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CURRENT DOUGH

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ASIO foils foreign spy plot to disrupt federal election

SIMON BENSON - FEBRUARY 10, 2022

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A spy ring led by a wealthy “puppet­eer” with deep links to a foreign government and its ­intelligence agencies recently tried to bankroll vulnerable ­political candidates in an attempt to get sympathetic MPs elected to parliament.

In one of the most brazen ­attempts at subverting Australia’s political system, the network sought to get candidates into positions of power but was shut down by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation before it could fulfil its ambitions.

While ASIO has not named the country involved, the sophistication of the operation, according to intelligence sources, pointed to only two nation states with that level of intent and the resources to carry it out: China or Russia.

It is understood that the sting was carried out recently, suggesting the target was the federal election due in May. The Australian has confirmed that Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese were both briefed on the plot.

The subversion attempt has prompted a renewed warning to politicians from the country’s spy boss, ASIO director-general Mike Burgess, that the election is a ­highly vulnerable target.

Delivering the annual threat assessment in Canberra, Mr Burgess said on Wednesday night the security environment the country faced was becoming increasingly complex, with espionage and foreign interference now surpassing terrorism for the first time as the agency’s primary concern.

However, he warned that terrorism had also taken a sinister turn during Covid-19 lockdowns, with Australian children being radicalised and recruited to extremist groups at an alarming rate.

Almost half of all high-priority cases being investigated by ASIO now involve minors.

Mr Burgess revealed that the rise of ideologically motivated ­extremism, as witnessed during anti-vax and anti-government Covid-19 protests, was now deemed a significant security risk that would escalate.

Revealing the foreign interference spy plot, Mr Burgess said the agency was on high alert.

“I can confirm that ASIO ­recently detected and disrupted a foreign interference plot in the lead-up to an election in Australia,” he said. “I’m not going to identify the jurisdiction because we are seeing attempts at foreign interference at all levels of government, in all states and territories.”

The case involved a “wealthy individual with direct and deep connections with a foreign government and its intelligence agencies”. “This agent of interference has roots in Australia but did the bidding of offshore masters, knowingly and covertly seeking to advance the interests of the foreign power and, in the process, undermine Australia’s sovereignty.

“I’ll call this person ‘the puppeteer’, although it’s important to ­remember that while the puppeteer pulled the strings, the foreign government called the shots.”

The “puppeteer” provided hundreds of thousands of dollars through an offshore bank account to run foreign-interference operations through a third party with ­direct links to politicians, political staff and journalists. The third party identified candidates believed to be vulnerable to inducements and cultivation.

The plan sought to promote the candidates’ political prospects through financial support, positive media coverage and hiring staff.

“The aim was not just to get the candidates into positions of power, but also to generate a sense of ­appreciation, obligation and ­indebtedness that could ­subsequently be exploited,” Mr Burgess said.

“The political candidates had no knowledge of the plot. Even if the plan had proceeded, they would not have known who was pulling the strings. The puppeteer used the employee as a cut-out.

“This deliberate deceit and ­secrecy about the foreign-­government connection is what took the case into the realm of foreign interference. Our intervention ensured the plan was not executed, and harm was avoided.”

(continued)

>>15592354

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Mr Burgess last year warned that by the mid-2020s, espionage and foreign interference were ­expected to have overtaken terrorism as ASIO’s principal security concern, but that had been realised earlier than anticipated.

“In terms of scale and sophistication, though, espionage and foreign interference threats are outpacing terrorism threats, and therefore demanding more attention and more resources,” he said.

“The threat is pervasive, multifaceted and, if unchecked, could do serious damage to our sovereignty, values and national interest.”

He warned that the nuclear submarine deal under the banner of the AUKUS security agreement between Australia, the US and Britain had already become the target of espionage attempts.

However, he said, the significance of terrorism could not be downplayed, amid an alarming rise in the radicalisation of minors.

“The number of minors being radicalised is getting higher and the age of the minors being radicalised is getting lower,” Mr Burgess said. “Most of the radicalisation occurs online, reflecting the dynamic I raised earlier, but some of it also happens in person, face to face.

“Children as young as 13 are now embracing extremism, and this is happening with religiously motivated violent extremism and ideologically motivated violent extremism. And unlike past experience, many of these young people do not come from families where a parent or sibling already holds extreme views.

“As the director-general of security, this trend is deeply concerning. As a parent, it is deeply distressing. “As a nation, we need to reflect on why some teenagers are hanging Nazi flags and portraits of the Christchurch killer on their bedroom walls, and why others are sharing beheading videos.

“Just as importantly, we must reflect on what we can do about it.”

Whereas minors represented about 2 to 3 per cent of new ­counter-terrorism investigations a few years ago, now they made up about 15 per cent, Mr Burgess said.

“At the end of last year, on average, minors represented more than half of our priority counter-terrorism investigations each week. Perhaps more disturbingly, these young people are more ­intense in their extremism.

“Where once minors tended to be on the fringe of extremist groups, we are now seeing teenagers in leadership positions, directing adults, and willing to take violent action themselves.”

Mr Burgess revealed ASIO had in 2007 conducted a threat assessment of a pandemic that had foreseen anti-government behaviour, as being played out with anti-vax protests. He warned politicians and commentators against labelling them as left or right wing. “They are a cocktail of views, fears, frustrations and conspiracies,” he said. “Individuals who hold these views, and are willing to support violence to further them, are most accurately described as ­ideologically motivated violent extremists.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/asio-foils-foreign-spy-plot-to-disrupt-federal-election/news-story/7db568241b244211fa78f13be1d17127

https://www.asio.gov.au/publications/speeches-and-statements/director-generals-annual-threat-assessment-2022.html

>>15592354

Dating apps like Tinder and anti-COVID vaccine mandate protests drawing ASIO's attention, according to annual threat assessment

Andrew Greene - 9 February 2022

Foreign spies are using Tinder and other dating apps to recruit Australians with access to sensitive government secrets.

ASIO boss Mike Burgess made the alarming revelation while delivering his annual threat assessment, in which he also warned identifying anti-vaccine activists who could turn violent was proving difficult.

In a wide-ranging address to an audience of military chiefs, security bosses and politicians inside ASIO's Canberra headquarters, Mr Burgess confirmed espionage and foreign interference has now "supplanted" terrorism as the "principal security concern", declaring the recent AUKUS nuclear partnership an obvious target for international agents.

During the past two years, thousands of Australians with access to classified information are believed to have been targeted by foreign intelligence services using social media profiles.

"These spies are adept at using the internet for their recruitment efforts," Mr Burgess said.

"There's been a jump in suspicious approaches on messaging platforms like WhatsApp, for example."

Overseas intelligence operatives are even being monitored by ASIO on popular dating apps as they try to lure Australians with access to official secrets.

"ASIO is also tracking suspicious approaches on dating platforms such as Tinder, Bumble and Hinge," he said.

"My message for any potential victims on these sites is a familiar one — if it seems too good to be true, it probably is."

The Director-General of Security said going online was an easy way for foreign intelligence services to target employees of interest.

"On any of the popular social media or internet platforms, they make seemingly innocuous approaches — such as job offers," Mr Burgess revealed.

"This then progresses to direct messaging on different, encrypted platforms, or in-person meetings, before a recruitment pitch is made."

Foreign interference plot on an unspecified Australian election also revealed

A spy ring led by a wealthy "puppeteer" linked to a foreign government recently attempted to bankroll vulnerable political candidates in an unspecified Australian election, to get sympathetic MPs elected to parliament.

Tantalising but only vague details of the thwarted plot were detailed by the ASIO boss as he warned of the risk of foreign meddling in this year's upcoming federal contest.

A person, who Mr Burgess dubbed "the puppeteer", hired another individual to enable foreign interference operations and used an offshore bank account to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars for operating expenses.

"The employee hired by the puppeteer began identifying candidates likely to run in the election who either supported the interests of the foreign government or who were assessed as vulnerable to inducements and cultivation," he said.

"This year – a federal election year – we need to be particularly on guard against foreign political interference," Mr Burgess said, declining to name specific countries that pose a threat.

Anti-vaccine mandate protesters closely monitored

The Director-General also described how COVID-19 has sent online radicalisation into "overdrive", with isolated individuals spending more time exposed to "extremist messaging, misinformation and conspiracy theories".

"Some Australians believe the government's approach to vaccinations and lockdowns infringed their freedoms. And in a small number of cases, grievance turned to violence," he said.

"In this uptick in specific-issue or grievance-motivated violent extremism, many of the actors are newcomers, so it's harder to get a sense of what is simply big talk — and what is genuine planning for violence."

Over the past week, some protesters in Canberra have been recorded on video calling for violence against elected officials, including the execution of the Prime Minister.

Mr Burgess revealed suspects younger than 18 now make up more than half of ASIO's priority counter-terrorism investigations each week.

"Where once minors tended to be on the fringe of extremist groups, we are now seeing teenagers in leadership positions, directing adults, and willing to take violent action themselves," he said.

"ASIO is aware of minors preying on other minors, seeking to turn them to their violent ideology and using grooming techniques similar to those used by paedophiles."

Following last year's fall of Afghanistan's government to the Taliban, ASIO is continuing to monitor the country closely, warning violent extremists from this region may again travel there for militant training.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-09/asio-threat-assessment-dating-apps-foreign-spies-covid-protests/100817850

Chinese hackers attack local media group

BEN PACKHAM - FEBRUARY 9, 2022

Chinese state-affiliated hackers have targeted a major Australian media company, stealing passwords and data using a publicised vulnerability within hours of the software flaw being revealed.

The nation’s biggest cybersecurity company, CyberCX, said the attackers moved swiftly to exploit the Log4j vulnerability in December last year, gaining access to the company’s IT systems before it had a chance to patch the affected software.

CyberCX said those responsible for the attack used “tradecraft consistent with Chinese state-sponsored actors” to gain access to the company’s mobile devices management software.

The company – which was not News Corp and understood not to be Nine Entertainment – was initially notified of the security breach by the Australian Cyber Security Centre. The attack occurred on December 10 – the same day the Log4j vulnerability was publicised, sparking a rush by users around the world to close the potential backdoor.

CyberCX chief strategy officer Alastair MacGibbon, a former ACSC head, said the company’s investigators were confident in ­attributing the attack to China.

“They used what we call customised web shells. We know the Chinese state uses a lot of these web shells,” Mr MacGibbon said.

“They stole data. They weren’t looking to lock phones or hold their data for ransom. And we have seen this same threat actor in other investigations we have done.

“And then when you compare that with what is publicly known about the tools and tradecraft, we have a high confidence in saying it is a Chinese state-affiliated actor.”

The Log4j vulnerability, unearthed in a piece of Java software code, was one of the most serious ever seen, sparking millions of ­attempted cyber attacks.

CyberCX investigators believe the Chinese attackers had developed a thorough understanding of the target application, MobileIron, enabling them to quickly exploit the Log4j flaw when it became known.

Mr MacGibbon said the speed with which the hackers moved to exploit the Log4j vulnerability showed how aggressive they had become.

“There used to be a time when a vulnerability was exposed and it was days, weeks or months before someone used it,” he said.

“Now it is a matter of hours. That shows how agile they are, how hyper competitive this space is, and how quickly they use ­opportunities. As soon as this vulnerability was public, they just pounced.”

The hacking incident predated a cyber attack on News Corp identified on January 20 and linked to Chinese espionage ­activities that affected The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and British newspapers The Times and The Sun.

Nine Entertainment was also the victim of a major cyber intrusion in March last year, which bore the hallmarks of a ransomware attack but was not accompanied by a demand for payment.

Mr MacGibbon said media companies were attractive targets for Chinese state-sponsored hackers because they received and analysed information that had intelligence value.

The ACSC – part of spy agency the Australian Signals Directorate – said it was aware of the cyber attack but declined to comment on whether China was responsible.

“Australia publicly attributes malicious cyber activity when it is clear and in the nation’s interest to do so,” an ACSC spokesman said.

“The Australian government condemns malicious cyber activity, including by cybercriminals, states and state-sponsored actors.

“No sector of the Australian economy is immune to the impacts of malicious cyber activity. All organisations should be alert to international threats and take ­action to strengthen their cyber ­security defences.”

The Australian government rarely publicly names the countries behind cyber attacks.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/chinese-hackers-attack-local-media-group/news-story/55471bf51f36473a683baf36969b048b

Quad unease at China, Russia ‘no limits’ pact

BEN PACKHAM - FEBRUARY 10, 2022

China and Russia’s new “no limits” partnership to stand up to the West will be at the top of the agenda at Friday’s Quad meeting in Melbourne, with Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne declaring the pact was “completely at odds” with Australia and its allies’ vision for the global order.

Senator Payne said on Wednesday that her meeting with US Secretary of State Antony ­Blinken, India’s Subrahman-yam Jaishankar and Japan’s Yosh­imasa Hayashi was part of a wider push to protect sovereignty and democratic freedoms, and ensure nations were free from coercion by authoritarian nations.

Mr Blinken flew into Melbourne on Wednesday afternoon, after spending “a chunk of this trip” on the phone to global counterparts about the Ukraine crisis.

While the US remains on high alert for a potential Russian attack on its neighbour, Mr Blinken said the Biden administration had a “sustained focus” on the Indo-­Pacific, “and that’s why we’re heading to Australia”. He said the Quadrilateral ­Security Dialogue was emblematic of US efforts ­towards “building, energising, (and) driving different coalitions of countries” to deal with pressing regional issues.

“The Quad is becoming a powerful mechanism for delivering; helping to vaccinate a big part of the world and getting a lot of vaccines out there; strengthening maritime security to push back against aggression and coercion in the Indo-Pacific region; (and) working together on emerging technologies and making sure that they can be used in positive ways, not negative ways,” he said.

In Canberra on Wednesday, Senator Payne met with her ­Lithuanian counterpart Gabrielius Landsbergis, whose country – like Australia – has borne the brunt of Chinese economic ­coercion. Mr Landsbergis, who is ­visiting Canberra to open the first local Lithuanian embassy, said China and Russia were working together “as disrupters of the global rule-based order”.

Australia has vowed to back Lithuania in its World Trade ­Organisation battle against Chinese trade bans, which were instituted after Vilnius agreed to host a Taiwanese trade office that bore the territory’s name rather than that of its capital, Taipei.

“For quite a while Australia was probably one of the main ­examples where China is using economy and trade as a political instrument, or one might say even as a political weapon,” Mr Landsbergis said.

“Now Lithuania joins this ­exclusive club … But it is apparent that we’re definitely not the last ones, especially if these practices are not stopped with the instruments that we have.”

Senator Payne said it was vital for “like-minded nations” to band together to counter coercion and authoritarianism.

The Quad foreign ministers will work to ramp up vaccine distribution across the region, boost co-operation on cyber and critical technologies, tackle Chinese disinformation and economic ­coercion, and improve collective efforts to address climate change.

The meeting comes a week after Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed unprecedented co-operation, backing each other over stand-offs on Ukraine and Taiwan with a promise to collaborate more against the West.

Senator Payne said the new authoritarian partnership “sets out a vision of the global order that is at odds with that of Australia and that of our allies and ­partners, and I’m confident that includes all of our Quad ­partners”.

ANU National Security College head Rory Medcalf said the increasing closeness of China and Russia would “put India on the spot” over its longstanding ties to Moscow.

“India has its own distinct relationship with Russia which is weaker than it used to be – it has leaned more closely to the US in recent years – but it still has a relationship where it wants to position itself as not aligning against Russia,” he said.

“So this Quad meeting will be an interesting barometer on how much India has shifted.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/quad-unease-at-china-russia-no-limits-pact/news-story/72f4eeccf07dd795a81b83af579adc33

>>15592415

Australia leads world on standing up to China, Blinken says

Peter Hartcher - February 10, 2022

China’s trade sanctions on Australia have backfired, and by standing up to Beijing Australia “set an incredibly powerful example” for the world, according to the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“I think China has lost more than Australia has in its efforts to squeeze Australia economically,” Mr Blinken said. Beijing would be “thinking twice about this in the future”, he told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in an interview.

The Biden administration’s chief diplomat is in Melbourne for talks with his counterparts from the Quad nations – Australia, India, Japan and the US – while simultaneously negotiating to deter Russia from attacking Ukraine.

His visit in the midst of the Ukraine crisis “only reinforces the point that for us, as a Pacific nation ourselves, we see the future, we see it here and you have got to keep focus on the core thing even as you deal with the challenge of the moment”.

Mr Blinken said that if Russia did attack its neighbour, he would expect Australia to contribute to imposing “massive costs” on Moscow, diplomatic and political as well as financial and economic, but not military.

The Quad ministers, meeting on Friday, are expected to discuss the Ukraine crisis in an effort to reach a joint position. The leaders of the four Indo-Pacific democracies are due to hold a summit in the next few months.

While China has imposed boycotts on more than $20 billion worth of Australian products, US companies have taken their place in some areas of the Chinese market. Asked whether there was a more effective way that countries could deal with Beijing’s trade coercion, Mr Blinken had no direct solution to offer.

He first paid tribute to “the very good and effective work that Australia has done, and Australian companies have done, in terms of diversifying markets and supply chains, tremendous resilience that I think will have China thinking twice about this in the future”.

The Australian trade economist Tim Harcourt concurred with Mr Blinken’s assessment that China had lost more than Australia through its punitive sanctions.

“China disrupted their own supply chains – they have shortages now in coal and iron ore and Australian exporters have been able to effectively diversify.

