Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Australian billionaires propose to do a Bakun where Olivia Lum failed: Twiggy & Canon-Brookes looking decidedly old school, taking after Ting Pek Khiing,and is PwC going to be answerable to investors in this remake of the mid-90s Bakun Undersea Cable disaster

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes' family investment firm, Grok Ventures, will help fund development of a solar-power link between the Northern Territory and Singapore.CREDIT:LOUIE DOUVIS

First the Sydney Morning Herald headline, which seems not to have made any impact in Singapore:

Billionaires invest in 'massive' solar farm to supply power to Singapore

Australian billionaires Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest have joined a capital raising of "tens of millions of dollars" to build a huge solar farm in Australia to supply electricity to Singapore.

David Griffin, chief executive of Sun Cable, did not disclose the total investment other than to say it was less than $50 million. Mr Cannon-Brookes and his wife, Annie, were "lead investors" with their family firm Grok Ventures, while Mr Forrest tipped in funds from his Squadron Energy company.

The over-subscribed raising marks the start of what could become a $22 billion plan to build the world's largest solar farm with a 10-gigawatt capacity covering 15,000 hectares near Tennant Creek in the NT, and a 22GW-hour storage plant.

The project would aim to supply competitively priced electricity to the Darwin region and to Singapore via a 4500-kilometre high-voltage cable.

All this brings to mind a slightly less ambitious plan from the mid 90s, which was even easier to fund, and finally died ten years ago despite valiant attempts by less than clean politicians to keep it alive:

RM10b bonds to fund cable project

Damned Corruption Began With Bakun

AND, Singapore's energy market is a tough one, even for local heroes like Olivia Lum, who has got badly burnt by an attempt to diversify into energy generation:

In 2017, Hyflux embarked on a divestment exercise of Tuaspring Integrated Water and Power Project - the company's largest asset - "in line with its asset light strategy", but was unable to finalise any binding bids.

It said that "despite strong initial interest in this project", losses from electricity generation, lack of understanding of Singapore power market by potential buyers and delayed regulatory approval led to "a protracted sale process"

PwC have led the fund raising for the Australian project, and one does wonder about their liability for promoting the project:

The Australia Singapore Power Link (ASPL) aims to supply renewable electricity from a 10GW solar farm to both Darwin and Singapore via a high voltage direct current transmission line – a plan first outlined by Beyond Zero Emissions in August, and which quickly attracted the attention of the likes of Cannon-Brookes.

According to a release from pWc, who guided the fund-raising process, the project will also include a massive 22GWh of battery storage located near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, with electricity supply transported by a high voltage direct current transmission network, extending 4,500 km from the project site.

END

Monday, November 18, 2019

George Brandis and Zhu Minshen's license to award LLB degrees: Brandis conduct in the matter of China's attempt to buy Ausgrid raises further questions about his dealings with Zhu Minshen, and the NSW LPAB's decision to grant Zhu and his Top Group that license.

by Ganesh Sahathevan

From left to right :Prof Eugene Clark, Hon George Brandis,
Dr Minshen Zhu

In May 2018 Peter Hartcher and the SMH reported with regards the the federal government's decision to veto the $10 billion sale of Ausgrid to a Chinese-dominated partnership in 2016:

In the inner sanctum of the cabinet's national security committee, there were some terse exchanges. The then secretary of the Defence Department, Dennis Richardson, emphatically rejected any suggestion that it was his department’s responsibility to police the critical infrastructure list.
The Treasury hosts the body that has to consider foreign buy-ins of any scale or sensitivity, the Foreign Investment Review Board, but the Treasury doesn’t manage the list of critical infrastructure. “Well,” Scott Morrison asked at one point, “Who is responsible for managing the critical infrastructure list?” He looked around the table, according to multiple people present at the time. It was not a secret. In fact, the public website of the Attorney-General’s Department stated that it was responsible for managing the list.

After a silence, when the attorney-general George Brandis said nothing, the secretary of his department, Chris Moraitis, spoke up: “We are.”

