter of The College Of Law will have adverse consequences for anyone in Singapore, Malaysia and the rest of ASEAN who has placed any reliance on the College Of Law's false claims made when building its ultimately failed business in the region. 

TO READ WITH 

Wednesday, October 4, 2023

College Of Law Sydney shuttered Malaysian office after questions were raised about legality of its Malaysian business - NSW LPAB attempted to conceal College's misconduct in Malaysia from being brought to the attention of the AG's Chambers Malaysia

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

 

On or around mid June 2019 the College Of Law's Director in Kuala Lumpur, Peter Tritt  was reminded this writer via email copied to oher Malaysian journalists that he, the College Of Law, and  the "College of Law Asia Pacific"  had provided no clarification of what seemed, from their own records, a failure to comply with Malaysia's laws while operating their business in Malaysia. 


In an entry on its website (since removed) the College Of Law stated:


The College of Law Asia-Pacific and its Director, Peter Tritt, is based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The College of Law Asia-Pacific was established in 2016 to expand the College's operations into Asia, with a special focus on the new ASEAN Economic Community.


The College of Law Asia Pacific was  not merely a representative office. The offered courses in Malaysia in collaboration with its local partner, the Bar Council Malaysia. These courses included the LLM Malaysian Legal Practice.

 

The laws of Malaysia however required then and   now thata foreign company must either incorporate a local subsidiary or register as aforeign company. .

The College Of Law, led by CEO Neville Carter had done none fo that , and its "College Of Law Asia Pacific" has been shown to be non-existent.

Shortly after the query was sent College Of Law shuttered its Malaysian operations and its Peter Tritt disappeared (see story below).

The NSW LPAP was made aware of the matter, but did nothing. Instead it let it be known in writing  that it disapproved of this writer  bringing the matters above to the Attorney General's Chambers Malaysia. 

TO BE READ WITH 

Bar Council education ‘JV’ must be clarified

 

 Editor   July 19, 2019

The crest has not been used before to promote a course of study, and queries put to Bar Council President Fareed Gafoor about the use of the crest have been acknowledged but remain unanswered.

NMT has however sighted an email from Fareed dated Friday, May 24, 2019 with regards the LLM and the use of the crest where he states:

Dear Rajen,

We can’t remain silent on this.

Abdul Fareed Bin Abdul Gafoor

Sent from my iPad

It is understood that “Rajen” refers to  Rajen Devaraj, Chief Executive Officer of the Bar Council Secretariat in Kuala Lumpur.

The Bar has remained silent for nearly 2 months since.

Key person suddenly retired during extensive query

The College of Law used to be represented in Malaysia by its Director, Peter Tritt. Tritt have been queried extensively about the LLM and about the College’s business in Malaysia but has refused to provide answers. Tritt has been based in Kuala Lumpur since 2017 but announced on Friday that he had “retired” from the College on 30 June 2019.

It is understood that Tritt has forwarded queries sent him to his head office in Sydney and hence it appears that Tritt is under orders from his Chief Executive, Neville Carter, to remain silent.

Questionable advertising claims?

In advertising on the College’s website Carter has claimed that he had established a Professional Legal Training course for Malaysian Law students seeking admission to practise in Malaysia. There seems to be no evidence of such a course, or of any national level training course for the existing Certificate of Legal Practise.

Carter has also claimed to have produced the “inaugural” Handbook in Legal Practise for Malaysia, in the late 80s. A search of the main law libraries in Malaysia directed by the Chief Registrar, Federal Court Malaysia, has not found any such handbook.

He has also claimed to have, during that time to have identified and addressed “gaps” in Malaysian legal practise, but not even those in practice during that period and since have ever heard of him. Nor are senior practitioners aware of  “gaps” that needed that to be addressed by external consultants.

As CEO of the College Carter  has ultimate responsibility for the College’s Malaysian operation headed by Tritt and variously named the “College Of Law Asia Pacific” and the “College Of Law Asia”. A search by NMT has not revealed any entities registered under those names in Malaysia or in Australia, not even a foreign entities registered to conduct business in Malaysia.

Meanwhile the College, in collaboration with the Bar Council continues to sell its LLM and other courses in Malaysia, deriving a fee income from Malaysian courses.

-NMT

President Whipps Of Palau makes the connection between transnational crime and likely initiatives to destabilise his country's government.

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

                                                                            

President Of Palau Surangel Whipps makes the connection between transnational crime and likely initiatives to destabilise his country's government.

Listen to the question and Whipps response at 1:00:00 to 1:30:00 .