“They have energy security issues, they have food security issues, they have 300 million middle-class kids wanting to go to uni, so anything aggressive was going to hurt China.”

Coincidentally, the Financial Times on Wednesday carried the headline: “Australia offers timely lessons in resisting Chinese trade coercion”.

Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in September said that total exports to China in affected sectors “are estimated to have fallen by around $5.4 billion over the year to the June quarter” but that exports of those goods to the rest of the world have increased by $4.4 billion. The implied loss to affected Australian industries was $1 billion over the year.

Mr Blinken pointed out that the US supported Australia’s economy as the biggest foreign investor by its accumulated stock of investment, although Japan was the biggest source of new investment in Australia last year.

He said that while the five-month-old AUKUS security partnership between Australia, the US, and the UK was new, “there’s a lot of focus” on how best to get US nuclear propulsion technology into submarines for Australia.

He said Washington was “looking at the most effective and efficient pathways to move that forward – there’s a lot of focus on that now. As well, of course, as setting the standard when it comes to upholding the non-proliferation regime.”

Mr Blinken was keen to draw attention to “the flip side of the AUKUS coin, which is collaboration among us – and potentially other countries coming in – on other things that are going to be vital to our security and wellbeing, particularly collaboration on emerging technologies, on AI, on quantum, but also on supply chains and building more resilience there.

“That’s also a part of AUKUS and that’s going to make a profound difference to sustainable security for all our countries.”

https://www.smh.com.au/national/australia-leads-world-on-standing-up-to-china-blinken-says-20220210-p59vhd.html

>>15592415

Blinken in Melbourne says Australia demonstrated best of humanity

Kirsty Needham - February 10, 2022

MELBOURNE, Feb 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has told students in Melbourne that Australia had showed it was capable of the best of humanity, transforming the life of his step-father who arrived as a teenage refugee after the Holocaust.

Blinken is in Melbourne for the Quad meeting of foreign ministers on Friday, when he will meet counterparts from India, Japan and Australia.

On Thursday morning he spoke with students at the University of Melbourne, where his late step-father graduated, after he arrived with no education from Poland.

"Australia remade him," Blinken said, adding his family held Australia in a special place.

"It showed after a demonstration of how humanity is capable of the worst, it's also capable of the best."

Highlighting the closeness in values between the two nations, he said it was imperative for Australia and the United States to work together to tackle challenges from climate change to the pandemic, and ensuring technology was used to advance humanity.

"At a time when so many of those values and interests have been challenged, I think there's more of an imperative than ever, that our two countries be together, work together."

From Australia, Blinken flys to Fiji to reassure Pacific island leaders that Washington and its allies are committed to providing security and COVID vaccines, as China steps up its aid and influence in the region.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/blinken-melbourne-says-australia-demonstrated-best-humanity-2022-02-10/

Australia’s Pine Gap ‘hugely important’ to western monitoring of China, says former British spy chief

Richard Dearlove discusses facility’s role in monitoring China’s ‘rather alarming’ activities

Daniel Hurst - 10 Feb 2022

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The former British spy chief Sir Richard Dearlove has described the Pine Gap surveillance base in central Australia as “hugely important” to western intelligence collection about China’s “rather alarming” activities.

Intelligence officials are usually tight-lipped on exactly what the joint US-Australian facility is used for, but the former head of MI6 said Pine Gap was “a sophisticated listening post, all right, and a lot else besides”.

“You’ve got the massive installation, which is partly NSA [US National Security Agency], at Pine Gap and that’s really important because, well, it’s an intercept intelligence site,” Dearlove said on the global affairs podcast One Decision.

“And it’s hugely important strategically to the US and to the western alliance because of its position, its geographical location.”

He explicitly confirmed the western interest in Beijing’s activities, saying Pine Gap – the installation near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory – was “crucial to, let’s say, western coverage of China”.

“I don’t think I should go into detail about what it actually does, that would be indiscreet,” Dearlove added. More broadly, he said, Australia had “a very sophisticated intercept capability”.

The former head of the British Secret Intelligence Service made the comments during a podcast conversation with the former Australian foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop, who said Australia’s relationship with China currently was “tense”.

Australia is a member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance, which also includes the US, the UK, Canada and New Zealand.

The presence of the Pine Gap facility in Australia has from time to time attracted controversy. A trove of NSA documents leaked by Edward Snowden indicated the site “plays a significant role in supporting both intelligence activities and military operations”.

The ABC reported in 2017 that the facility – officially known as Joint Defence Facility Pine Gap - provided detailed geolocation intelligence to the US military. That prompted some legal observers to question the site’s potential role in supporting deadly US drone strikes in the Middle East.

Bishop said China had been “much more assertive” and “indeed aggressive in some instances” since Xi Jinping became president.

Some of China’s wolf warrior diplomacy had been “startling”, Bishop contended, and Beijing had “sought to make an example of us” since 2020 by introducing steep tariffs or trade actions against Australian export sectors such as wine, beef and barley.

Bishop said Australia was in the “rather unusual situation that our major trading partner, China, is in serious competition with our major strategic defence and intelligence ally, the United States”.

(continued)

>>15594672

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In the podcast interview, Dearlove asked Bishop whether it would be possible to “square this circle” in the long term.

Dearlove cited not only the Pine Gap installation but also Australia’s strategic alliance with the US, the rotation of US marines through Darwin, and the Aukus deal for the US and the UK to help Australia acquire at least eight nuclear-powered submarines.

“And all of this is, you could argue, [is] very provocative to the Chinese,” Dearlove said. “And at the same time, your economy or aspects of your economy, are absolutely totally tied to the Chinese market.”

Bishop agreed that it was “a balancing act” and called for Australia and China to “reestablish a more constructive dialogue”.

“It will be interesting to see how Xi Jinping is able to maintain this grip on power,” she said.

“I’ve not yet seen evidence that he’s losing it, but China’s future is facing many hurdles, many challenges. Its inexorable rise is not inevitable. I think there are many bridges to cross before China could be seen as a superpower in the nature of the United States.”

Bishop, who was foreign minister from 2013 to 2018, said Australia and other countries in the region were “looking for more US leadership, not less”. She contended that very few countries “would want to live in a region where the Chinese government was calling the shots”.

Dearlove called on the west to “develop a new security regime which copes with China’s presence as a superpower”.

But while saying he found China’s insistence on rewriting global rules as “rather alarming”, Dearlove also made an emphatic plea for Australia and other western countries to continue to seek dialogue with Beijing.

“I do firmly believe in talking, not just to one’s competitors, but to one’s enemies as well, and engaging in dialogue, and having some sort of bilateral infrastructure which allows for the treatment and discussion of problems on an almost constant basis,” he said.

The One Decision podcast, which is co-hosted by Dearlove and the journalist Julia Macfarlane, was recorded in December but released on Thursday. It is produced by the US-based communications firm Global Situation Room.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/feb/10/australias-pine-gap-hugely-important-to-western-monitoring-of-china-says-former-british-spy-chief

—

One Decision podcast

The Wallaby and the Dragon

FEB 10, 2022

China’s growing power is a big concern for the West, but perhaps nowhere more so than Australia - US strategic partner and Five Eyes member. Julie Bishop, Foreign Minister between 2013-2018 talks to One Decision about Australia’s priorities in a western alliance post-Trump, and how the West needs to approach and counter, Beijing.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/one-decision/id1583753742

>>15534535 (pb)

Former Hey Dad! actor Robert Hughes parole decision deferred

Ryan Young and Erin Lyons - 10 February 2022

Ex-Australian TV star and convicted paedophile Robert Hughes will have to wait longer than expected to learn if he has been granted parole after serving almost eight years behind bars for child sex offences.

The NSW State Parole Authority (SPA) held a closed hearing on Thursday to consider if the 73-year-old former Hey Dad! actor would be suitable for release on parole.

Afterwards, a spokeswoman said a decision on the matter had been “stood over”.

“Given the complexities and seriousness of this matter, the SPA has called for a comprehensive psychological assessment of Hughes’ risk of sexual reoffending and a further report from Community Corrections,” she said.

“The SPA will hold a public review hearing on a date to be fixed before making a final decision on parole.”

Hughes had previously twice been denied parole and after he renounced his Australian citizenship.

The parole board said if granted parole, Hughes would be deported to the UK where he was residing at the time of his arrest.

In 2014 he was handed a 10 year and nine-month prison sentence after receiving 10 convictions for child sex offences that included sexual intercourse without consent and multiple acts of indecent assault.

Hughes, who has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, targeted four victims aged under 16, in the 1980s and ’90s.

According to court documents, the bulk of the offences were committed before he secured the lead role of widowed dad Martin Kelly on the hit Channel 7 sitcom that ran for seven years.

While in jail, Hughes claimed he was subject to constant verbal and physical abuse that included excrement, urine and boiling water being thrown over him.

Hughes’ sentence is due to expire on January 6, 2025.

https://thewest.com.au/news/former-hey-dad-actor-robert-hughes-parole-decision-deferred-c-5643048

Lithuania plays 'coercion card' against China in joining 'exclusive club' with Aussies

Vilnius' stunt exposes desperation, a laughingstock for immature actions

Liu Xin - Feb 09, 2022

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In an attempt to hype so-called China coercion and play "victims" to win sympathy, the Lithuanian Foreign Minister claimed on Wednesday that his country is in an "exclusive club" with Australia against China, a move that would not help Lithuania solve its problems but exposed its desperation like a drowning person clutching at a straw, analysts said. Analysts mocked the exclusive club as an international laughing stock for immature, imprudent and impenitent actions that provoke other countries' sovereignty.

China has unsurprisingly become the main topic for Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis' meeting with Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne on Wednesday. Landsbergis, at a joint conference with his Australian counterpart, reiterated the accusation of China for acting as the global disruptor and called Australia as one of the "main examples" when China was using economy and trade as "a political weapon."

Seemingly to stress their "shared experience," the Lithuanian Foreign Minister added that Lithuania joined the "exclusive club" with Australia, and the two foreign ministers agreed to step up cooperation on strategic challenges, especially from pressure from China.

Lithuania is trying to gang up with Australia in playing "victims" to win sympathy from the international community. But unlike the US, which also imposes unilateral economic sanctions, China is never the one that makes coercive economic sanctions, Chen Hong, a professor and director of the Australian Studies Center at East China Normal University, told the Global Times.

"The 'exclusive club' is more like an exclusive club of laughingstocks that ate the bitter fruits of immature, imprudent and impenitent actions by Lithuania and Australia," Chen said.

In November 2021, China downgraded ties with Lithuania after the latter's wrong move of allowing the Taiwan authorities to open a "representative office" under the name of "Taiwan" in Vilnius. Bilateral trade also suffered due to the deteriorating relations.

By voicing its support to Lithuania, Australia has also descended into Lithuania's tool. "The current problems between China and Lithuania are rooted in Lithuania's provocations over China's bottom line. However, relations between China and Australia have not been downgraded, despite the current low ebb, and trade has continued. Why does Australia risk worsening relations with China for Lithuania?" Chen asked.

The expert noted that there is also one similarity shared by Lithuania and Australia - turning themselves into pathetic tools for the US to contain China at the cost of their own country and people's interests.

(continued)

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The Morrison government has been criticized for its souring relations with China by following the US in containing China and the country's trade with China has also been impacted. For example, Australia's exports across 12 key non-iron ore commodities, including coal, barely, beef, timber, wine and lobster plummeted in the first nine months of 2021 compared with 2019 while the value of US exports of the same commodities increased in the same period.

But Lithuania and Australia are also competitors for their exports to China–for example on wine and agricultural products, Chen said. He added that Lithuanian Foreign Minister's trip to Australia is more about politics and to hype the China threat.

Before flying to Australia, Landsbergis visited Singapore and claimed that Lithuania sees Singapore as a "gateway" to other Southeast Asian markets.

As Singapore is an important fortress in the Strait of Malacca, it is one reason for him to visit Singapore. Singapore's "small size" and heavyweight influence in ASEAN is Lithuania's focus for making the visit, Cui Hongjian, director of the Department of European Studies at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times.

During the disputes with China, Lithuania tried to portray its "bravery" of being a "small country" to counter a power like China to win sympathy. "By visiting Singapore, Lithuania is attempting to spread the idea of 'China coercion' in Southeast Asian countries and hype the China threat," Cui noted.

However, the close economic cooperation and exchanges with China in the past decades as well as the shared willingness of not getting involved in political disputes among regional countries would make Lithuania's efforts fail, analysts said.

Cui noted that in facing growing opposition among Lithuanian politicians against the government's wrong moves with China, the Lithuanian government has fallen into a dilemma. But a small group of diehard politicians may push for more provocations instead of admitting their mistakes.

Lithuania is also seeking assistance from the European Union, while the EU does not want to be involved in nor does it want to be abducted by Lithuania in countering China, Cui said, noting that this is why the EU prefers to solve disputes through the World Trade Organization.

In January, the EU announced it was taking China to the WTO after disputes over Lithuanian exports surfaced.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Tuesday that China always abides by the rules and regulations of the World Trade Organization and the so-called "coercion" of China against Lithuania is purely made out of thin air.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202202/1251885.shtml

>>15592415

Quad foreign ministers meet amid divergent expectations

Targeting China, Russia only serves US strategic demand: expert

Yang Sheng and Liu Caiyu - Feb 09, 2022

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The tone of the 4th Quad foreign ministers' meeting scheduled for Friday in Australia is still based on ideological differences and a cold war mentality, as US and Australian officials stressed the meeting will discuss the "challenges" posed by China and Russia to so-called "democracy and rules-based order."

The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said the US image of democracy has already collapsed, and using democratic values to form cliques for confrontation is a "betrayal of democracy."

Zhao Lijian, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, made the remarks at a routine press conference on Wednesday, saying that "democracy is a common value shared by humanity, rather than a patent owned by a few countries."

For the "rules-based order," Zhao said China, just like most countries around the world, acknowledges and upholds the international system with the United Nations at its core, and international order based on international laws, rather than a "rules-based order" unilaterally defined by one or a few countries.

Zhao's remarks came after US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel J. Kritenbrink and Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne made remarks to the media that the upcoming Quad meeting will discuss the "challenges" that China and Russia posed to them.

Kritenbrink said at a briefing on February 4 ahead of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's trip to Australia that the discussion of the top diplomats from four Quad members "will relate to the challenges that China poses" to their shared "values" and "rules-based order" in a number of sectors.

Similarly, Payne said in an interview with ABC on Wednesday that "The approach of authoritarian regimes," naming Russia, China and North Korea, "are not contributing to security. They are not contributing to stability." She said China and Russia's "vision of the global order is completely at odds with the vision that Australia has and our allies and our partners have."

Li Haidong, a professor at the Institute of International Relations at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Wednesday that "emphasizing democracy or ideological elements is just an attempt to justify and beautify the Quad mechanism, to make it look more legitimate. But in fact, the Quad is driven by US strategic demand, which fabricates fears over China and Russia that the US uses to scare its allies. It's never been driven by democracy."

Stressing "democracy" or using the term "authoritarian regimes" to smear China and Russia and other countries is "a very outdated approach," and is just like "finding excuses to legitimize the crusaders' invasions of the Middle East," Li said. The values are just pretexts and tools, the interests and ambition of expansion are the real purposes, he noted.

Differences within Quad

Chinese analysts said that although the US, Japan, India and Australia can sit together and talk, what they want and what they want to get from each other are very different. This makes it hard for the mechanism to have any influence and presents obstacles for enacting concrete cooperation.

Chen Hong, a professor and director of the Australian Studies Center of East China Normal University, said that Payne's point is nonsense, and making Australia a rival or enemy to China and Russia is extremely unwise.

"China and Russia have never treated Australia as a threat. But Canberra, under the instruction of Washington, is willing to fight harder for the US while ignoring Australia's own interests and security. This is absolutely immature," Chen noted.

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Australia is different from other Quad members, as it has neither sovereignty disputes nor strategic competition with China, "so loyally serving as a pawn for the US to provoke China will make Australia lose much more than it could get," Chen said.

Sadly, Australia is a country that failed to maintain official communication channels with China due to its diehard anti-China policy, while the US, Japan and India could all maintain dialogues with Beijing despite the divergences they have with China. This proves that politicians in Canberra are making their country look stupid and keep losing the game, said Chinese experts.

"And ironically, the US even benefited from the worsening China-Australia ties, as US wines have taken a big bite out of the share of Australian wines in the Chinese market. Australia has failed to realize this and continued to serve US strategy to keep diehard hostility toward China without any doubt. How could Australian officials be so silly and so loyal to the US?" said a Beijing-based expert on international relations who asked for anonymity.

India also has its own expectations from the Quad. According to Indian media the Economic Times, the Ministry of External Affairs of India said the four foreign ministers "will review ongoing Quad cooperation and build on the positive and constructive agenda… to address contemporary challenges such as the COVID pandemic, supply chains, critical technologies [and] climate change."

Lin Minwang, a professor at the Institute of International Studies of Fudan University, said that India shares a purpose with the other three - to contain China. "But India didn't go as far as Australia. For instance, it wasn't as provocative as Australia on China's internal affairs such as Xinjiang and Taiwan."

The US and Australia confidently said they share points of view with other Quad members, but India is a little bit special, Lin said, noting that "traditionally, India doesn't like playing values cards, because India is a developing country. The West uses the pretext of human rights to accuse India on many things and tries to interfere in India's internal affairs, so India is very sensitive on this matter."

