The man behind the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) of 20 December 2015 was the Liberal Party’s Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb.
By February 11, 2016 (just eight weeks later) Robb resigned from government and parliament to join US investment bank Moelis & Company, continuing to make deals with China but on a much bigger six figure salary. Robb’s job is to lobby Australian MPs to get Chinese companies into the Australian market, and Moelis says it has about $1 billion in funds to facilitate. Robb will get commissions on each ‘deal’.
Remember that Robb while MP, was an early voice calling for Australia to join the Chinese-led, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and at one stage even called for a review of the ban on Chinese spy telecommunications firm, Huawei, bidding for federal government contracts.
“Moelis provides me with an outstanding global platform to continue my passion of building business connections between Australia, China and other Asian countries,” Mr Robb said in a statement.
Robb was a minister when the government encouraged states and territories to sell and lease assets, and defended the Darwin lease to Landbridge in December 2015. Since joining Moelis, Robb has been consulting with Chinese state-owed Landbridge Group, that now controls Darwin Port for the next 99 years, raising serious concerns about our national security and conflict of interest.
Australia Defence Association (ADA) executive director Neil James questioned whether Robb should have taken the job, given that Navy and Border Force ships use the area leased by the Chinese company.
“There are some obvious concerns because this is a controversial lease in national security terms,” Mr James said. “We’re not saying that he’s likely to disclose any classified information to the Chinese, but it places him in an invidious position where sometimes information or background knowledge might be passed on by accident.”
So how much was Robb bribed by the Chinese while a minister in the Australian Government? Receiving dodgy donations from China is Liberal Party business practice, just like how Labor and the unions and their corrupt slush funds. Foreign bribery of Australian politicians is par for the course.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop knows all about Chinese donations to the Western Australian Liberal Party, otherwise known as Parakeelia money laundering.
Some $5.5 million in donations between 2013 and 2015 alone. Chinese businessman Huang Changran has donated $1.9 million to the Labor and Liberal Parties since 2012. He also employed former NSW Treasurer Eric Roozendaal when he left Parliament in 2013.
It is an obvious bribe when Andrew Robb is getting a big fat donation off the Chinese the same day he signs a trade deal with them on behalf of Australia. So it seems Andrew Robb was bribed by the Chinese to commit treason. In past eras we’d have hanged him.
October 22 2014: “A Sydney restaurant owned by Tourism Minister Andrew Robb and his family was being promoted by a government-funded $40 million, 18-month Tourism Australia campaign that targets 17 key global markets to sell the Australian “foodie” experience to the world.”
The Robb family restaurant, Boathouse Palm Beach, was showcased on Tourism Australia’s “Restaurant Australia” website as the “ultimate day trip destination” just an hour from Sydney and the “perfect place for a relaxed family outing”. Robb’s restaurants have been featured in tax-payer funded tourism promotions.
Hasn’t NSW Labor MLC Eddie Obeid been found corrupt by the Supreme Court for lobbying a senior maritime official Steve Dunn over Obeid’s cafe leases at Sydney’s Circular Quay for self-enrichment?
Cancers with our democracy alright.