The above account of the conduct of George Brandis' ,who was then also in charge of ASIO is added to the issues raised by this writer in the article:

Top Group's LLB: Did ASIO warn its minister George Brandis, did Brandis, the NSW LPAB and Law Council Australia ignore ASIO

It does look as if Brandis, who is currently High Commissioner to the UK, has treated matters of national security as if he were in court, where one can always rely on silence to justify the argument that a decision of the court is valid regardless of the facts because the particular issue had not been plead.

Unfortunately, the real world and in particular national security cannot work that way.

Brandis must provide answers, as do the NSW LPAB , its chairman Tom Bathurst, and all others involved in granting Zhu Minshen his history making license.

END

Top Group's LLB: Did ASIO warn its minister George Brandis, did Brandis, the NSW LPAB and Law Council Australia ignore ASIO- Information from Chinese Government websites raises questions for which Dan Tehan must obtain answers.

by Ganesh Sahathevan

From left to right :Prof Eugene Clark, Hon George Brandis,
Dr Minshen Zhu

As reported on this blog yesterday:
Zhu Minshen's Law School Dean was a member of Law Council Australia's Legal Education Committee while "specially engaged by China 's "1000 Experts Project"

The Communist Party China's Central Organisation Department (COD) oversees the Thousand Talent ,or Thousand Expert Project which recruited Zhu Minshen's Law School Dean, Eugene Clark.

The COD has been described as a shadowy, secretive organisation that manages the Party and government.

Among the other China Government agencies involved in the 1000 Expert project are: -Ministry of Human Resources & Social Security -Central United Front Work Department -Ministry of Public Security -The Overseas Chinese Affairs Office - Central Committee of the Communist Youth League

The entry in any form by any one of the agencies named above,let alone collectively via a single vehicle into any Australian institution, and especially legal institutions, ought to have alerted ASIO, who ought to have then advised the Minister in charge, who in 2015 was the Attorney General George Brandis, of the threat.

If ASIO had been alert to the threat it is likely that it would have similarly advised the NSW Legal Profession Admission Board and the Law Council Of Australia. Alternatively it would have been Brandis' duty to do so, assuming that he had been properly advised.

Had they been advised, did they ignore the threat, and if so why? It now falls to Education Minister Dan Tehan to use his new powers to obtain answers; he may have to work with Peter Dutton and Home Affairs to do so, and the public have aright to be informed of his findings.

Eugene Clark receiving his 1000 Experts letter
of appointment

END

Thursday, November 14, 2019

New foreign interference laws may require Minister Tehan to apply his "blunt instruments" to Zhu Minshen's Top Group; investigation of regulators including the NSW LPAB must follow

by Ganesh Sahathevan

The AFR has reported that universities will be forced to take action over China ties:

The education minister (Dan Tehan) told universities he has ways of compelling them to take action on foreign interference, reinforcing comments he made earlier this week that he had "blunt instruments" to use if they didn't .
These include acting against a university through the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, which is the industry regulator, or writing new rules into individual
contracts each university has with government for funding.

Zhu Minshen's Top Group has a history of interference in local politics which is a matter of public record. As reported previously on this blog Zhu Minshen undermined an Australian Federal Police directive.

In his 2018 book "Silent Invasion" Professor Clive Hamilton reports that Top Education Group's Zhu Minshen organised students , including students from his Top Education Institute to protest against Tibetans at the 2008 rally , which counted towards the Top students’ assessment. Zhu’s Top Institution is “perhaps the only accredited degree program in Australia that counts agitating for a foreign power towards its qualifications.

He also describes how Zhu Minshen and his Top Education Institute(and other Chinese entities) interfere in Australian politics.The section on Zhu and Top begins :
"Few people noticed, but the fishy smell around Zhu Minshen's Top Education Institute was noticeable a few years before it began wafting from the front pages of the newspaper (such as the AFR in 2013)"

The donation scandal that Zhu was involved in has been complicated by the fact that Zhu made a series of donations to the NSW Liberals which coincided with the grant of his license to issue LLBs.