India now is suffering from a bad COVID-19 epidemic situation, and New Delhi is preoccupied with the economy, not China. Beijing has clarified on multiple occasions that it has no intention to compete with India, so India might find there is no need for extreme hostility at the moment. It may prefer to stress less sensitive issues like fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chains and climate change, said the anonymous expert.

Lin said that calling China an "authoritarian regime" maybe a choice for some nationalist anti-China Indian media, but India absolutely dares not criticize Russia with the same terminology, so Australia and the US do not really share the same broad consensus with partners like India.

Chen said the Quad is not very solid, and the US even dreams to make a "Quad plus" to include countries like South Korea and Vietnam, although this is little more than a pipe dream. "Just like India and Japan, on one hand, these countries will do some little things to please the US for some benefits, but will keep engagements and exchanges with China on the other hand. They won't be willing to serve as a tool for the US. They will handle the complicated relations with China and the US based on their own wisdom."

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202202/1251886.shtml

Transcript - Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian’s Regular Press Conference on February 9, 2022

The Global Times: The Productivity Commission, a research body of the Australian government, recently released two reports, namely Prison Dilemma and Report on Government Services 2022 for the justice sector. The reports pointed out the incarceration rate of Indigenous Australians is extremely high, which is grounded on a series of institutional problems like racial discrimination and selective law enforcement of the police. What is your comment?

Zhao Lijian: I have noted the reports. The comparison speaks volumes. According to the reports released by the research body of the Australian government, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people comprise 3.3% of the Australian population but 29% of prisoners in 2020. In the Northern Territory, they make up 84% of the prison population. And their rate of imprisonment is 13 times that of the non-Indigenous group. At least 474 Indigenous people died during incarceration over the past 30 years. These figures fully expose the grave human rights problems in Australia.

This is just the tip of the iceberg on human rights issues in Australia. In the past, Australia adopted genocide and assimilation policies against the Indigenous people. Up to 100,000 Indigenous children were taken by force from their families, and a large number of Indigenous people were slaughtered and enslaved. Even till this day, the Indigenous people are still subject to grave unfair treatment when it comes to living conditions and law enforcement. Systemic discrimination against ethnic minorities in Australia is severe and hate crimes are proliferating. Besides, Australia has set up offshore detention centers in third countries, where a large number of immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers are held in long-term and even indefinite forced detention with their basic human rights seriously violated. I have also given you many examples on how Australian soldiers illegally executed captives, tortured and killed civilians and committed serious war crimes in overseas military operations in countries like Afghanistan, but can still get away from punishment.

For a long time, Australia, a self-claimed “vanguard of human rights”, has turned a blind eye to its own problems while pointing fingers at other countries’ human rights conditions based on rumors and lies, which is out-and-out double-standard. Some in Australia should carefully read the reports, earnestly do some soul-searching, and seriously address the rampant human rights problems at home.

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/2511_665403/202202/t20220209_10640558.html

Australians told to get COVID boosters to be considered fully vaccinated

Renju Jose - February 11, 2022

SYDNEY, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Australian residents will need to receive booster shots to be considered fully vaccinated against COVID-19, although authorities said foreign travellers will continue to need only two shots to enter the country.

Australia's national cabinet late on Thursday endorsed the revised guidance from the country's vaccination advisory group to classify "up-to-date" inoculations as including boosters.

A person's vaccination status will be considered "overdue" if they have not received a booster within six months of their second dose, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said.

Australian officials have made vaccines mandatory only for some frontline workers, but many private businesses, including major corporations, restaurants and retailers, have made inoculations a requirement for entry.

The country is among the most heavily vaccinated in the world as a result, with 94% of people above 16 double-dosed. Nearly 10 million boosters have been administered so far.

The decision to keep the requirement for visitors to two doses only comes as authorities prepare to fully reopen Australia's borders, around two years after they were slammed shut to slow the progress of the pandemic.

Like other countries, Australia has been tackling the fast-moving Omicron variant.

Officials reported just under 26,000 new infections by midday on Friday, down from about 30,000 on Thursday, with Western Australia and Northern Territory still to report. Forty-eight new deaths were registered. Hospital cases remained on a downtrend, with nearly 3,300 admitted, the lowest tally in more than a month.

The bulk of Australia's pandemic total of around 2.7 million cases has been detected since the emergence of the Omicron variant in late November. Total deaths stood at 4,479.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australians-told-get-covid-boosters-be-considered-fully-vaccinated-2022-02-11/

>>15592415

Quad ministers address Indo-Pacific 'coercion', climate, COVID

Humeyra Pamuk and Kirsty Needham - February 11, 2022

MELBOURNE, Feb 11 (Reuters) - The United States, Australia, Japan and India on Friday pledged to deepen cooperation to ensure the Indo-Pacific region was free from "coercion", a thinly-veiled swipe at China's growing economic and military expansion, as their top diplomats convened to also tackle climate change, COVID and other threats.

Foreign ministers of the so-called Quad, the informal grouping of the four countries, vowed to work on humanitarian relief, terrorism, cyber and maritime security and global supply chain challenges.

Despite being outside the group's scope, an escalating crisis between the West and Russia over Ukraine was also a top agenda item, with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken casting Moscow's build-up as a challenge to the international rules-based order, which he said Quad would work to preserve.

"That includes championing the rights of all countries to choose their own path, free from coercion and the right to have their sovereignty and territorial integrity, respected. Whether that's here in the Indo-Pacific, in Europe, or anywhere else in the world," he said in his opening remarks of the meeting.

Blinken arrived in Australia this week as Washington grapples with a dangerous standoff with Moscow, which has massed some 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s border and stoked Western fears of an invasion. Russia denies it has such plans.

The Biden administration wants to show the world its long-term strategic focus remains in the Asia-Pacific and that a major foreign policy crisis in one part of the world does not distract it from key priorities.

Asked by reporters on Friday if confrontation with China in the Indo-Pacific was inevitable, Blinken replied "nothing is inevitable".

"Having said that, I think we share concerns that in recent years China has been acting more aggressively at home and more aggressively in the region," he said.

Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the Quad's cooperation on the region's COVID response was "most critical", with cyber and maritime security, infrastructure, climate action and disaster relief - especially after the recent Tonga volcanic eruption - also in focus.

New pledges are unlikely to be announced before a May summit of Quad leaders in Japan that President Joe Biden plans to attend.

Payne also said Ukraine, China and North Korea would also be discussed.

"More than one authoritarian regime is presenting itself in the current world climate as a challenge. DPRK (North Korea), China as well and they will be part of our discussions today. We strongly support U.S. leadership on these challenges," she said before a bilateral meeting with Blinken.

Britain said the "most dangerous moment" in the West's standoff with Moscow appeared imminent, as Russia held military exercises in Belarus and the Black Sea following the buildup of its forces near Ukraine.

The Quad nations have begun holding annual naval exercises across the Indo-Pacific to demonstrate interoperability, and the United States itself conducts freedom of navigation patrols in the South China Sea.

China has previously denounced the Quad as a Cold War construct and a clique "targeting other countries".

Blinken's trip comes after China and Russia declared last week a "no limits" strategic partnership, their most detailed and assertive statement to work together - and against the United States - to build a new international order based on their own interpretations of human rights and democracy.

U.S.-Chinese ties are at their lowest point in decades as the world's top two economies disagree on issues ranging from Hong Kong and Taiwan to the South China Sea and China's treatment of ethnic Muslims.

Biden told Asian leaders in October the United States would launch talks on a new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. But few details have emerged and his administration has been reluctant to offer the increased market access Asian countries desire, seeing this as threatening American jobs.

Critics say the lack of U.S. economic engagement is a major weakness in Biden's approach to the region, where China remains to be the top trading partner for many of the Indo-Pacific nations.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/quad-ministers-convene-address-indo-pacific-coercion-climate-covid-2022-02-10/

>>15592415

China's military build-up, aggressive behaviour in the region a concern, Japan says

GREG SHERIDAN - FEBRUARY 11, 2022

China’s military build-up and aggressive behaviour in the region have become “a grave concern”, according to visiting Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi.

Mr Hayashi came to Australia to attend Friday’s meeting of the foreign ministers of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue involving the US, Japan, India and Australia.

In an exclusive, detailed written interview with The Australian, he accuses China of aggressive military behaviour in Japanese waters: “it is unacceptable that China Coast Guard vessels have repeatedly intruded into the Japanese territorial sea around the Senkaku Islands and have attempted to approach Japanese fishing boats.”

He sketches the outline of China’s massive military modernisation, and says: “Chinese military trends, combined with insufficient transparency on its defence politics and military affairs, have become a matter of grave concern to the region, including Japan and the international community.”

Mr Hayashi also offers strong support for Australia in standing up to the economic coercion it has faced from Beijing: “Japan and Australia are opposed to the use of economic coercion that undermines the rules-based trading system and the links between nations fostered by economic engagement. I am encouraged by the resilience with which Australia has responded to economic coercion to date.”

The Japanese foreign minister also provided an explicit endorsement to the AUKUS agreement involving the US, UK and Australia, hailing it as a positive for regional stability: “I believe that enhanced security and defence co-operation between Australia, the UK and the US will contribute to regional peace and stability. It is from this perspective that Japan supports AUKUS.

“I believe that Australia’s acquisition of nuclear submarines is also an important initiative for the security of the Indo-Pacific.”

Mr Hayashi believes the Quadrilateral Dialogue plays a “central role” in promoting “a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/chinas-military-buildup-aggressive-behaviour-in-the-region-a-concern-japan-says/news-story/abcd12e4ed0e30dbfdca98a391130691

>>15592415

Quad pledges to counter China maritime aggression

BEN PACKHAM - FEBRUARY 11, 2022

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Australia, the US, Japan and India have vowed to ensure freedom of navigation in the East and South China Seas to counter Chinese maritime aggression, and pledged to work more closely with Indo-Pacific nations to help them protect their offshore resources.

In a historic meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue in Melbourne, Foreign Minister Marise Payne, US Secretary of State Antony ­Blinken, India’s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Japan’s Yosh­imasa Hayashi, also reaffirmed their support for a free Taiwan.

They pledged to work more closely to oppose Chinese disinformation and cyber attacks and secure undersea cables.

Secretary Blinken reaffirmed the US pivot to the Indo-Pacific during the meeting, saying his presence in Australia during the Ukraine crisis underscored US resolve to ensure the region remained free and open.

“Indeed, these efforts are part of one whole,” he said. “One of the reasons we are working so intensively to defend the core principles threatened by Russia in Ukraine, is because those very same principles are crucial to enduring stability in this region and every other part of the world.”

The Quad ministers also expressed deep concern over the military dictatorship in Myanmar, backing ASEAN’s plan to resolve the crisis, and condemned North Korea’s “destabilising” ballistic missile launches.

“Quad partners champion the free, open, and inclusive rules-based order, rooted in international law, that protects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of regional countries,” the ministers said in a joint statement.

Japan, which will host a Quad leaders’ meeting by mid-year, expressed particular concern over the Chinese activities in the East and South China Seas which Beijing treats as its own sovereign waters.

Minister Hayashi said: “I expressed serious concerns about the unilateral attempts to alter the status quo (in the seas) by force … and the four foreign ministers agreed to work together to counter the challenges against the maritime order.”

In the joint statement, the ministers committed to “deepen engagement with regional partners, including through capacity-building and technical assistance, to strengthen maritime domain awareness” and protect nations “ability to develop offshore resources” consistent with the UN Law of the Seas.

The ministers also backed Australia’s pushback against Chinese economic coercion, pledging to “work collectively to foster global economic resilience against such actions”.

They denounced violent extremism in the region and urged countries to work together to eliminate terrorist safe havens and disrupt terrorist networks.

Senator Payne said Australia supported a world order that favoured freedom, “where rules, not power and coercion, resolve disputes”.

“Today, in Melbourne, our overarching focus was on the Indo-Pacific,” she said.

“We agreed to strengthen Quad cyber and counter-terrorism co-operation, including by co-ordinating efforts to address the threat of ransom ware.

“We discussed humanitarian and disaster response and vital infrastructure delivery, which is climate adapted and resilient, in consultation with our partners.

“We agreed to boost maritime security support for Indo-Pacific partners to strengthen their awareness and ability to develop offshore resources to ensure freedom of navigation and overflight and to combat challenges such as illegal fishing.”

(continued)

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Dr Jaishankar said the Quad was working on an agenda to make the grouping “a force for global good”.

But he signalled India, whose country has a close relationship with Russia, was uncomfortable with discussion of the Ukraine crisis in the regional forum.

“This meeting is focused on the Indo-Pacific so I think you should figure out the geography there,” he said.

Earlier, the ministers met Scott Morrison, who said the Quad was vital to the defence of freedom in a “fragile, fragmented and contested world”.

“I think in doing so we stand up to those who would seek to coerce us,” he said, noting the Quad’s support for Australia in the face of Chinese economic coercion.

“I‘m reassured by the incredible strong support that Australia has received by our Quad partners and I just don’t mean in a security context.

“I mean that in terms of our economic partnership and co-operation; I mean that in our humanitarian partnership; I mean that in terms of how each of us stands for a world order that favours freedom and particularly here in a free and open Indo-Pacific.”

Mr Blinken said a confrontation with China in the Indo-Pacific was not inevitable, though the US was concerned about Chinese aggression in the region.

But despite the bloc’s aim to be a counterweight to China, Mr Blinken said the Quad should be defined “not by what we are against but by what we are for”.

“What we are for quite simply is a free and open Indo-Pacific,” he said.

“People deserve to live freely; countries deserve to work together freely and associate with whom they choose.”

In an exclusive interview with The Australian, Mr Hayashi said China‘s military build-up and aggressive behaviour in the region was increasingly worrying.

“Chinese military trends, combined with insufficient transparency on its defence politics and military affairs, have become a matter of grave concern to the region, including Japan and the international community,” he said.

Mr Hayashi also provided explicit endorsement of the trilateral AUKUS agreement between Australia, the US and UK, and declared Australia’s acquisition of nuclear submarines would be “an important initiative for the security of the Indo-Pacific“.

Labor Leader Anthony Albanese and his foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong also met with the Quad Foreign Ministers, and had private talks with Mr Blinken.

He said it was an “honour” to meet with the Secretary, and used the occasion to reiterate Labor’s strong support for the trilateral AUKUS alliance with the US and UK, and its support for Australia to get nuclear submarines.

“I also reflected, of course, on Labor‘s concerns about the changed posture of China and the need to stand firm in Australia’s interests, in the interests of all of those who hold democratic values dear,” Mr Albanese said.

“I look forward to continuing to strengthen Australia‘s engagement through the QUAD, but also through direct relations that we will have.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/quad-pledges-to-counter-china-maritime-aggression/news-story/5602df09f61d33a0f21d0a0647decdac

>>15592354

Chinese spies in plot to install ALP candidates at coming federal election

BEN PACKHAM - FEBRUARY 11, 2022

Chinese spies sought to bankroll the campaigns of hand-picked NSW Labor candidates in the upcoming federal election in a plot foiled by ASIO.

ASIO director-general Mike Burgess referred to the case earlier this week, without identifying the political party involved or the nation behind the plot, saying a wealthy “puppeteer” had worked with a local “cut-out” to try to secure the election of sympathetic candidates.

Multiple national security and ALP sources have confirmed to The Australian that the case involved an attempt to subvert Labor’s NSW federal preselection process last year.

Anthony Albanese and Scott Morrison were briefed on the conspiracy.

Mr Albanese on Friday said he met with Mr Burgess regularly, but was unable to comment on the contents of those briefings.

However, he said he had received assurances that ASIO had no concerns about any preselected Labor candidates.

“I have spoken to Mr Burgess today and he has reaffirmed he has not raised concern about any of my candidates. I can‘t be clearer than that,” Mr Albanese said.

In a statement on Thursday, NSW Labor Party general secretary Bob Nanva said the state branch had not been briefed on the matter by ASIO.

“NSW Labor can confirm that no national security agency has ever raised these alleged matters with the parliamentary leadership or the organisational wing of the NSW Branch,” he said.

Revealing the spy plot in his annual threat assessment on Wednesday, Mr Burgess said the agency was on high alert for political interference.

“I can confirm that ASIO ­recently detected and disrupted a foreign interference plot in the lead-up to an election in Australia,” he said.

“I’m not going to identify the jurisdiction because we are seeing attempts at foreign interference at all levels of government, in all states and territories.”

Mr Burgess said case involved a “wealthy individual with direct and deep connections with a foreign government and its intelligence agencies”, who

“I’ll call this person ‘the puppeteer’, although it’s important to ­remember that while the puppeteer pulled the strings, the foreign government called the shots.”

The “puppeteer” provided hundreds of thousands of dollars through an offshore bank account to run foreign-interference operations through a third party with ­direct links to politicians, political staff and journalists

“This agent of interference has roots in Australia but did the bidding of offshore masters, knowingly and covertly seeking to advance the interests of the foreign power and, in the process, undermine Australia’s sovereignty,” Mr Burgess said.

The confirmation that the plot targeted potential Labor MPs came as Defence Minister Peter Dutton doubled down on his claim that China has decided to back Labor at the federal election.

He said there was “intelligence” and open source information of links between China and the ALP.

“I think there’s no doubt that there are elements within the Communist Party that would be very happy to see the back of our government,” he said.

“From what I see, both open source and other intelligence that I see, it’s a statement of the obvious, and there are relationships going back to Sam Dastyari and Bob Carr is still very close to Beijing, and there are many others.”