Then listen to the 10 minutes prior to his response,and the Q&A about China and the Pacific.

It follows that Whipps means that the Communist Party China and its agents are deploying criminal syndicates to undermine Palau.

That should not surprise anyone who has an understanding of how the Communist Party China used criminal gangs to undermine the governments of Malaya, then Malaysia, and Singapore, especially during the tumultuous 60s.

PwC Australia sells its Top Group IPO shares to Top Group- Curious transaction adds to PwC's FCPA issues, and adds to suspicion surrounding Australian regulators NSW LPAB and TEQSA's conduct in granting Top its license to award Australian law degrees

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

Extract from a recent  Top Education Group Ltd (HKEX 1752) HKSE announcement: 

TO BE READ WITH 

realpolitikasia

Monday, August 12, 2024

PwC may have a FCPA problem - The Communist Party China linked Top Group investment by PwC Australia and its partners can have consequences under US law

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

FCPA

Like many other of the Big 4 accounting firms PwC which has its headquarters in the United States, structures itself in a way  that allows the firm to claim worldwide reach, but where national firms can claim to be independent of each other. KPMG tried that during the 1MDB  kleptocracy investigation , and PwC seems to be attempting the same to avoid any connection to the Australian tax scandal involving a number of Australian partners.  The revelation that the newly appointed CEO Kevin Burrowes received undisclosed payments from PwC International further complicates the effort.

 

 In the course of the media's investigation into PwC's tax scandal the ABC's Investigation Unit discovered that PwC and a number of its partners had acquired IPO shares in Top Education Group Ltd, an Australian company that was sought and was listed on the HKEX. Top was listed in early 2018, in what appears to have been a ramp and dump of the type known to attract the attention of Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). 

 

Top Group's listing was made possible only as a result of the company being granted what remains the first and only license to grant law degrees. The license was granted by the NSW Legal Profession Admission Board, at  a point which coincided with donations from that company, and its then owner, Zhu Minshen, to the NSW Liberal Party. Zhu Minshen has since passed away, but in 2016, just two years prior to the IPO, and 3 years before his license to grant law degrees was renewed, Zhu's role in influence peddling on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party was given a very public airing.

The chairman of the NSW Legal Profession Admission Board at all relevant times was the then Chief Justice Of NSW, Tom Bathurst AC KC, who has been recently appointed by Kevin Brookes to oversee his review of PwC's processes, which is supposed to address  the  failings in governance that led to the tax scandal.

 

The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act   has broad application . PwC's attempts to distance itself from the tax scandal of its Australian operations do not appear to working, and the Top Group affair, condemned by Australia's Minister For Education Jason Clare involves  Australian public officials at very many levels of government.

END

Roger Ng and children designated politically exposed persons given Communist Party China links , but what about Beau Kuok and the CPC's United Front Work Department

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

As previously reported on this blog  Beau, son of Robert Kuok, attended a  United Front Work Department Of Communist Party China Central Committee exclusive meeting in December 2018, as an "overseas Chinese representative".

Robert Kuok's China connections are well known (he has declared that "it is in the marrow of his bones to help China), and Beau heads the Kuok Group. The Group's interest in Singapore include data centres. The Kuok's are arguably a greater security concern than the Ngs, whose interests are primarily in hotels,and who have been designated politically exposed persons given their Communist Party China links.

TO BE READ WITH 

https://x.com/alexjoske/status/1085000990682578944

https://x.com/alexjoske/status/1085000990682578944

Singapore family that controls Fullerton Hotel at Martin Place GPO designated 'politically significant persons' under Singapore's foreign interference law given Communist Party China links - Australian authorities silent, as usual

 by Ganesh Sahathevan

Leading members of the  Ng family of  Singapore family that controls the  Fullerton Hotel that is located within the  Martin Place GPO  have been    designated 'politically significant persons' under Singapore's  foreign interference law given Communist Party China links .  Australia  has similar laws , but the Australian authorities remain silent. 


Roger Ng and his children who control Sino Group declared, on the opening of the Fullerton Sydney: 

'We are excited to open The Fullerton Hotel Sydney, housed in an icon steeped in history and dear to the Sydney community, it weaves the past and present together. Our vision for the 416-room hotel is simple: to deliver a unique, exquisite hotel that is synonymous with warm hospitality and one-of-a-kind flair to make guests' stays more memorable. We seek to provide guests and visitors with signature services as they create their own memories, while showcasing the beauty and heritage of the former Sydney GPO building to a wider audience nationally and globally,' remarks Mr Daryl Ng, Deputy Chairman of Sino Group.