While these rules have only just been introduced, and while it is unlikely that the laws will apply retrospectively, the issue of Zhu Minshen's license to issue LLB's is an ongoing one that has been enabled by the NSW Legal Profession Board and its chairman the NSW Chief Justice Thomas Bathurst. The LPAB and the Chief Justice have refused to provide answers. Compounding the issue is a recent incident where the NSW LAPB and its chairman refused to investigate complaints from this writer against another institution under their purview, The College of Law,and instead attempted to discredit this writer's work on the 1MDB scandal. They relied on special powers granted law school principals which give them, and Zhu, the ability to determine arbitrarily who may practise law in NSW, and in Australia.

The history of secrecy and failure of regulation by the LPAB will require Tehan to apply his "blunt instruments" to both Top Group and its regulator, the LPAB.

Minister Tehan may not have contemplated an investigation into the NSW LPAB ,its chairman Tom Bathurst and the AG NSW Mark Speakman when his officers and he formulated the foreign interference laws. However, the conduct of these regulatory bodies makes the investigation necessary.

END

See Also

"The fishy smell around Zhu Minshen's Top Education Institute": Clive Hamilton's "Silent Invasion" raises questions for NSW AG Mark Speakman & the LPAB

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Zhu Minshen's Law School Dean was a member of Law Council Australia's Legal Education Committee while "specially engaged by China 's "1000 Experts Project"-Dan Tehan must demand answers,LCA,NSW LPAB do not enjoy immunity

by Ganesh Sahathevan

From left to right :Prof Eugene Clark, Hon George Brandis,
Dr Minshen Zhu

It has been previously shown on this blog that Top Group's market price collapse and China connections bring Zhu Minshen and his companies within the ambit of Minister for Education Dan Tehan's foreign influence laws.
It was also shown how NSW's Legal Profession Admission Board (LPAB) created the problem.

The LPAB has said in ts annual reports that it consulted with among others the Law Council Of Australia in deciding that Zhu Minshen's Top Group should be granted the first and only license to award LLB's issued to a private company that was not a public university.

It can now be shown that the Dean of the Law School at the relevant time, between 2012 and 2017, one Eugene Clark, was a member of the Law Council Australia's Legal Education Committee when "acting as a specially-engaged professor under "1000 Experts Project".

The 1000 Experts Project appears to be a Party China soft power initiative aimed at influencing foreign governments and institutions, and at gathering intelligence.

That Clark was a member of the Law Council Australia's Legal Education Committee at the time, in and around 2015, when the Law Council and the LPAB where evaluating Top Group's history making application raises many questions about the conduct of the LPAB and LCA, which the Minister For Education Dan Tehan must discover, and make public.The LPAB and its chairman enjoy no immunity from such inquiries even though the Chairman of the LPAB is the Chief Justice; these are two separate hats worn by the same person, they do not enjoy the same privileges.
END

News

Mr. Edward Eugene Clark Specially-Engaged as CUPL Guest Professor

On the afternoon of September 28, 2015, our university held a farewell party for Professor Edward Eugene Clark as the first specially-engaged professor under "the Recruitment Program of Global Experts (1000 Experts Project)." At the party, the university also appointed him as a guest professor. CUPL President Huang Jin attended this send-off party and presented the Letter of Appointment to Prof. Edward Eugene on behalf of CUPL.

Professor Edward Eugene Clark previously served as the Dean of five law schools in the United States, Australia and other countries respectively, and was the former Deputy Vice-Chancellor of University of Canberra (UC), Australia. He was the first recipient of “the Prime Minister’s Award for Australian University Teacher of the Year”. ProfessorE dward Clark is an eminent scholar with rich teaching and management experience, as well as fruitful scientific research achievements. In September 2012, as our first specially-engaged professor under the "1000 Experts Project", he embarked on his new career of teaching and researching in the CUPL College of Comparative Law for the following three years.