Mr Albanese said the suggestion China favoured Labor was “just desperate”. He said he taken a strong stand against foreign interference, and been clear in his rejection of Chinese trade bans against Australia and Beijing’s repression of Uighurs and citizens of Hong Kong and Taiwan.

“I'm not going to sit back and cop the sort of nonsense that has been put forward, from a government that sat back, while the port of Darwin was sold to interests of a company directly engaged with, directly connected to, the government of the People's Republic of China,” he said.

Mr Dutton’s attack followed his claim to parliament on Thursday that it was “open and obvious” that China was backing Labor to win the election.

“We now see evidence that the Chinese Communist Party has also made a decision about who they’re going to back in the next federal election … and that is open and obvious,” Mr Dutton said.

“And they have picked this bloke (Mr Albanese) as their candidate,” he added.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull told ABC Radio the Mr Dutton’s attack was “a sign of desperation”.

“(His comments) were purely for crass political advantage,” he said.

“We’ve got to stand our ground (against China), but we’ve got to do so in a measured way. There has got to be nuance and diplomacy.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/chinese-spies-in-plot-to-install-alp-candidates-at-coming-federal-election/news-story/f917096d91d83d449bfad778e4685f5a

>>15600547

‘Reckless and desperate’: Malcolm Turnbull savages Peter Dutton for claiming China is backing Labor

Former Liberal prime minister says defence minister has undermined national security ‘purely for crass political advantage’

Paul Karp and Daniel Hurst - 11 Feb 2022

Peter Dutton has doubled down on his controversial claims that China would like Labor to defeat the Morrison government at the upcoming federal election, prompting Malcolm Turnbull to warn that such “reckless” comments had “no basis in fact” and harmed Australia’s national security.

The defence minister said on Friday there was “no doubt in [his] mind” about what he described as a “statement of the obvious” regarding China’s preference of Labor. He claimed he based Thursday’s inflammatory allegation on “open source and other intelligence”.

The Morrison government, struggling in the polls, is increasingly seeking to weaponise its perceived advantage on national security issues before the 2022 election, despite Labor’s bipartisan cooperation against China’s aggressive stance in the Asia-Pacific region.

In question time on Thursday, Dutton claimed that the Chinese Communist party had “made a decision about who they’re going to back in the next federal election … and that is open and that is obvious, and they have picked this bloke [Anthony Albanese] as that candidate”.

The personal attack on the Labor leader was echoed by Scott Morrison, who claimed that “those who are seeking to coerce Australia” knew that “their candidate” in the election was “the leader of the Labor party”.

Turnbull told ABC radio that Dutton’s claim was “reckless” because it “undermines Australian security” and “uses matters of grave national security purely for crass political advantage”.

The former Liberal prime minister accused Dutton of seeking to wedge both Labor and Morrison by “rushing off to the right” with the inflammatory claim.

“We should not be turning the debate about China and national security into some kind of reds-under-the-beds scare,” Turnbull said. “The proposition that Albanese is under influence of the CCP is ludicrous. It’s just a sign of desperation.”

Asked how ugly he thought the election campaign could get, Turnbull said he was “worried it’s going to get uglier” and the China accusation was “really bad”.

“Morrison should try to pull Dutton back in on that. It has no basis in fact and all that will do is undermine our prospects of being united in face of pressure from other countries.”

But Dutton defended the claim, telling ABC radio there was “open-source information reported over a long period of time” that China and Russia exerted political influence in Australia and other democracies, including the US and the UK.

China and Russia sought to influence “young members [of political parties] who are on the rise” and “pick somebody who will be influential within that party in years to come”, he said.

“If you look at the facts, in this case, I think certainly, from what I see, both open source and other intelligence that I see it’s a statement of the obvious,” Dutton said, without producing any evidence to substantiate the claim about Albanese.

Instead, Dutton cited “relationships going back to” former the Labor senator Sam Dastyari and the former New South Wales premier Bob Carr, who he said was “obviously very close still to Beijing”.

“There’s no doubt in my mind about the statement that I made yesterday. And I think there needs to be greater awareness, frankly, particularly from the Labor party about the engagement of people who don’t have our national interests [at heart].”

Labor has supported the government’s diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics, criticised the Chinese government’s human rights record, and gone further than the Coalition in calling for targeted sanctions to oppose Uyghur forced labour.

In November Albanese rebuffed the former Labor prime minister Paul Keating for arguing for a return to the engagement policies of the 1990s. The opposition leader has also said he stands with Taiwan against Chinese aggression.

The director general of the Office of National Intelligence, Andrew Shearer, has said national security “is rightly bipartisan in a more partisan world” and his dealings with Albanese and senior Labor colleagues during private security briefings have been “cordial, constructive and professional”.

In his threat assessment speech on Wednesday evening, the head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, Mike Burgess, said “attempts at political interference are not confined to one side of politics”.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/feb/11/reckless-and-desperate-malcolm-turnbull-savages-peter-dutton-for-claiming-china-is-backing-labor

Australia deploys diplomatic resources to fight Chinese and Russian 'disinformation' on AUKUS submarine deal

Andrew Greene and Stephen Dziedzic - 11 February 2022

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Australia is bulking up specialised diplomatic teams in both Canberra and Vienna to win international acceptance for the AUKUS nuclear submarine project as it braces for a massive "disinformation" campaign from China and Russia.

In September last year Australia announced a contentious plan to acquire submarines with nuclear propulsion under a new security partnership with the United Kingdom and United States.

While the main focus has been on the technical challenges facing the ambitious proposal, all three AUKUS nations are now sizing up the formidable regulatory and geopolitical hurdles which also confront them.

One of the key diplomatic battlegrounds will be at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, the intergovernmental organisation which works to regulate the use of nuclear energy and limit the development of nuclear weapons.

Test of international diplomatic efforts

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has confirmed to the ABC that it has deployed "several" additional staff to the AUKUS initiative, including to the Australian permanent mission in Vienna.

DFAT has also been beefing up legal and diplomatic teams in Canberra which have been tasked with tackling the project's legal, regulatory and political repercussions internationally.

The scope and scale of the nuclear submarines plan were always going to place heavy demands on Australia's bureaucracy, but the challenges have been sharpened by the federal government's fraught relationship with China.

Beijing has already furiously criticised the AUKUS submarines plan, and Chinese officials have made it clear they will do everything they can in international organisations like the IAEA to delay or stymie it.

China says AUKUS plan a 'violation' of non-proliferation treaty

At an IAEA board of governors meeting late last year, China's ambassador Wang Qun criticised the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia over AUKUS, declaring the nuclear submarines plan would "spur regional countries to accelerate their development of military capabilities, and even seek to cross the nuclear threshold while increasing the risk of military conflicts".

He also pointed out that Australia would be the first non-nuclear weapons state to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.

This is not forbidden under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), but Mr Wang said it was still an "explicit violation of the object and purposes of the NPT, to the detriment of the international non-proliferation regime".

The ambassador launched an unprecedented bid at the meeting to establish a standalone "special committee" at the IAEA devoted solely to examining the AUKUS arrangement, and he declared that the US, UK and Australia should halt the plan entirely until it had been more closely scrutinised.

(continued)

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China politicising issue, says Australia

But China's attacks drew a sharp response from Australia's representative to the IAEA, Richard Sadleir, who said the "special committee" idea was "nothing more than an attempt to introduce issues that are extraneous to the IAEA's technical and legal mandate and appears intended to politicise this issue".

The ABC has been told China has also been pressing other countries to throw their weight behind its campaign against AUKUS at the IAEA.

And while China's push to establish a special committee failed, the IAEA did decide to create an "agenda item" on the deal, in a clear sign it wants to monitor the implementation of the project.

'Wilful disinformation'

A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) told the ABC: "There has been some mischaracterisations and wilful disinformation of the AUKUS partnership and Australia's acquisition of conventionally armed nuclear-powered submarines."

"Australia, the UK and US have been unequivocal in reaffirming commitments to respective non-proliferation obligations," they said.

"We expect all members of the international community to act responsibly and to engage in the accurate dissemination of information, not disinformation or misinformation."

Senior lecturer in international relations at the Australian National University, Ben Zala, said it was good to see the federal government ploughing more resources into some of the legal and regulatory issues raised by AUKUS.

"Given the problems it raises for the non-proliferation regime and the importance we've set on keeping the regime intact, it's really welcome to see Australia recognising the challenges this new arrangement sets, and putting genuine resources behind it," he told the ABC.

"It's going to need creative thinking to work out how we can figure out some new arrangement with IAEA and give other states confidence that we're not undermining the regime too much. And the only way to do that is to put more time and effort and resources into that."

But Dr Zala said nuclear-powered submarines posed unique challenges to international safeguards because they were stealthy by nature, which created "obvious problems" when it came to oversight inspection of nuclear materials.

The fact that Australia would be the first non-nuclear-weapons state to develop nuclear-powered submarines could also set a worrying precedent, he argued.

"We have kicked open the door a little bit," he said.

"So the question is: Can Australia, the UK and the US figure out some sort of arrangement with the IAEA which makes it difficult to divert this material to a weapons program, and that provides at least some degree of oversight and accountability so it can be emulated in other cases?"

AUKUS poses 'complex' legal questions

The director-general of the IAEA, Rafael Grossi, has already warned that the AUKUS nuclear submarines project will be the "first of a kind" and pose "very complex" regulatory questions to the IAEA.

"We should not fool ourselves about this. This is not a straightforward thing," he told the Stimson Centre last October.

"We have a group of experts, some of my best safeguards inspectors and some of my best legal experts, already working on this."

"So when they come [to us] we will have a number of questions and a number of requests."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-11/diplomatic-resources-to-fight-chinese-and-russian-disinformation/100821770

>>15600577

Manufacturing union joins Noam Chomsky in protest of AUKUS nuclear subs deal

Anthony Albanese is under pressure to distance himself from one of Australia’s biggest unions as it protests the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal.

Matthew Benns - February 10, 2022

The National Secretary of one of Australia’s biggest unions is headlining a meeting with American activist Noam Chomsky in protest at the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal.

Steve Murphy’s Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union is also a major donor to the Labor Party leading to calls for Anthony Albanese to show strong leadership on defence.

“This is a test for Anthony Albanese; he can’t have a bet each way,” Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews said.

“Anthony Albanese was happy to take $464,000 from the AMWU last year; is he also happy to take their lead on AUKUS?”

The call prompted Labor’s acting Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally to “reject” the views of the organisers of the event and stress that “nuclear propulsion is the best option for future submarines.”

The Zoom meeting on Saturday is organised by the Sydney Anti-AUKUS coalition and will tell attendees how “terrible” Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s deal with the UK and US for nuclear powered submarines would be for Australia.

Headlining it is 93-year-old American anti-war activist Noam Chomsky with AMWU National Secretary Mr Murphy among the speakers. On social media he has called the nuclear subs issue “a distraction” and said “we don’t need the threat of nuclear escalation at our doorstep.”

Mr Murphy said the union had a history of opposing nuclear proliferation and had been invited to speak at the event.

“The decision to pursue nuclear submarines has already cost shipbuilding jobs and we fear it will only get worse,” he said.

“The AUKUS deal is bad for our sovereign industrial capability. We want to build, maintain and sustain the Australia Navy’s ships and submarines in Australia.”

When he announced the new deal in September Mr Morrison vowed to build Australia’s eight submarines in Adelaide and taxpayer owned shipbuilder ASC has guaranteed the jobs of existing workers.

The anti-AUKUS movement in the past has also received support from the United Workers Union, Maritime Union of Australia, Retail and Fast Food Workers Union and the National Tertiary Education Union.

Their position is in lock-step with a joint press release issued from the Kremlin by Russia and China saying they “are seriously concerned about the trilateral security partnership” which is “contrary to the objectives of security and sustainable development of the Asia-Pacific region”.

Assistant Defence Minister Andrew Hastie said: “The Prime Minister stood up for our values and sovereignty in the face of aggressive economic coercion from the Chinese Communist Party government. The Chinese government is also conducting the biggest military building since the Second World War.

“Our deeds speak louder than words,” he said. “Will Anthony Albanese stand up for Australia when he can’t even control the communists in his own party?”

Ms Keneally said: “Labor has supported AUKUS from the very beginning because it’s in Australia’s national interest.

“We recently reaffirmed that Labor in Government will continue support for AUKUS when the British Foreign Secretary was in Australia, and we will be reaffirming that with the US Secretary of State directly when he visits later this week.”

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/manufacturing-union-joins-noam-chomsky-in-protest-of-aukus-nuclear-subs-deal/news-story/38cb5c0665a170fea45934404fcc7dcb

Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the Commonwealth of Australia

Chinese Ambassador Xiao Qian Presents Letter of Credence to H.E. Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia

2022-02-11

On 10 February, 2022, H.E. Mr. Xiao Qian, the newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to the Commonwealth of Australia, presented his Letter of Credence to H.E General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC, the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia at the Government House in Canberra. Ambassador Xiao had a cordial conversation with the Governor-General.

Ambassador Xiao conveyed greetings from President Xi Jinping to the Governor-General. He said that the Chinese side always believes that a sound and steady China-Australia relationship serves the fundamental interests and common aspirations of the two countries and the two peoples.This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Australia diplomatic relations. China is willing to join hands with Australia, take stock of the past and look ahead into the future, work together in the same direction, so as to push China-Australia relations back to the right track at an early date, upholding the principles of equality, mutual respect and mutual benefit. Ambassador Xiao looked forward to strengthening communication and exchanges, enhancing understanding and mutual trust with the Australian government and people from all walks of lives in Australia, and making unremitting efforts to consolidate and enhance bilateral relations.

The Governor-General asked Ambassador Xiao to convey his good wishes and greetings to President Xi Jinping and expressed welcome to the Ambassador on assuming his post in Australia. He stated that the relationship between Australia and China has a solid basis, and hoped that both sides will take the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations as an opportunity to promote exchanges and cooperation between the two countries.

On the same day, Ambassador Xiao attended a welcome luncheon given by the Governor-General and his spouse.

http://au.china-embassy.org/eng/sghdxwfb_1/202202/t20220211_10641402.htm

Ben Roberts-Smith described alleged execution of Afghan teen as 'beautiful thing', court hears

Jamie McKinnell - 11 February 2022

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Australian war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith referred to the alleged execution of an Afghan teenager as "the most beautiful thing I've ever seen", an elite soldier has told a Sydney court.

Mr Roberts-Smith is suing The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Canberra Times newspapers and three journalists for defamation over a series of articles published in 2018.

The Victoria Cross recipient denies allegations in those stories of unlawful killings in Afghanistan, bullying of his former Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) comrades and domestic violence.

The third SAS witness called by publisher Nine Entertainment, code named Person 16, told the Federal Court the comment about the young man's death occurred during a 2012 mission in Afghanistan.

Mr Roberts-Smith has denied making the remark.

Person 16 said soon after arriving by helicopter, soldiers intercepted a Toyota Hilux and he placed two of its four occupants under confinement.

He described one as being in his "late teens", without a full beard, "a little bit chubby" and "shaking in terror".

"He appeared extremely nervous and trembling uncontrollably," the witness told the court.

Person 16 said he heard a radio call that improvised explosive device components were discovered in the vehicle and handed the two detained Afghans to Mr Roberts-Smith's patrol for tactical questioning.

Person 16 said about 15 to 20 minutes later he heard Mr Roberts-Smith make a radio call stating: "Two EKIA (enemy killed in action)".

He said he crossed paths with Mr Roberts-Smith in the barracks a day or two later and asked what happened to "that young fella that was shaking like a leaf".

"He said to me 'I shot that c*nt in the head'," Person 16 told the judge.

"And he said, 'Person 15 (another colleague) told me not to kill anyone on the last job, so I pulled out my 9mil, shot the c*nt in the side of the head, blew his brains out, and it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen'."

Person 16 said he never reported what he claims Mr Roberts-Smith said due to a "code of silence within the regiment as to these things occurring".

"The fear of retribution, it would have been a career-ending move," he told the court.

"I would have been ostracised.

"I also think [for] my personal safety, I would have been in danger by making such allegations against someone so influential, so I thought I just, best keep quiet and move on with life."

(continued)

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The witness was shown a photograph of the young Afghan's body in which he was holding an AK47 variant weapon, but said the teenager did not have a weapon at the vehicle stop.

The comment about the teenager was put to Mr Roberts-Smith in the witness box last year, when he denied saying "any part" of it.

Person 16 said before Mr Roberts-Smith joined the SAS, the VC recipient had a "formidable" reputation as being a "no-nonsense individual".

But he described "two camps" later forming; those "for" Mr Roberts-Smith and those "against".

"Those against, seen him as being someone who was belligerent, a bully, [who] would trash and tarnish others' reputations," Person 16 said.

Under cross-examination by Mr Roberts-Smith's barrister, Arthur Moses SC, the witness told the court colleagues in the "for" camp were friends with Mr Roberts-Smith and supported his decisions and actions.

Person 16, a medic, said he had never suggested he was in the "against" camp.

"I actually admired some of his qualities," he said.

He also agreed he had never been bullied or treated poorly by Mr Roberts-Smith, despite "weekly" dealings with him prior to the 2012 deployment.

A previous outline of evidence stated the mission took place on October 21, 2012, however this was amended to reflect the date of November 5.

Mr Moses put to Person 16 that he changed his recollection after being told Mr Roberts-Smith couldn't have been on a mission with him on the October date.