Australia established a Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme   in 2019 but little seems to have been done to enforce the Scheme.

To Be Read With 

Singapore tycoon Robert Ng, 3 children to be designated 'politically significant persons' under foreign interference law over links to China body


The property billionaire and his children - all Singaporeans - hold positions in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, or CPPCC.


(Clockwise from top left) Robert Ng Chee Siong, Daryl Ng Win Kong, David Ng Win Loong and Nikki Ng Mien Hua. (Images: Temasek, LinkedIn/Daryl Ng, David Ng, Nikki Ng)


Listen
5 min



Ang Hwee Min
07 Apr 2025 06:00PM(Updated: 07 Apr 2025 07:16PM)
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Read a summary of this article on FAST.

FAST


SINGAPORE: Four members of one of Singapore's richest families will be designated as "politically significant persons" under a law to counter foreign interference, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said on Monday (Apr 7).

Sino Group chairman Robert Ng and three of his children – Mr Daryl Ng, Ms Nikki Ng and Mr David Ng – declared to the Registry of Foreign and Political Disclosures in 2024 that they were members of a foreign legislature or foreign political organisation.



Based on their memberships, the registrar assessed that they should be designated as "politically significant persons" under Section 48(1) of the Foreign Interference (Countermeasures) Act, or FICA.

Enacted in 2021, the law contains "countermeasures to prevent, detect and disrupt foreign interference in (Singapore's) domestic politics", according to MHA.

Checks by CNA showed that the four individuals hold positions in the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), China's top political advisory body.

Unlike the National People’s Congress, the CPPCC has no lawmaking powers, but its suggestions can influence policymaking.

Mr Ng and his children were served notices on Apr 7, said MHA.



"To be clear, the intended designations of the four individuals are not because they have engaged in any egregious activity," the ministry said in a press release.
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Mr Robert Ng and his children declared their involvement shortly before Mar 1, 2024, which was the deadline for Singapore citizens to declare their memberships with foreign legislatures or foreign political organisations.

Singaporeans who were already members before Feb 1, 2024, had to do so by Mar 1 that year.

"We took some time to carefully assess the declarations thereafter, to determine if they crossed the thresholds for designation," said MHA in response to CNA queries.

"Politically significant persons" can include political parties, political office holders, Members of Parliament, election candidates and their election agents.

As a designated politically significant person, they must disclose to the registrar annually political donations of S$10,000 (US$7,400) or more that they receive and accept. They also have to disclose their foreign affiliations and migration benefits.

As of Mar 31, seven Singaporeans have declared their memberships in foreign legislatures or foreign political organisations, MHA said.
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Of the seven individuals who made declarations, the ministry has only issued the notices to the four members of the Ng family, it added.

Mr Robert Ng, 72, is chairman of Sino Group, one of Hong Kong’s leading property developers with interests in residential, commercial, hospitality and retail real estate.

He is the eldest son of the late tycoon Ng Teng Fong and, together with his brother Philip Ng, controls Far East Organization - Singapore’s largest private property developer and landlord.
CPPCC POSITIONS

According to his profile on Sino Group's website, he has been a member of the National Committee of the CPPCC, serving as deputy director of the committee for economic affairs.

A press release by the Hong Kong government dated Mar 17, 2023, confirmed that he is a member of the Hong Kong government's Chief Executive’s Council of Advisers. He is also vice-chairman of the China Overseas Friendship Association.
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Mr Daryl Ng, Ms Nikki Ng and Mr David Ng are the deputy chairman, a non-executive director and group associate director at Sino Group respectively.

According to his online profiles, Mr Daryl Ng has been a member of the Sichuan Committee and Beijing Municipal Committee of the CPPCC, as well as a committee member of the All-China Youth Federation.

Mr Robert Ng's eldest son is also the president of the Hong Kong United Youth Association and chairman of the Hong Kong-ASEAN Foundation. He previously served on the board of Singapore's National Heritage Board.

Ms Nikki Ng has been a member of the Shanghai Committee of the CPPCC, according to her company profile.

According to an online news article by Hong Kong-based newspaper Ta Kung Pao, Mr David Ng has been a member of the Fujian Provincial Committee of the CPPCC.

This is the second time MHA has announced its intention to designate individuals under FICA provisions. The first person to be served this notice was Singaporean businessman Philip Chan Man Ping, who later received the designation on Feb 26, 2024.
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At the time of his designation, Mr Chan - who immigrated from Hong Kong and eventually became a Singapore citizen - was known to be associated with the CPPCC. He was also involved in grassroots and fundraising efforts in Singapore for over a decade.

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