During his tenure in office at CUPL, Professor Eugene Clark continued his excellent work. He delivered lectures on interesting topics, including “The E-commerce Law”, “Internet Law, Policy and Practice”, which were widely welcomed by our undergraduates and graduate students.He published six monographs and seven treatises, while serving as the editor for four authoritative journals. And as a specially-engaged professor of CUPL, he was invited to be a columnist for a notable Chinese website (China.org.cn). The number of articles he published on that website exceeded 150, some of which were reprinted and quoted by Chinese and overseas media, and stimulated widespread discussions in related fields. When acting as a specially-engaged professor under "1000 Experts Project" in CUPL, he was also appointed as a member of the Legal Education Committee under Law Council of Australia, and visited the United States, Austria, Australia as well as other countries to attend high-end international conferences and deliver keynote speeches.

Friday, November 15, 2019

Why Top Group's market price collapse and China connections bring Zhu Minshen & co within the ambit of Minister Tehan's foreign influence laws (and how NSW's LPAB created the problem)

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan. Source: AAP.The Minister seems to have discovered that Australian universities have

become too addicted to Chinese money

While Zhu Minshen's Top Education Group Ltd is an Australian incorporated company it is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and its controlling shareholders , Zhu Minshen and Amen Lee, are Chinese citizens (who may also be Australian citizens or residents).Top's share market price collapsed after it was listed, and its share price remains flat (see story below).

Top's capital structure viewed as a whole and its share market performance suggest that it is a company reliant on Chinese and Hong Kong capital which happens to be incorporated in Australia. Considering it an Australian company for the purpose of Australia's foreign interference laws is overly simplistic, a case of placing legal form over substance.

Despite that substance the NSW Legal Profession Admission Board, which is chaired by the Chief Justice Of NSW Tom Bathurst and overseen by the Attorney General NSW Mark Speakman SC,decided to issue the company the first and only license to award LLBs issued a non=public university. The fact that Top Group is in substance a Chinese company makes the LPAB's decision a double first; no foreign entity has ever been allowed to award LLB's in Australia, nor has that privilege been extended private companies.

There are good reasons for limiting the right to award LLBs to public universities.LLBs can lead a career as a barrister and solicitor, an officer of the Court,and law school principals are given special powers under law to effectively veto any law graduates application to be admitted to practise for reasons that can be kept confidential.

The NSW LPAB has created a situation where a foreign entity can interfere with and influence Australia's judicial system.

That entity has shown a willingness to further the cause of the Peoples Republic Of China and the Communist Party Of China even if it means defying law enforcement agencies, a fact that the NSW LPAB seems happy to ignore. Indeed, the NSW LPAB and its chairman consider themselves skilled in international affairs.

As previously reported, Minister Tehan's blunt instruments will have to be applied to the NSW LPAB , and the senior lawyers who comprise it, including its chairman, the Chief Justice Of NSW Tom Bathurst.

END

Top Group IPO a classic case of license trading: Post IPO spike & collapse in market cap raises obvious questions about any political party beneficiaries ,but Peter Hall & ICAC not interested

by Ganesh Sahathevan

The graph above shows the movements in Zhu Minshen's Top Group's share price since its IPO and listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

It is easy to see that there was an initial spike after which share price and market capitalisation collapsed.

Anyone familiar with Asian markets will see that the Top Group listing and movement in share price follows the well trodden path of companies that list as soon as hard to get approvals are obtained and then sold via an IPO. In the case of Top Group the relevant approval was the "first and only" license to grant Australian law degrees granted a private company, granted by the NSW Legal Profession Admission Board,after consultation with the Law Council Australia.

It has already been shown on this blog that the granting of that license coincided with donations from Top and Zhu to the NSW Liberal Party. Consequently a inquiry into who the beneficiaries of the IPO were seems a logical step for an inquiry into political donations in NSW, but not it seems for Peter Hall QC and ICAC.