"I can't recall saying it was in October, all I can recall is that this was the last mission (of the deployment)," he replied.

Person 16 also denied that reading newspaper articles in 2018 had influenced his recollection of events.

He revealed he had met journalist Nick McKenzie, who is named as a respondent, in Queensland, "some time in late 2018".

But the witness insisted he "didn't agree or disagree", nor provide a "thorough rundown", after Mr McKenzie appeared to have some knowledge of the mission.

Mr Moses suggested Person 16 had "imagined" the conversation with Mr Roberts-Smith.

"That conversation 100 per cent happened and his reply shocked me to the core and that's why I remember it," he replied.

The trial, before Justice Anthony Besanko, continues.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-11/ben-roberts-smith-described-killing-as-beautiful-court-hears/100822770

‘Cold War is long over’: China hits out at Australia, US after Quad meeting

China has accused Australia and its allies of undermining international solidarity and trying to maintain US dominance.

Angie Raphael - February 12, 2022

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China has hit out at Australia and its allies following a Quadrilateral Security Dialogue meeting, claiming the group is merely a “tool for containing and besieging” the Asian country to maintain US dominance.

At a meeting in ­Melbourne on Friday, Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne, US Secretary of State Antony ­Blinken, India’s ­Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Japan’s Yosh­imasa Hayashi vowed to support efforts to advance an open Indo-Pacific region and protect the interests of their people, free from coercion.

“We reiterate the importance of adherence to international law, particularly as reflected in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, to meet challenges to the maritime rules-based order, including in the South and East China Seas,” a joint statement read.

The ministers committed to “deepen ­engagement with regional partners, including through ­capacity-building and technical assistance, to strengthen maritime domain awareness” and protect nations’ ability to develop offshore resources consistent with the UN Law of the Seas.

They also reaffirmed commitment to uphold and strengthen the rules-based multilateral trading system, with the World Trade Organisation at its core.

“We oppose coercive economic policies and practices that run counter to this system and will work collectively to foster global economic resilience against such actions,” they said.

Further, they said they welcomed progress on the practical co-operation they led to address “regional challenges, including humanitarian assistance and disaster response, maritime security, counter-terrorism, countering disinformation and cyber security”.

But China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian was quick to criticise the Quad meeting.

“China believes that the so-called Quad group cobbled together by the US, Japan, India and Australia is essentially a tool for containing and besieging China to maintain US hegemony,” he told reporters.

“It aims to stoke confrontation and undermine international solidarity and co-operation.

“I want to stress that as the Cold War is long over, the attempt to forge a so-called alliance to contain China wins no support and leads nowhere.

“Relevant countries should abandon the antiquated Cold War mentality, correct the wrong approach of bloc confrontation and geopolitical games, and contribute to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific.”

(continued)

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The US Secretary of State suggested China’s trade sanctions on Australia had backfired, but Mr Zhao was quick to throw his own barb.

“No one has a better claim to the title of ‘master of coercion’ than the US,” he said.

“China always proceeds from the lawful rights and interests of domestic industries, and the safety of consumers, and adopts appropriate measures on imported products in strict compliance with Chinese laws and regulations as well as WTO rules.

“This is fully justified, lawful and beyond reproach. The label of ‘economic coercion’ cannot be pinned on China.

“All attempts to gang up with others to misrepresent facts and resort to malicious hype-up are bound to fail.”

Asked about reports that Chinese spies had sought to fund candidates in Australia’s forthcoming federal election, Mr Zhao said the reports were “not worth refuting at all”.

“China is committed to developing relations with other countries on the basis of mutual respect and noninterference in each other’s internal affairs,” he said.

“China has no interest in and has never interfered in Australia’s internal affairs. We urge certain politicians and institutions in Australia not to make an issue out of China.”

Mr Zhao also expressed “grave concern” and “firm opposition” to nuclear-powered submarine co-operation under the AUKUS framework announced by the US, the UK and Australia.

“We believe that this is a deliberate move that escalates regional tension, provokes an arms race, threatens regional peace and stability, and undermines international nuclear non-proliferation efforts,” he said.

“An increasing number of countries have expressed concern over the possible repercussions of the co-operation of the US, the UK and Australia.

“The nuclear-powered submarine co-operation involves the transfer of a large amount of weapons-grade nuclear material from nuclear-weapon states to a non-nuclear-weapon state.

“But there is nothing in the IAEA safeguards mechanism that can effectively monitor such transfer, thus posing a great risk of nuclear proliferation and severely impacting the international non-proliferation system.”

He accused the countries of having a double standard.

“China urges the three countries to adopt a responsible attitude toward the international community’s concerns, rescind their erroneous decision, fulfil non-proliferation obligations with concrete actions rather than saying one thing and doing the complete opposite.”

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/cold-war-is-long-over-china-hits-out-at-australia-us-after-quad-meeting/news-story/ed78dea3bfedf56015f14c6a39af2150

>>15607773

Transcript - Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian’s Regular Press Conference on February 11, 2022

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Bloomberg: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Friday that China had been acting more aggressively both at home and in the region. But he added that he didn’t consider a conflict in the Indo-Pacific region as inevitable. Does the foreign ministry have a comment?

Zhao Lijian: The remarks made by the US politician are nothing but a rehash of political lies. China is firmly opposed to such remarks by the US side.

The US is playing up the “China threat” theory in order to smear, oppress and contain China’s development. This fully exposes the deeply-entrenched Cold War mentality and ideological bias of the US side. Speaking of acting aggressively in this region and beyond, the US is second to none.

Shenzhen TV: According to reports, US Secretary of State Blinken will visit Fiji on February 12, which will be the first visit to the country by a US Secretary of State since 1985. Some reports say with relations between China and Pacific island countries growing rapidly in recent years, Blinken’s visit aims to push back against China’s growing influence in the region. Do you have any comment?

Zhao Lijian: I noted that as you mentioned, this will be the first visit to Fiji by a US Secretary of State in 37 years. I did some homework before today’s press conference on Chinese leaders’ visits to Fiji since 1985.

I can tell you that more than 20 Chinese leaders and senior officials above the foreign minister level have visited Fiji since 1985. In recent years, the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and Pacific island countries has developed rapidly and steadily. With political mutual respect, economic mutual support and cultural affinity, the two sides have set a good example of friendship, solidarity and cooperation between countries in different regions, of different size, and with different cultures. In developing relations with Pacific island countries, China always treats all countries, big or small, as equals, upholds justice while pursuing shared interests, and follows the principle of sincerity, real results, affinity and good faith. China is committed to building a community with a shared future with Pacific island countries, which has been warmly welcomed by the governments and people of these countries.

In the wake of the recent disastrous volcanic eruption in Tonga, China acted swiftly and provided emergency assistance through multiple channels. When rioting broke out in Solomon Islands in November last year, China provided firm and strong support to the country in fighting violence, curbing chaos, maintaining social stability, and protecting people’s safety. Recently, as the COVID-19 situation suddenly worsened in many island countries, China has overcome difficulties in transportation and sent a large number of anti-epidemic supplies and medical equipment by sea and air to ease their immediate difficulties. All these are true reflection of China and island countries offering each other assistance and sharing weal and woe.

I want to stress that the development of relations between China and Pacific island countries is open, transparent, inclusive, and not targeted at any third party. We hope all countries can take concrete actions to help Pacific island countries deal with challenges and do more to contribute to regional peace, stability and development.

(continued)

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Reuters: According to reports in Australian media, Chinese spies sought to fund candidates for Australia’s opposition Labor party in an upcoming federal election. The Chinese spies, according to these reports, were stopped by the Australian security agency. Do you have any comment on these reports?

Zhao Lijian: I noted the above-mentioned reports, which are not worth refuting at all. I believe you may have noticed that some people in Australia have criticized such remarks as reckless and purely for political gain.

I want to reiterate that China is committed to developing relations with other countries on the basis of mutual respect and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs. China has no interest in and has never interfered in Australia’s internal affairs. We urge certain politicians and institutions in Australia not to make an issue out of China.

Hubei Media Group: On February 10, a spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) confirmed in an interview with an Australian media outlet that the Department has been beefing up diplomatic and legal teams in Canberra and Vienna to work on the response to the legal, regulatory and political repercussions of AUKUS and the nuclear-powered submarine cooperation. The three countries involved has reiterated their respective commitment to non-proliferation and noted “We expect all members of the international community to act responsibly and to engage in the accurate dissemination of information, not disinformation or misinformation”. What is China’s comment?

Zhao Lijian: China has expressed its grave concern about and firm opposition to nuclear-powered submarine cooperation under the AUKUS framework announced by the US, the UK and Australia on multiple occasions. We believe that this is a deliberate move that escalates regional tension, provokes an arms race, threatens regional peace and stability and undermines international nuclear non-proliferation efforts. An increasing number of countries have expressed concern over the possible repercussions of the cooperation of the US, the UK and Australia.

The nuclear-powered submarine cooperation involves the transfer of a large amount of weapons-grade nuclear material from nuclear-weapon states to a non-nuclear-weapon state. But there is nothing in the IAEA safeguards mechanism that can effectively monitor such transfer, thus posing a great risk of nuclear proliferation and severely impacting the international non-proliferation system. Under China’s proposal, the IAEA Board of Governors added issues related to the trilateral nuclear submarine cooperation to the meeting’s official agenda in November 2021, which fully reflects the grave concern shared broadly by member states of the Board of Governors. China has suggested that the IAEA launch a special committee open to all member states to focus on discussing the political, legal and technical issues concerning the cooperation, and to properly seek a solution acceptable to all parties. The US, the UK and Australia should not proceed with relevant cooperation, and the IAEA Secretariat should not have consultation with the three countries on the so-called safeguards arrangement for their nuclear submarine cooperation until consensus is reached by all parties.

In disregard of the international community’s concerns, the US, the UK and Australia have obstinately advanced nuclear submarine cooperation. This fully exposes their double standards on the non-proliferation issue and will have profound negative impact on the resolution of regional nuclear hotspots including the Iranian nuclear issue and the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue. The relevant cooperation may also open the Pandora’s Box and prompt other non-nuclear weapon states to follow suit, which will gravely undermine the international nuclear non-proliferation system. It is clear to all who is irresponsible. China urges the three countries to adopt a responsible attitude toward the international community’s concerns, rescind their erroneous decision, fulfill non-proliferation obligations with concrete actions rather than saying one thing and doing the complete opposite.

(continued)

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AFP: The top diplomats of the US, Australia, Japan and India opened talks on deepening their Quad alliance, saying that countries need to stand up to those who seek to coerce them and raising a long-term issue of China’s rising power. Does the foreign ministry have any comment?

Zhao Lijian: I have expounded on our position on the Quad for many times. I also made a response specifically on this subject the other day.

China believes that the so-called Quad group cobbled together by the US, Japan, India and Australia is essentially a tool for containing and besieging China to maintain US hegemony. It aims to stoke confrontation and undermine international solidarity and cooperation.

I want to stress that as the Cold War is long over, the attempt to forge a so-called alliance to contain China wins no support and leads nowhere. Relevant countries should abandon the antiquated Cold War mentality, correct the wrong approach of bloc confrontation and geopolitical games, and contribute to peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific.

Beijing Daily: According to reports, US Secretary of State Blinken said in an interview with Australian media outlets that China’s trade sanctions on Australia have backfired and by standing up to Beijing, Australia “set an incredibly powerful example” for the world. “I think China has lost more than Australia has in its efforts to squeeze Australia economically,” he said, adding that Beijing would be “thinking twice about this in the future”. Does the Chinese side have any comment?

Zhao Lijian: With regard to “coercion”, no one has a better claim to the title of “master of coercion” than the US. Speaking of “coercion”, the US government forced the military government of Haiti to step down in 1994, and referred to that as “a textbook example of coercive diplomacy”. In 2003, it explicitly characterized $30.3 billion additional military expenses for “coercive diplomacy” as incurred expenses. The US government went all out to hobble competitors like Huawei of China, Alstom of France and Toshiba of Japan and used coercion to force the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), Samsung and other companies to provide chip supply chain data. These are textbook examples of economic coercion.

I would like to reiterate that China always proceeds from the lawful rights and interests of domestic industries and the safety of consumers and adopts appropriate measures on imported products in strict compliance with Chinese laws and regulations as well as WTO rules. This is fully justified, lawful and beyond reproach. The label of “economic coercion” cannot be pinned on China. All attempts to gang up with others to misrepresent facts and resort to malicious hype-up are bound to fail.

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/2511_665403/202202/t20220211_10641714.html

Incredible scenes as anti-vaccine mandate protesters swarm Canberra streets

Up to 10,000 anti-vaccine protesters have taken to the streets of Canberra, with police making multiple arrests during incredible scenes near Parliament House.

Emily Cosenza and Angie Raphael - February 12, 2022

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Three people have been arrested after about 10,000 anti-vaccine mandate protesters swarmed Canberra.

Convoy to Canberra protesters have been gathering at the nation’s capital for the past two weeks, with the main focus on Saturday at Parliament House where people arrived after a march in the morning.

The crowd was so huge that it spread out over the grass areas between Old Parliament House and Parliament House, as well as the lawns to State Circle.

One man was arrested after he breached a fence and ran onto the forecourt area, with police quickly tackling him to the ground.

Two other people were also arrested during the protest, police revealed.

“One man was charged with multiple offences after he drove his truck through a roadblock and two men were taken into custody for breaching the peace,” a spokesperson said.

Police estimated up to 10,000 protesters moved down Commonwealth Ave and congregated in the Federation Mall.

“The crowd was generally well behaved,” a spokesperson said.

Some protesters held signs and flags as they marched, including one that read: “No more mandates.”

Many also joined in to chant: “Sack them all!”

There were fears the protesters might attend a children’s “Superhero Day” vaccination event at the Australian Institute of Sport clinic, but police said that did not eventuate.

“ACT Policing reminds people camping at Exhibition Park in Canberra that they must leave the venue by Sunday to ensure preparations for the Royal Canberra Show can occur,” the spokesperson said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison earlier said Australia was “a free country” and protesters had a right to voice their opinion, but he asked they do it in a “peaceful and respectful way”.

“The Commonwealth government have only ever supported mandates that relate to aged care workers, disability workers and that those that are working in high-risk situations in health system,” he told reporters in Sydney.

“My government has only ever supported mandates that have been recommended right across the country by the medical expert panel and our chief medical officers.

“All other mandates that relate to vaccines have been imposed unilaterally by state governments.”

Protesters had indicated they were displeased with the way the Morrison Government had handled the pandemic, but the Prime Minister said Australia had the lowest death rate of almost any country in the world.

“We have one of the strongest economies to come through Covid that of any country in the world, particularly advanced economies, and we have one of the highest vaccination rates with 95 per cent of our population over the age of 16 having had their vaccinations — this is what is keeping Australia safe,” he said.

“We now have a record that is the envy of almost any other country in the world.

“Now, if others want to criticise us for that, they are at liberty to do so.

“If others want to seek to undermine that recovery or pretend that they would have done things differently or got better outcomes, well, there are plenty of armchair critics out there.”

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Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese told the protesters to “go home”.

“It doesn’t advance any cause, it doesn’t assist any of the nonsense we’ve seen of people dressed up in military camouflage walking around Canberra,” he said.

“If you think that’s the way that you win support for your view in Australia, I think you’re very wrong.

“I think these people need to just go home and think about the facts which are out there and the facts are that you are far more likely to avoid getting Covid if you’re fully vaccinated.

“The fact is that if you do get Covid, you’re far less likely to have an acute health concern if you’re fully vaccinated and you’re far less likely to suffer death if you’re fully vaccinated.”

Meanwhile, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson took to social media saying: “I hope you’re all behind this Convoy to Canberra.”

“Convoy to Canberra has arrived,” she also posted.

“Say hi if you’re here and see me.”

ACT Police had been prepared for the AIS event to be disrupted.

The dress-up event was aimed at children aged five to 11 to “channel their inner superpowers” and make the experience of lining up for their first jab more enjoyable.

“ACT Policing would like to reassure all of Canberra’s young superheroes, and anyone attending the AIS Arena mass vaccination clinic (on Saturday), that they will be able to do so safely,” ACT Police wrote on social media on Friday.

“There will be a police presence with a zero-tolerance approach to anyone who seeks to intimidate or harass those attending the clinic.”

Lifeline Canberra decided to close the doors to its book fair to keep its staff and patrons safe during the protest.

The Capital Regional Farmers Market was also cancelled due to safety concerns and logistics for customers.

“It is a devastating result for our farmers and producers following on from the last two years,” the market’s social media post read.

Protesters have targeted Parliament House and other parts of the nation’s capital over the past two weeks.

There have been major disruptions to traffic with the Convoy to Canberra clogging roads and police putting measures in place to restrict access to parliament.

Demonstrators marched through Canberra’s city centre on Thursday afternoon, then rallied through the courts precinct on Friday morning, with some moving to the city police station later in the day.

https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/news/antivaccine-mandate-ralliers-potentially-target-vaccine-hub-hosting-childrens-event/news-story/9e98221eab0c5436f122209a38d56102

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The back-and-forth continued, with Lake saying Australians “don’t even have any freedom”.

Lake said: “What I don’t like is that people are being held in prison without being charged, that’s un-American, maybe they get away with that stuff in Australia.”

“Perhaps in Australia because you’ve given your rights away, you melted down all of your guns and you guys have no freedom, but you find that okay.

“But here in America we do things differently, we have something called the US Constitution and we have rights,” she said.

Lake doubled down, saying Australians would be better off having more guns.

“I feel so sorry for the people in Australia, (who) have no power, the only thing keeping us from being Australia right now or Canada is our Second Amendment, and we will never ever let that go,” she said.

“What we saw happening in Australia, internment camps, and people are being forced — if they’ve encountered anybody with Covid — to be locked into a quarantine camp is the most horrifying thing I think I’ve ever seen a government do,” she said before giving Bartlett one final question.

Bartlett replied: “Would it have been better on the sixth of January if the military had been involved.”

Lake replied: “Why do you keep asking me about the sixth of January?”

Bartlett replied: “It was a watershed moment for you, don’t you agree? A thousand assaults, 769 people charged, you don’t think that was the big event?”

Lake replied: “Liam you can keep asking the same questions and I‘ve already given you my answer, I do appreciate your time.

“I appreciate all the effort you went through to do the interview, and I thank you so much for your time, you‘ve asked the question three, three times, and I believe I’ve answered it.

“So thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it.”

Bartlett went in for one more question, but Lake had already stood up and began removing her microphone. “So when the going gets tough the tough get going?” he asked.

“I gave you 15 minutes, we promised you 15 minutes sir,” she said.

Bartlett replied: “Well no, you promised us 30 minutes actually yesterday.”

Lake replied: “Well I never promised 30 minutes, I told my staff, 15.”

Bartlett replied: “Really? I don’t think that’s true.”

Lake replied: “I‘m sorry you asked the same question three times and wasted your time.”

Bartlett said: “Well I’m sorry you couldn’t bring yourself to see the world in a different light.”

“Well are you a journalist or unbiased journalist, or not? Why are you trying to tell me how I should see the world,” she said.

“You’re a journalist.”

Bartlett replied: “No, you don’t get any questions to me, you‘ve cut me off you don’t get any questions to me.”

Lake said: “Why are you trying to tell me as a journalist how to see the world, I don’t understand that. It’s not a journalists job to tell me how to see the world, it’s a journalists job to ask questions that are not biased and I didn’t get from you.”

Bartlett replied: “Why aren’t you open and accountable to the facts, and real evidence?”

Lake said: “Oh boy, I’m happy to send you some of the facts.”

Bartlett said: “This is the way Trump people do it, yeah? This is what happens. You have one narrative and that’s it, you can think out of the box.”

Lake said: “Sir I believe you have that narrative”

The pair continued back-and-forth for several more minutes.

“I don‘t I don’t live in Australia, are you actually a respectable journalist there or are you kind of considered a joke?” Lane asked.

Bartlett replied: “Incredible. Incredible. That’s the Donald Trump way, it’s fake news, all of a sudden it’s fake news, if you have a different narrative it’s fake news.”

The pair continued, before Lake walked out of the room.

“That guy is a complete nut, seriously, a complete insane person. Do people in Australia listen to him?” she said while walking out.

“That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced,” she said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/60-minutes-liam-bartlett-in-fiery-clash-with-trumpbacked-republican-candidate-kari-lake/news-story/7b89d83c9186b8507cff5fdebf43eb36

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY1dLJ7YKAk

Neo-Nazi unmasked as former Young Liberal

Nick McKenzie - February 12, 2022

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On January 19, a propaganda video depicting three masked neo-Nazis burning an Aboriginal flag, performing Sieg Heil salutes and reciting a white supremacist manifesto began circulating on social media. The video was poorly filmed and produced, reeking of a desperate effort to gain publicity and followers for a new extremist group.

Yet it began to gain traction with mainstream news outlets, largely because it singled out Greens senator Lidia Thorpe, who is also Indigenous. The senator’s name, alongside a vicious racist slur, was written on a sign behind the men. Soon, terror experts were warning of the potential for the video to incite attacks or further harassment of Thorpe, a development the anonymous neo-Nazi propagandist who uploaded the video greeted with glee in subsequent online postings.

But this neo-Nazi, who uses the online alias “John Dixon”, also made a mistake. Among hundreds of vicious and violent online posts – including those referencing the Christchurch terrorist – he left a breadcrumb trail of clues pointing to his true identity.

These clues led to an Australian mobile phone number and an approximate home address in outer suburban Melbourne. Further data mining fully lifted John Dixon’s black mask: he is a Victorian man and former Melbourne University Young Liberals office holder named Stefan Eracleous.

A deep dive into Eracleous’s online posts, court cases and interactions with other neo-Nazis provides a case study of what ASIO’s director-general, Mike Burgess, warned this week is an expanding and deeply disturbing trend: the descent of young Australians – some as young as 13 – into extremism.

The reaction of police to the flag-burning video offers its own insights. It highlights the challenge for security agencies in responding to this growing pool of radicalised Australians whose conduct may not cross a legal line but who may be fanning the flames of civil unrest and violence. Law enforcement sources say this challenge is amplified by the sheer number of online videos and posts published by extremist figures that threaten politicians in the wake of every significant COVID-related announcement.

As Burgess put it on Wednesday, “it’s harder to get a sense of what is simply big talk and what is genuine planning for violence”. Correspondence sighted by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald reveals that federal police initially advised Thorpe they could do little about the video because, despite being offensive, it “does not appear to contain material which constitutes a criminal offence”.

“As the material has been posted on YouTube, which is owned by Google, the advised course of action is to follow the YouTube process for reporting inappropriate material,” the Australian Federal Police wrote to Thorpe’s office on January 21. The senator declined to comment.

Since then, Victorian counter-terror authorities have begun assessing the video and the AFP is also understood to be making further inquiries.

Assessing the threat posed by Eracleous – who is in his late 20s and no longer a Liberal Party member – and the small but loud minority of Australians who, online or at rallies, discuss hanging politicians and acquiring firearms, is now devouring huge police and intelligence resources. According to Burgess, combatting rising radicalism should be viewed not only as a concern for security agencies but as a whole-of-society problem.

“As a nation, we need to reflect on why some teenagers are hanging Nazi flags and portraits of the Christchurch killer on their bedroom walls and why others are sharing beheading videos,” Burgess said in his annual threat assessment speech on Wednesday night.

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Eracleous’ proclivity for extremity first emerged publicly in 2014, while he was serving as treasurer of the Melbourne University Young Liberals.

He was outed by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald as one of a small group of Young Liberals posting highly offensive sexist and homophobic material. In one post, Eracleous described feminist author Germaine Greer, as a “lying f-cking c-m guzzling slut … and a union member”.

He left mainstream politics and disappeared from public view, spending the next few years mixing in Melbourne’s neo-Nazi scene. In 2019, court records reveal he hit the radar of Victoria Police’s counter-terror command intelligence unit. Eracleous was charged with using a carriage service to offend, but he avoided a criminal conviction in July 2020 by admitting to his offending as part of a program aimed at redirecting first-time offenders away from the criminal justice system.

The court case did not steer him away from radicalism. Rather, his online postings – using several aliases on encrypted platforms – became more extreme. After the Christchurch terror attack in March 2019, Eracleous began posting the number “51” in his messages as a sly nod to other neo-Nazis signalling his support of the attack, which left 51 people dead.

“Quick announcement. It’s my birthday today. Let’s celebrate by spamming 51,” Eracleous wrote in one online post.

In late 2020, his online footprints suggest Eracleous (who did not respond to repeated efforts to contact him) began mixing with the National Socialist Network. The NSN was Australia’s most active neo-Nazi group before two of its key leaders were arrested by police last year, around the same time its inner workings were exposed in a joint investigation by The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes.

Last March, just before these arrests and media exposure crippled the group, one of its leaders, Bradley Ingram, used an online alias to announce in an encrypted neo-Nazi forum that Eracleous was “now officially under the protection of the National Socialist Network”.

Eracleous’ dealings with the NSN almost certainly placed him again on the radar of state and federal security agencies, who regard the group as a key intelligence gathering target. Yet there is no evidence Eracleous or the NSN as a whole is considered a terror threat. While three of the group’s members or adherents are facing terror charges, the danger of the NSN – according to state and federal officials not authorised to speak publicly – is as an incubator for political violence.

These sources also describe the NSN as a disorganised, amateurish outfit, riven with internal conflicts. The reason Eracleous needed the group’s protection was that, according to social media posts, he had fallen out with other neo-Nazis.

A high proportion of the NSN’s members have also engaged in alleged criminal activity, drawing constant police attention and charges. Court records reveal that in the next month, two mid-ranking NSN members will face the Melbourne Magistrates Court over summary (less serious) criminal offences: Dean Lynch, for possessing a prohibited weapon, and another young Victorian man for family violence order breaches.

The charges point to the quiet strategy of NSW and Victorian police counter-terror commands to intensely monitor members of active neo-Nazi groups and seek to lay charges, no matter how minor, when they transgress the law.

Official sources also make clear that agencies don’t regard the threat posed by the neo-Nazi movement Eracleous is part of as comparable to that posed by groups such as Islamic State. “Most of these NSN guys are blowhards,” says one security source. Still, this doesn’t discount the intense fear they can cause those they troll on video and posts, including female politicians.

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In his Wednesday address to political and security leaders and the media, Burgess said that while his agency’s terror case load had dropped, radicalism in Australia was rising. “Some Australians believe the government’s approach to vaccinations and lockdowns infringed their freedoms. And in a small number of cases, grievance turned to violence,” he said.

If Eracleous is your typical suburban neo-Nazi, the assortment of groups who participated in the recent protests outside the nation’s parliaments cover the political spectrum, with concerns ranging from lockdowns to paedophiles and other QAnon-style conspiracies.

Policing briefings about one of the most active groups, Sovereign Citizens, sighted by this masthead state its members aren’t considered a terror threat. The group believes the power of the state is illegitimate and has recently escalated a campaign involving attending police stations to deliver arrest warrants that name politicians.

Yet the briefings also make clear that concern some members could cross over into violence requires policing vigilance. At least two Sovereign Citizens have recently been arrested, one over an alleged “incitement to deprive liberty” and another for firearms offensives.

The White Rose Society, an anti-fascist research group that engages in deep internet dives to uncover and document extremist behaviour, has recently analysed hundreds of posts and videos uploaded by key members or affiliates of the Sovereign Citizens. Along with the bizarre conspiracy theories they peddle are consistent references to acquiring guns, liaising with veterans or police with firearms experience and using violence as a means of political expression.

In a Zoom chat this month, one of the group’s affiliates was recorded saying that “peaceful is lawful, but sometimes you need a sophisticated application of force”. Another extremist influencer responded: “that’s what we’re organising … only if everything else fails.”

A small number of politicians also appear willing to legitimise extremists. This week, federal politician Craig Kelly escorted a notorious right-wing extremist figure, Simeon Boikov, into Federal Parliament. Boikov leads a far-right Russian nationalist group in Australia and, according to official sources, has been on the intelligence services’ radar since at least 2014.

To date, the various extremist groups seeking to recruit and radicalise more Australians appear to have had limited success in signing up military veterans. White Rose has identified nine ex-military members who have recently played key roles in extremist groups agitating for political insurrection. This targeting of veterans is not anywhere near the scale of American militia and far-right cells, but is still deeply concerning to ASIO and the Australian Defence Force, which has increased its vetting of members to identify budding extremists.

Security agencies hope some agitators will lose motivation with the relaxing of pandemic-linked restrictions, although a new wave of infections or other international events, such as conflict in Ukraine (where neo-Nazi militias seek to recruit foreign fighters) could help radicalise more Australians.

Says Burgess: “We assess that these tensions and the associated possibility of violence will persist.”

https://www.theage.com.au/national/neo-nazi-unmasked-as-former-young-liberal-20220211-p59vpo.html

Ghislaine Maxwell lawyers cannot keep retrial arguments under seal, judge rules

Lawyers want new trial after juror Scotty David gave interviews in which he said he had been sexually abused as a child

Victoria Bekiempis - 12 Feb 2022

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Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers cannot keep sealed their detailed legal arguments about a juror in her trial who might not have disclosed childhood sex abuse during jury selection, a judicial decision issued Friday said.

Judge Alison Nathan wrote: “[The] defendant’s motion to temporarily seal, in their entirety, all documents related to the motion for a new trial, is denied.”

This ruling stems from Maxwell’s filing of detailed arguments for a new trial, relating to this juror, under seal.

Maxwell was found guilty on 29 December of sex trafficking and associated counts for facilitating Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of girls, some as young as 14. Epstein, a financier and convicted sex offender, was apprehended in July 2019 for sex trafficking minor teens. Epstein killed himself approximately one month later in a New York City jail while awaiting trial.

The arguments on sealing documents stem from controversy about Juror 50, who has been identified as Scotty David. After Maxwell’s trial, David gave interviews where he claimed to have been sexually abused as a child.

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Maxwell’s lawyers claimed that filing their defense documents publicly, before Nathan makes a decision about a hearing or retrial, “will provide a roadmap of the defense’s examination of Juror 50 and will allow him to plan out and tailor his responses, or even potentially spoliate evidence, to paint himself and his conduct in the best light possible”.

David publicly said that he told other panelists about this sexual abuse during deliberations, allowing them to understand circumstances from a victim’s perspective.

David’s statements about alleged abuse spurred questions because potential jurors filed out questionnaires as part of the selection process. These questionnaires inquired about sexual abuse.

David reportedly said that he did not remember a question on abuse but said he had answered every question truthfully. In the wake of David’s statements, prosecutors asked Nathan to investigate his comments. Maxwell’s lawyers promptly asked for a hearing and new trial.

In issuing her decision about sealing, Nathan said: “The court is unpersuaded by the defendant’s concern that media interest in the motion warrants temporary sealing of the documents in their entirety.”

Nathan said that both sides must propose “narrowly tailored” redactions. It is unclear when these redacted documents will be made public.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/feb/11/ghislaine-maxwell-lawyers-motion-juror-retrial

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/17318376/united-states-v-maxwell/?order_by=desc

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612/gov.uscourts.nysd.539612.596.0.pdf

The global ‘freedom movement’ is a carnival of crank and conspiracy – and very dangerous

I spent a year undercover in QAnon. Don’t let the ridiculousness distract from the threat

Van Badham - 12 Feb 2022

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The far right “trucker convoy” that has paralysed Ottawa might be singularly shocking, but what disturbs the most is it’s not unique.

“Freedom” protests similar in form and simultaneously nebulous in broadly anti-vax/anti-mandate political goals have materialised in Britain, France and New Zealand. A convoy claiming to originate from across Europe is making its way towards Brussels. An ongoing gathering that locals alternately describe as “Spring Break for QAnon” or “Camp Covid” is encamped outside Australian Parliament House in Canberra.

Across these countries, protestors appear as a wild herd of “sovcit”, anti-vaxxer, QAnonner and more nefarious fellow travellers, alongside some more ordinary people. Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether social media content about these events has been gathered by extremism monitors, or comedians.

Participants unwilling to be injected with a free vaccine safely used on hundreds of millions of people further advise each other that drinking one’s own wee is curative and somehow “camel urine deals with cancer”. Monitors observe attendees costumed as paramedics, pilots and deceased Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Someone really wears a tinfoil hat.

In New Zealand, the monitors themselves hijacked the Telegram and Zello channels the protestors use to organise. They’ve sown chaos and crammed the convoy’s Spotify playlist with songs like Redneck Piece of White Trash, Why Don’t You Get a Job and Dumb Fuck.

In Canada, protestors have used their vehicles to blockade entire Ottawa neighbourhoods, erecting jumping castles and even saunas. Participants stiffly stage ceremonies to anoint one another faux powers of police. Amid the carnival of crank it all reads like character-based black comedy … but this investment in a parallel reality is not satire. It’s not performance. It’s complete. It’s terrifying.

Wherever this “freedom movement” manifests, a similar cast of characters emerges. Light-in-the-eyes zealots holler conspiracy theories. Grifters solicit to camera like a roll of tabloid clickbait. Burly, closed-mouth types appear to be handling secretive logistics. Around them are impassioned, often inarticulate – and poorly-costumed – clowns.

Don’t let the ridiculousness distract from the threat.

I spent a year undercover in the broadly QAnon movement researching a book; I understand well why democratic citizens may struggle to take seriously the crossed streams of alien lizard aficionados, drink-your-own-wee health enthusiasts and those people who believe democrats eat children’s faces. Even while besieged in his capital and struggling to contain the protests, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau hasn’t yet called in the army; he’s made the point that in more than 80%-vaxxed Canada, those protesting vaccine mandates are indeed a “fringe” – the truckers aren’t backed by their unions, more than 90% of their industry is vaccinated. The tomfoolery in Canberra could not be considered a representative movement of Australians either. Like New Zealanders and the Europeans, we’re a country with a high vaccination rate too.

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But the relevant historical lesson is that the threat to democracy doesn’t come from the proportion of the people these groups can claim to represent. It’s about the size of the damage they are willing to do. Writing off Canberra’s buffoon insurgency just as a loud thing blocking the carpark is a mistake.

What was learned from last year’s United States Capitol attack of 6 January and Melbourne’s violent anti-lockdown protests was that people don’t have to be able to comprehend the politics of the movement they’re in to be weaponised by them. The swastikas, confederate flags and other sly hate symbols that appeared at protests go wilfully unheeded by the wellness-influenced anti-vaxxers and others literally marching beside them. William Saletan recently made the frightening point that those Americans who have become the greatest threat to their republic are those who’ve been convinced by propaganda lies that they’re saving it.