See
Peter Hall QC and ICAC have been provided information about Top Group by Dr Amen Lee, but ICAC will still not call Zhu Minshen

AND

TOP Education Institute's Bachelor of Laws : Political donations,HK Stock Exchange IPO seem to have left regulators confounded, speechless

END

Husband & wife concern China Matters blames media for China's rejection of Andrew Hastie and James Patterson

by Ganesh Sahathevan

China Matters implies that media were responsible for Andrew Hastie and James Patterson being told they not welcome by the Chinese Government:

It is most unfortunate that the names of the politicians who had accepted our invitation to join the study tour in December became public in advance (“Outspoken China critic Andrew Hastie to visit Asian superpower on parliamentary fact-finding mission. Enter the Dragon.” West Australian 23 Oct 2019). We believe that these politicians accepted our invitation in good faith with the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of the PRC and of sharing their views with PRC interlocutors. Disappointingly, the media attention that ensued created an environment which was no longer conducive to our goal of facilitating low-key discussions and exchanging differing points of view behind closed doors. A guiding principle of these study tours has been that one publicly shares one’s study tour experiences upon return to Australia.

China Matters's states that since its inception it has strived to bring nuance into discussions about the PRC in Australia.The above however provides further evidence that this outfit ought not to be taken seriously, and ought to be considered nothing more than a PR or advertising outfit with pretensions of grandeur on the international stage.

END

SEE ALSO

Monday, October 28, 2019

Husband & wife concern "China Matters" would not be taken seriously in Asia, but in Australia it has high level government support- Australian policy makers have clearly not heard of Lee Kuan Yew's Suzhou Experience

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Late Lee Kuan Yew inspecting the construction of the Suzhou Industrial Park

Australia's Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen has proudly declared on his website:

Today I’m leaving on a 4 day trip to Beijing, China to discuss a range of economic matters.

Over the course if the trip I am meeting with a range of academics, China policy specialists and representatives from global international organisations such as the International Monetary Fund.

This includes meetings with Jia Qingguo, Professor and Dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University and Dr Chu Shulong, a US-China relations policy expert.

I will also participate in a Roundtable on China’s international outlook, hosted by Dr Wang Huiyao, Founder and President of Centre for China and Globalization, the largest independent global think tank in China,

The trip is sponsored by the public policy initiative “China Matters” and I will be accompanied by the founding director and Chief Executive Officer of China Matters, Linda Jakobson.

China Matters appears to be a family affair. Its website is registered in the name of one Chris Lintz (see record below) who states on his Linkedin profile:

Currently assisting my wife Linda Jakobson with her public policy initiative China Matters Ltd. Please see www.chinamatters.org.au for more details.

Specialties: China representative office management and establishment of representative offices in China. Fluent in Chinese (Mandarin). Extensive knowledge of China's machinery industry and oil & gas industries; industrial standards in China for the machinery industry, oil & gas industry and power sector (including nuclear).

Ms Jakobson's views on business with China are in the usual "must do more to trade with China, and must understand China better to ensure Australian commercial prosperity".

Some examples:

......Australians are missing opportunities because of reluctance to invest in China. Despite the fact that the consequences of China’s economic transformation have been apparent for a decade, Australia’s economic relationship with China continues to be largely transactional (resources or food products are shipped to China). Xi Jinping’s reforms merely reinforced goals set by his predecessor: to make growth consumption-driven rather than investment-led and reliant on the services sector rather than manufacturing. The overwhelming majority of Australia’s GDP derives from the services sector, but services only comprise about 20% of Australia’s exports

These views would be treated with derision by most Asian businessmen(many of them ethnic Chinese from Malaysia, Singapore)who have been venturing into China since at least the mid-90s. Their experiences have not been happy, and many would not today consider that they are "missing opportunities because of reluctance to invest in China'". Lee Kuan Yew's Suzhou Industrial Park was one of the most high profile examples of why any business would prefer to forego these "opportunities".

It is strange that the likes of Chris Bowen and other policy makers would rather ignore LKY's experience and choose instead the guidance of consultants like "China Matters" when it should be obvious that profit seeking businessmen gambling their own money are likely to have better intelligence of these missed "opportunities".
END

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Thursday, November 14, 2019

New foreign interference laws may require Minister Tehan to apply his "blunt instruments" to Zhu Minshen's Top Group; investigation of regulators including the NSW LPAB must follow

"The fishy smell around Zhu Minshen's Top Education Institute": Clive Hamilton's "Silent Invasion" raises questions for NSW AG Mark Speakman & the LPAB