Canadian researchers claim what’s now happening in Ottowa is both driven by the cultural narratives of the American right and simultaneously serving a propaganda function as a proxy battlefront for it. The “trucker protest” has been sustained by American money pouring into it by the millions. The likes of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are making positive talking points of the actions as “standing up for freedom”, perpetuating the same kind of myths Cruz and others made last year insisting pro-vax Australia had descended into some sort of totalitarian dictatorship.

Different countries’ protests may claim they’re just “inspired” by one another, but a chilling tactical similarity to the protests suggests a deeper level of international coordination. Last year, the Logically group revealed Melbourne’s protests occurred among worldwide action devised and organised by extremists from Germany. Supposedly local organisers in Canada and Australia have been tracked to foreign servers, operating hacked accounts. Observe now how the same behaviours – from shared language, icons and slogans to their direct organising tactics on the ground – are common across the protests. Note that their political targets are consistently the apparatus of democratic government itself.

The street-level participants of these protests don’t have to be slick, admirable or coherent to be useful to this movement – just credulous, unquestioning and willing to be mobilised. Where the protest presence grows, so do arson attacks and warnings of escalating violence.

The Museum of Australian Democracy was recently set on fire; it’s time to face we are in the era of Brownshirts Without Borders. Unless we can formulate international tactics for dealing with them, it’s not just Ottawa that’s under siege. It’s democracy in the west.

Van Badham is a theatre-maker and author of QAnon And On: A Short and Shocking History of Internet Conspiracy Cults. An occasional broadcaster, critic and trade union feminist, she writes columns for the Guardian and lives in Melbourne.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/12/the-global-freedom-movement-is-a-carnival-of-crank-and-conspiracy-and-very-dangerous

‘Defend democracy’: The race to tackle conspiracy theories this election

Caitlin Fitzsimmons - February 12, 2022

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The main goal of the thousands of protesters gathering in the national capital in recent weeks is to oppose COVID-19 vaccination mandates.

Among them is former special forces soldier Riccardo Bosi, who has a bigger agenda: calling for the Governor-General to sack the Parliament and install an executive council to take over running elections from the Australian Electoral Commission.

In several videos posted on social media last week, Mr Bosi told his fellow protesters at EPIC – the Exhibition Park in Canberra – that the electoral commission can’t be trusted.

“The AEC recommended recently to the government to use Dominion vote-counting machines,” he said. “Do you think you’re going to get a free and fair election under these bastards?”

Mr Bosi’s views are at odds with the vast majority of the Australian public, who overwhelmingly trust the electoral commission. For the past three federal elections, the routine post-electoral follow-up has found nine out of 10 voters agree the AEC conducted the election “fairly and impartially”.

Despite it being a minority view, the AEC was quick to jump in.

On both Twitter and Facebook, the AEC rejected the claims as “completely false and very disappointing”, and shared a video titled The Dominion Conspiracy Theory it already had in the can.

Dominion is a large supplier of voting machines used in US elections.

Mr Bosi, who warns people in a number of videos not to talk to the media, did not respond to a request for comment made through his AustraliaOne party website.

The response to the Bosi video is just the latest example of the electoral commission’s increasingly assertive approach to correcting facts. AEC director of media and digital engagement, Evan Ekin-Smyth, who runs the social media team, confirmed a policy of setting the record straight.

“A key part of the AEC’s thinking and our role is that if we don’t defend Australia’s democracy from potential disinformation about the electoral process, who will?” Mr Ekin-Smyth said.

Both Parliament and intelligence agencies have growing concern about misinformation (any incorrect information) and disinformation (a subset of misinformation that is deliberately deceptive) undermining Australian elections, amid growing distrust of elections in Western democracies internationally, especially in the United States.

Mr Ekin-Smyth, who manages the social media team, said it was not the role of the AEC to fact-check politicians, but it was very much in its remit to correct information and answer questions about how elections run – everything from people asking why pencils are used instead of pens to suggestions that the electoral commission is not politically neutral.

The AEC’s channels include its website, AEC TV on YouTube, Facebook including an Indigenous-specific Facebook page, Twitter and LinkedIn, and it has a watching brief on TikTok and Reddit. Mr Ekin-Smyth’s team uses a software package called Falcon for third-party monitoring, and will frequently insert itself into conversations where it has not been tagged. When necessary, it asks platforms to remove content.

Mr Ekin-Smyth said his team do not have the capacity to monitor social media conversations in languages other than English, and cannot see private messages or inside private Facebook groups.

Reset Australia, the local affiliate of a global not-for-profit organisation working to counter digital threats to democracy, says this leaves large gaps. Executive director Chris Cooper said misinformation often starts in closed Facebook groups.

“It builds a following and then explodes out into public Facebook but by that stage, in the context of an election, it’s too late,” Mr Cooper said.

He also said it was not wise to rely on the goodwill of the social media platforms and their willingness to take down material, when the revelations of whistleblowers such as ex-Facebook employee Frances Haugen showed they consistently put engagement and profit above the greater good.

The big technology companies signed the Australian Code of Practice on Disinformation and Misinformation last year, but Mr Cooper said the code was fundamentally flawed, being written by industry and entirely voluntary.

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The Senate’s Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media, established in 2019, also has questions about how well the code is working. In interim recommendations published in December, the select committee recommended the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s report into the functioning of the code be publicly released as a matter of priority.

A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs said the Electoral Integrity Assurance Taskforce – a multi-agency body chaired by the AEC – had not identified any foreign interference that undermined the integrity of the 2019 election, but had a watching brief for the 2022 election and was testing scenarios with a number of social media companies.

Foreign interference is one threat, but homegrown conspiracy theories spread and reinforced by echo chambers on social media are another – one that counter-espionage agency ASIO highlighted in its annual threat assessment last week.

Director-General Mike Burgess said the pandemic had sent online radicalisation into overdrive because isolated individuals spent more time in online environments where they were “exposed to extremist messaging, misinformation and conspiracy theories” without the circuit breakers of everyday life.

The storming of the US Capitol last January, and the large number of Americans who believe former president Donald Trump’s repeated claims he won the 2020 election, are a cautionary tale of what can happen when citizens lose confidence in electoral integrity.

Meanwhile, the US has a long history of voter suppression – usually of Black voters who are more likely to vote Democrat – and foreign interference is no longer just a hypothetical, given intelligence agencies confirmed Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election when Mr Trump was elected.

Mr Ekin-Smyth said the globalisation of media consumption means many Australian voters across the political spectrum were importing perceived problems from overseas.

“What we see on our online channels is a lot of reference to the United States and some of the suggestions about what may or may not have gone on there with the electoral process,” he said.

“The comparisons are often not very useful because the American electoral system is so vastly different.”

The AEC has won fans for its proactive and humorous approach to correct misinformation on social media – but also critics.

Recent tweets, for example, include “can’t afford shoe-strings, spent all of our budget on cardboard” in response to someone who said the electoral commission operated on a shoestring budget.

Mr Ekin-Smyth said the aim was to “talk like real people, rather than robots” so the messages could be easily understood and shared, but it did not mean any lack of respect for the serious nature of the election process.

“I think we’re irreverent when the subject matter demands it, po-faced when it demands it and a range of other styles – really treating each interaction on its merits,” he said.

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But there are pros and cons to every approach.

Monitoring tools that mean the AEC is apprised of every utterance about the election made in public on social media can mean they wind up replying to the same accounts multiple times, making the individuals feel hounded by a government institution. And what is humorous to one person can be “snark” to another.

One woman who was on the receiving end of a fact-check on Twitter over a speculative tweet said she subsequently received “torrents of abuse” from third parties, and she believes the way the account engaged with her contributed to that outcome.

She asked to be anonymous to avoid adding fuel to the fire.

“I want to be clear that I absolutely respect and admire the work that the AEC does in running elections – they wrangle the bloody cat every three years,” she said. “But I think the social media team is completely out of control – if their role is to educate, they can educate and stop with the snark.”

The AEC has blocked a handful of users on social media, citing personal abuse, raising the question of whether a government body should block citizens and the fine line between trolling and dissenting voices.

Greg Jericho, author of The Rise of the Fifth Estate, Social Media and Blogging in Australian Politics and an active Twitter user, said the AEC’s use of humour in social media was “fantastic” and in his view blocking is “acceptable but not preferable”.

“Were I the AEC I would just mute those accounts who in my view have been attacking them with some pretty outlandish conspiracy claims,” Jericho said.

“Government accounts should only block as a last resort, but for those who manage the account, it is also in effect their work role and dealing with abuse in work is not something they should have to put up with just because it is an official account.”

Another big disadvantage to rebutting misinformation is whether it actually changes hearts and minds.

“I did have a conversation with one individual via the AEC account where the indication provided to me was that the more that we engage, the more likely a certain cohort of people are to not believe what we’re saying,” Mr Ekin-Smyth said.

“I don’t quite understand that. If you want factual information, surely you want to go to the most authoritative source of that information and if it’s about the election process, well, that’s us.”

Mr Cooper said this experience mirrored several research studies both in Australia and abroad that found providing factual information to correct misinformation or misunderstanding on social media can sometimes lead to that person doubling down on their belief.

“The broader trend is that networks that traffic in misinformation – and currently that’s a mix of anti-lockdown, COVID science and climate science – when you dig down into some of the values that are informing their views, and enabling those individuals to be susceptible to disinformation, there is often a very consistent anti-government sentiment,” he said.

“When that’s part of the belief system, it’s hard for the AEC to provide that information because they don’t have legitimacy or trust in the eyes of that person.”

Certainly, the AEC’s attempted debunking of Mr Bosi’s claim has not stopped him and his followers repeating it all week.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/defend-democracy-the-race-to-tackle-conspiracy-theories-this-election-20220111-p59nfq.html

https://twitter.com/LizardHumanoid/status/1491181380344377346

https://twitter.com/AusElectoralCom/status/1491184709854167043

Australian embassy in Kyiv evacuated as Russia invasion of Ukraine feared

Lisa Visentin and Shane Wright - February 13, 2022

The Australian government has ordered the evacuation of its embassy in Kyiv amid concerns that Russian troops massing on Ukraine’s border are preparing to invade.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the remaining three staff members at the Australian embassy had been directed to leave as the situation becomes increasingly dangerous, and he condemned Russia’s actions as “utterly unacceptable”.

“I want to send a very clear message on behalf of Australia – a liberal democracy who believes in freedom and the sovereignty of states, not just in Europe but in our own region as well – that the autocratic, unilateral actions of Russia to be threatening and bullying Ukraine is something that is completely and utterly unacceptable,” Mr Morrison said.

He said the government had already relocated other Australian-based staff and their families from the mission in Kyiv.

“They have already departed some time ago,” Mr Morrison said. “We have three remaining staff, and they have been instructed now to move – as other Five Eye countries are – to Lviv.

“But the situation, as you are all hearing as well, is deteriorating and reaching a very dangerous stage.”

Mr Morrison thanked the three staff members, who had remained to provide consular support to Australians, many of whom were dual Australian-Ukrainian citizens.

Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said the Australian government had established a temporary office in Lviv while operations were suspended at the Kyiv embassy.

She said the government’s advice remained that Australians leave Ukraine immediately by commercial means. Security conditions could change at short notice.

“Russian military action in Ukraine will severely limit our ability to provide consular assistance to Australians,” Senator Payne said.

“Australia continues to support Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. We remain in close contact with our Five Eyes and other like-minded partners on the ground.”

Labor leader Anthony Albanese said there was no excuse for Russia’s actions.

“Russia should back off,” he told Sky News. “The threats and intimidation that’s occurring to a sovereign state like the Ukraine are entirely inappropriate in 2022, and we respect Ukraine sovereignty and that should be respected by all, including by Russia.”

Australians in Ukraine seeking consular assistance should call the Australian government 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre on 1300 555 135 or +61 2 6261 3305 outside Australia.

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/australian-embassy-in-kyiv-evacuated-as-russia-invasion-of-ukraine-feared-20220213-p59w03.html

Millionaire corporate raider Ron Brierley, 84, is released from jail after just four months due to ill health despite being found with 40,000 vile child porn images

AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS - 13 February 2022

Once-feared corporate raider Ron Brierley has been released from jail after his sentence for possessing child abuse material was reduced.

The multi-millionaire New Zealander businessman had his knighthood revoked when authorities stopped him at the airport before he boarded a plane to Fiji and found thousands of the images with more discovered at his Point Piper house.

The 84-year-old's legal team challenged his 14 month term in Sydney's Long Bay jail earlier in February, citing a deterioration of his medical conditions.

His sentence had a non-parole period of seven months, which was due to expire on May 13, but he was deemed eligible for release three months earlier after the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal allowed the challenge on February 1.

Justices Robert Beech-Jones, Ian Harrison and Des Fagan re-sentenced Brierley to 10 months with a non-parole period of four months.

Noting Brierley's declining health, his barrister Tim Game SC particularly referred to the inability of the jail's medical services to deal with the aftermath of the removal of skin cancers from his leg.

While a dermatologist said he needed to be hospitalised for three weeks after surgery which included a skin graft, he was returned to his cell on the same day.

Despite the need for dressing changes on his large wound, Brierley had to rely on help from another inmate and the stitches broke.

'The resources of Justice Health to deal with a geriatric prisoner are stretched beyond capability, at least with respect to this man,' Justice Fagan said.

Brierley - who amassed a fortune of estimated at $200 million through his corporate raids and ventures - was stopped by Australian Border Force officers at Sydney Airport as he was preparing to board a flight to Fiji about 6.30am on December 17, 2019.

'The man's carry-on luggage was searched before the contents of his laptop and electronic storage devices were reviewed, which are alleged to have contained large amounts of child abuse material,' police previously said.

A search was then conducted of his house in the exclusive Sydney harbourside suburb of Point Piper where thousands more images were found.

Brierley pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing child abuse material with more than 40,000 images, many being duplicates, of prepubescent girls in swimwear, underwear or other clothing, in sexually suggestive poses being found.

He also had two sexually explicit stories involving child victims and an image of a naked girl posing on a bed.

The charges led to his being stripped of his knighthood after the NZ Prime Minister led calls and his name was erased from the many organisations he worked with.

Brierley's arrest followed a four-month investigation by detectives after an anonymous tip-off in August 2019.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10506879/Millionaire-corporate-raider-Ron-Brierley-84-released-jail-just-four-months.html

Unsolved mysteries behind famous Prince Andrew photo

The photo of Prince Andrew, Virginia Giuffre and Ghislaine Maxwell is now famous – but some basic facts about the shot have never been established.

Daniela Elser - February 13, 2022

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In 2001, financier, and later registered sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein gave the then 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre (nee Roberts) a small yellow Kodak camera. It might have been the sort of simple gift millions of teenagers would receive but the snaps that she would take with the present would, two decades later, trigger the biggest crisis in modern royal history.

Later this year, around spring time in Australia, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York’s name will appear on the docket in federal court in New York where he is facing a civil sex abuse trial.

Ms Giuffre, who is now a Perth-based mother-of-three, has accused the 61-year-old royal of “rape in the first degree,” alleging that she was sexually abused by the Queen’s son on three occasions.

It was nearly exactly ten years ago that this current crisis started when, in late February 2011, the now defunct News of the World published a photo of Andrew walking in Central Park with Epstein, by then a convicted sex offender. A week later, the Mail on Sunday published the first interview with Ms Giuffre, reporting that the teen had “been flown across the world to be introduced to the Prince.” (It has been reported that she was paid $226,000 for the interview.)

Crucially, she also produced the now notorious photo of herself with Andrew and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. (Ms Giuffre has said of why the image was taken, “I wanted something to show my mom.”)

That image could now play a central role in Andrew’s case, with the revelation by the Daily Beast recently that Andrew will “continue to maintain his reservations about the authenticity” of the image at the jury trial.

Ms Giuffre says that the shot was taken in March 2001 on the first night that she met the duke and that they first had sex. Andrew, however, during his cataclysmic Newsnight interview in 2019 told host Emily Maitlis he had ‘investigated’ the authenticity of the image and that “Nobody can prove whether or not that photograph has been doctored but I don’t recollect that photograph ever being taken.”

Who was behind the camera?

In the image we can see Andrew, Ms Giuffre and a smiling Maxwell, inside the latter’s home in the exclusive London suburb of Belgravia. In an uncropped version released in 2019, a blurry thumb can be seen on the right, the work of the clumsy photographer.

So who was behind the camera? Ms Giuffre has said that it was Epstein himself who took the shot.

However, Andrew told Maitlis that “I’ve never seen Epstein with a camera in my life” and that “it’s very difficult to be able to prove it but I don’t remember that photograph ever being taken.”

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Is that Ghislaine’s house or not?

What you would think would be one of the easiest things to prove, or disprove, about the photo has never actually been checked. That is whether the layout of Maxwell’s home at 69, Stanhope Mews East, actually looks like what you see in the picture. (According to Airmail, in 1994 the Metropolitan Police had investigated whether a possible brothel was being run out of that address.)

The image appears to have been taken on an upstairs floor next to what looks to be a balustrade with a window in the background. Exterior shots of the Stanhope Mews property show six-paned windows that look near-identical to the ones we can see behind Maxwell.

What has never been fully explained is why this has not been undertaken or if it has, what the conclusions might be.

Andrew claimed during his Newsnight debacle that “I don’t think I ever went upstairs in Ghislaine’s house” and when he was asked if he was sure, he told Maitlis: “Yeah, because the dining room and everything was on the ground floor.”

Is the original photo actually in Sydney?

Perhaps the biggest, still unanswered question about the snapshot is, where is the actual physical photo?

In 2016, when Ms Giuffre was being deposed by lawyers for Maxwell she was asked about its location and said that “It’s not in my possession right now” and that it was “probably in some storage boxes.” She also said the image could be at her home or her in-laws’ home in Sydney, saying, “I mean, there’s seven boxes full of Nerf guns, my kids’ toys, photos. I don’t know what other documents would be in there.”

She also revealed in the deposition she had previously given the image to the FBI.

However, in late January, the Daily Beast reported that a “source in Virginia Giuffre’s camp” had said that “they did not know whether Giuffre still has the original of the photo, or whether the original photograph even still existed.”

The man who has seen the original

The version of the image we have all seen is in fact a photo of the original and which was taken by Kiwi snapper Michael Thomas in 2011.

He has no doubts about its authenticity.

“I have always believed it was real,” Thomas told news.com.au this week. “As I have said before it was just an ordinary photo you would of got from a chemist in the days of negatives. Surely if it was fake every media outlet in the world would be getting sued for using it. The fact that isn’t happening, to me says everything.”

In 2019 Thomas told Panorama of when he saw the infamous image, “It wasn’t like she pulled the photo of Prince Andrew out, it was just in among the rest of them. They were just typical teenage snaps. There’s no way that photo is fake.”

The ‘chubby’ finger argument

In August 2019, after Epstein’s suicide two stories appeared in the UK press in the same week quoting ‘friends’ of Andrew’s calling into question “inconsistencies” in the image and attempting to discredit it.

“Look at the picture. It has clearly been faked. Andrew’s fingers appear quite slender, like a girl’s fingers. They are also a strange shade of red,” a friend of Andrew’s told the Telegraph in August 2019. “His real fingers are actually much chubbier – quite small and chubby.”

Meanwhile, around the same time, a source told the Evening Standard: “Look at his fingers in the photo. The duke has quite chubby fingers – they don’t look right.

“Many close to the duke, who know him well, believe this is witch-hunt based on absolutely no evidence.”

However, look at images of Andrew’s hands and they do not immediately appear to look that different to the digits visible in the shot.

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The height question

Another argument put forward to try and cast doubt on the image relies on a supposed issue with the heights of Andrew and Ms Giuffre.

In 2019, the Telegraph reported that “The Duke also believes that he is far taller in real life than he appears in the photograph, it is understood. The source pointed to a picture of Ms Roberts standing next to the model Naomi Campbell, and more recent images showing her alongside other alleged Epstein victims.

“Compare the picture against the others. The Prince is 183cm tall, while Ms Roberts seems to be of below average height,” a source told the paper.

“She certainly appears to be much shorter than Naomi Campbell, who is apparently 177 cm tall.

“So it’s strange that she and the Duke appear to be of similar height in the alleged photo. That doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

However, the Daily Mail has reported that Andrew is around 182 cm and Ms Giuffre is 176 cm, which the photo bears out.

‘Travelling clothes’ and the hugging defence

Andrew himself has offered other very strange arguments which cast doubt on the picture.

“I don’t believe it’s a picture of me in London because … when I go out in London, I wear a suit and a tie,” he said during his Newsnight outing. “That’s what I would describe as … those are my travelling clothes … if I’m going overseas.”

He has also claimed that “as a member of the Royal Family” he was “not one to, as it were, hug and public displays of affection are not something that I do.”

Again, this is where we get to the ‘but’ part of things. Immediately after making the hugging claim, various photos were dugo out of Fleet Street’s archives showing him engaging in what most people would term a “public display of affection” including hugging the Countess of Lichfield at a charity dinner, kissing a bikini-clad woman on the cheek while in the South of France in 2002, and up close and persona with American socialites Chris Von Aspen and Canadian socialite Pascale Bourbeau on two occasions in 2007.

‘Calling BS’

In the wake of Andrew’s Hindenburg-like Newsnight performance, Ms Giuffre was interviewed by the BBC’s Panorama program. Her reaction to the claims that the image had been doctored?

“The people on the inside are going to keep coming up with these ridiculous excuses like his arm was elongated or the photo was doctored,” she said. “I mean I’m calling BS on this.”

The two biggest questions that must be answered

In the fight to prove or disprove the veracity of the shot, there are two key questions that would seem to go a long way to making the case either way: Does the interior shown in the image match the layout of Maxwell’s former property? And where is the original photo?

With speculation swirling that Andrew might try to settle this case before it goes to trial, in this legal stoush, a picture is not simply worth a thousand words but potentially tens of millions of dollars in damages.

Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity-life/royals/unsolved-mysteries-behind-famous-prince-andrew-photo/news-story/b3f883a7df663db2db5de516928ae2b6

https://qanon.pub/#4568

https://qanon.pub/#3152

https://qanon.pub/#4565

Falling into the ‘freedom’ movement … and getting out

Rachael Dexter and Simone Fox Koob - February 13, 2022

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At the height of Melbourne’s anti-lockdown protests, Ash Jackson was a familiar face. Front and centre of screaming crowds, she dutifully waved flags, clashed with police and was arrested several times.

For almost a year she was totally consumed as a follower of the ‘freedom’ movement – entire days were spent online, reading and watching anti-government videos and posts on encrypted social media apps, becoming increasingly paranoid, angry and obsessed. Jackson turned up on the news more than once after being arrested and was shunned by family and friends.

But now she’s out. About eight months after leaving the movement, she still can’t believe the grip it had on her life.

Jackson says if you had asked her a year ago where she might be in 2022, she would have said in a concentration camp for the unvaccinated or engaged in an insurrection after a communist takeover.

“I was thinking by this time … that we’d have an underground movement with weaponry,” says the 48-year-old.

In her small Melbourne apartment, Jackson brings up a YouTube video on her television. It’s a Channel 7 report from February 20, 2021, the day hundreds of protesters marched to the Shrine of Remembrance and ended up being corralled by police at Fawkner Park, where dozens were arrested.

Amid the angry mobs, Jackson points to herself. That day, while attending the protest, she was arrested after marching up to a group of police to conduct a “citizen’s arrest” of the officers for “crimes against humanity”.

“I was so brainwashed,” she says as she watches the chaotic scenes, shaking her head

The ‘freedom’ movement, initially centred around anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine sentiment, saw protesters take to the streets, particularly in Melbourne, every weekend for almost two years to reject COVID health measures.

Last year, as lockdowns lifted, the movement’s leaders shifted their attention to vaccine mandates. This year protesters have descended on Canberra, including on Saturday, talking about everything from the dangers of vaccination to QAnon-adjacent theories about paedophiles within the Australian government.

At the extreme edges are those who claim they are willing, as “sovereign citizens”, to launch a full government takeover – violent or otherwise.

In his latest annual threat assessment, delivered this week, the boss of Australia’s counter-espionage agency ASIO, Mike Burgess, highlights growing concern about online radicalisation during the pandemic, noting vaccine mandates and lockdowns had fuelled extremism that is not “specifically left or right-wing”.

“More time in those online environments — without some of the circuit breakers of everyday life, like family and community engagement, school and work — created more extremists,” he wrote.

The federal government this month announced it would commit more than $60 million to countering violent extremism amid an increase in conspiracy theories during the pandemic and concerns about MPs’ safety, and on Wednesday the Victorian Greens secured a parliamentary inquiry into the growing threat and influence of far-right extremism in Victoria for the same reasons.

But another complex problem has been left in the pandemic’s wake: the path back for thousands of individuals whose lives, livelihoods and personal relationships are in tatters after going down the rabbit hole of these conspiracy theories.

While the path is different for each person, experts and former conspiracy theorists say we urgently need to better understand why and how this descent happens.

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Falling in

Just before the emergence of COVID-19 in early 2020, Jackson was working part-time as a musician; composing music for productions, gigging around Melbourne’s suburbs in cover bands and teaching guitar. Victoria’s initial six-week lockdown drove her out of work. She had no real social interaction for more than two months.

At home, scrolling on her phone, she found anti-lockdown groups starting to call out what they saw as overly harsh measures from an increasingly dangerous police state.

“I stumbled across some things on the internet, and I was like ‘oh this makes sense, I don’t want to be locked down’,” she says. She can’t remember the specific video or post that first touched her conspiracy nerve, but she became a big fan of influencers such as Monica Smit of Reignite Democracy Australia – a lobby group backing Craig Kelly and the United Australia Party – Smit’s partner, podcaster Morgan Jonas, and Avi Yemini from Canada-based right-wing commentary website Rebel News.

“I was slowly finding myself getting brainwashed,” Jackson says. “I kept looking into conspiracy theories, including QAnon. I started rooting for Donald Trump, which was ridiculous. Being trans … he’s not very favourable to us.”

Once a born again Christian, Jackson had left her faith over a decade earlier, ousted from her church for coming out as transgender. It was a deeply wounding experience she still has trouble talking about.

“I’ve sort of been a little bit of a loner [since],” she says. “I found a bit of community in the anti-lockdown movement.”

She became a regular on the front line at Melbourne’s anti-lockdown rallies, coming onto police’s radar for disseminating a handbook on how to thwart officers at protests.

“I got sucked in big time to the point where I was doing … very dodgy illegal stuff that I’m ashamed of now, but at the time I thought it was totally justified,” she says.

She’s visibly distressed about the abuse she hurled at police on the front line.

“I gave them so much shit, I called them every name under the [sun],” she says.

The trouble for policymakers and concerned family members is a lack of information available to help them navigate relationships with loved ones who have succumbed to misinformation.

Conspiracy theories are not new, but in the internet age they grow and morph quickly. Pre-pandemic, QAnon – a theory that the world is run by a cabal of paedophiles who drink the blood of children – was dominant online. Evidence from online support groups suggests that now the overlap between QAnon and anti-vaccination sentiment is strong.

One of the moderators of the 230,000-person Reddit page “QAnon Casualties” is Sydney man Jitarth Jadeja. Five years ago, he returned to Sydney from a university exchange in the United States and was living at home, studying part-time with no job or partner. He became increasingly obsessed with US politics. “I was really basically on my own, on the internet just all day, every day.”

He was shocked when Donald Trump unexpectedly won the presidential election in 2016. His “worldview was shattered”, and he questioned how it could have happened, searching for alternative media and less mainstream social media platforms. Before long, he fell deep into the fast-growing worldwide conspiracy theory of QAnon.

Eighteen months later, a series of lightbulb moments made him realise QAnon was a “con” (he wrote about this experience in a Reddit post which later went viral). He has since talked publicly about his experience, of going down the rabbit hole and climbing back out, to help others understand why people believe in conspiracy movements.

”One thing I’ve found, and this is anecdotal, but I really have found this to be a common trait is that there’s [often] some sort of preceding trauma that occurs before someone falls down a rabbit hole,” Jadeja says.

“For me it was finding out I had ADHD …I think people forget that when COVID hit it was very traumatic for everyone. It happened very quickly.

“I don’t think it was just that people were online more often. People are online all day at work. But it was a trauma … I think people were traumatised and they went looking for answers. So that really expedited the whole conspiracy situation.”

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Research has suggested that conspiracy theories often prosper in times of crisis, with a 2017 study finding that during times of societal upheaval, people’s experiences of fear, uncertainty and being out of control stimulate a motivation to make sense of the situation, increasing their likelihood of turning to conspiracies.

Another study, published in 2018, found that the emotions which make up the psychological origins of believing in conspiracy theories include anxiety, uncertainty, or lacking control. Research conducted by psychology experts in Britain shows that belief in conspiracy theories is particularly strong among people with unsatisfied psychological needs.

Colin Klein, an associate professor at ANU’s School of Philosophy, has studied online conspiracy theory communities. Many people assume the path into misinformation and conspiracy theories is similar to that of a virus, where people bounce around online, get exposed to misinformation and get infected.

Instead, his team’s research, which analysed a large set of Reddit comments, found that those susceptible to conspiracy theories tend to seek out fringe and conspiracy forums “because it fits with either how they’re thinking about the world or experiences they’ve had”.

“And so it looks like people aren’t just passive consumers of information. They’re working towards finding stuff that makes sense to them, or makes sense of the world for them.”

The lightbulb moment

For Jackson, it was her experience with Victoria Police that planted the seed for her escape.

In late May last year, at her last ‘freedom’ protest, she was encouraged by other protesters to throw herself in front of police after receiving a move-on notice.

Police arrested her, while she says the others ran away. “I was kind of thinking, ‘where the hell are my friends?’” she recalls. “They all just buggered off and left me.

“I was confused … so I didn’t give the police a hard time at all. And they said, ‘Look, we’re going to give you a move-on because you’ve been so cooperative’.”

The following week Jackson was arrested at home and taken in for questioning over her role in the protests and the anti-police booklet circulating online.

When the formal interview was over, she says officers spoke to her candidly about their life, their families and how difficult it had been working on the front line during the pandemic, showing sympathy for her struggles with her gender and mental health. “I realised, ‘these aren’t the Gestapo or anything … I had it all wrong’.

“I had tears when I was just talking candidly with them just saying, ‘God how have I f-cked my life up like this?’

Police didn’t lay charges that day, and offered Jackson a lift home.

“I said, ‘no, actually, I wouldn’t mind walking. I need to think about my life’.”

Jackson went home and fell into a deep, days-long depressive spell, during which she self-harmed. By this point she had lost ties with her extended family, had a criminal record and felt she had been manipulated.

Around this time she found others online who had grown sceptical of the movement, and had begun questioning the extraordinary amounts of money being raised. This and follow-up welfare visits by the police were the final impetus for her to leave the ‘freedom’ movement.

“The weight that came off my shoulders instantly – it was unbelievable,” she says.

“If I didn’t leave, I would have probably ended up in some sort of psych ward or something. When you believe that strongly in something and that the police are coming for you, the government’s coming for you, you’re going to get sent to a concentration camp.

“I used to be in my apartment and I’d have the door barricaded with a couch and tables. I’d booby-trapped the windows.

“It was consuming and eating me away. Totally just destroying my soul and my friendships – I lost a lot of friends.”

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Jadeja, whose father still believes in QAnon after he introduced him to it, says trying to reason with those caught up in conspiracy theories is fruitless.

“Focus on their behaviour rather than their beliefs. Chances are if they believe in this, their behaviour changed … they become more anxious, they’ve become more agitated, more aggressive, they can’t not talk about it … so focus on their behaviour,” he says.

“Say ‘it’s fine, I don’t care what you believe, but that doesn’t explain why you haven’t done the dishes or picked up Jamie from soccer the last two Sundays in a row’.”

Jadeja hopes that sharing his story and the lessons he and others have learned can increase conversation around de-radicalisation. Now more than ever, being able to better understand the influences that lead people to QAnon and other conspiracies is crucial, he says.

“They say ‘tinfoil hat brigade’. What has that got to do with a goddamn thing? You’re acting like these people are crazy, like they belong in a nuthouse. These people go to work. They have family. And they believe you are a part of a controlling cabal, and they will justify incredible misdeeds as a justification for righting wrongs. And that includes violence,” he says.

“I just don’t think that anyone has quite grasped how serious the situation is.”

Those who come out of the rabbit hole should be able to find a path back to normality without being shamed, he says. “There has to be some sort of pathway back to polite society for most of these people because most of them haven’t done anything. If there isn’t, then there’s no incentive for them to come back.”

Rebuilding

Jackson says she is now getting her life back on track. She’s recently moved house for a fresh start after a long period of recovery living with her parents, and this week is going back to university to study a master’s degree in music. She recently recovered from COVID-19 too, a mild case she attributes to now being vaccinated.

She becomes emotional when she talks about her extended family, who welcomed her back at Christmas.

“The biggest moving part for me was seeing my nieces,” she says. “I didn’t see my nieces for like eight months, and I love my nieces. And just seeing them again was amazing.”

“I was expecting I was going to have to spend [Christmas] by myself and I got a call from my brother the day before and he said, ‘You’re more than welcome. What’s in the past is in the past, and we’re glad that you’re safe and that you’re out of that’.”

Ash still keeps an eye on the movement, which was responsible for a fire at Old Parliament House in December and has now set up a permanent camp at the Canberra Showgrounds with leaders claiming to stay put until the government is “cleaned out”.

Amid calls for an end to vaccine mandates and vaccine passports are speeches about the “paedophile cabal” by leaders who have repeatedly called for MPs to be hanged.

Last week convoy leader James Greer, who raised almost $200,000 in crowdfunding for the protest, was arrested after police found a loaded rifle and ammunition in his car at the protest campground.

“It’s so different to what it was even a year ago,” says Jackson. “I can fully see some sort of domestic terrorist thing happen.”

She believes most people will “have to hit rock bottom themselves” in order to leave the movement, and hopes her story helps others.

“I still care about some of these people, you know? I hope they can get out.”

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/falling-into-the-freedom-movement-and-getting-out-20220104-p59lsl.html

Women sexually harassed by former High Court judge Dyson Heydon receive historic settlement

Markus Mannheim - 14 February 2022

Three women who were sexually harassed by former High Court justice Dyson Heydon have secured a historic compensation payout.

The women's lawyer, Josh Bornstein, said he believed it was the first settlement under the Sex Discrimination Act for findings of sexual harassment against a serving federal judge.

The High Court apologised publicly to the trio — Rachel Patterson Collins, Chelsea Tabart and Alex Eggerking — as well as to three other unnamed women in 2020 after an independent investigation, led by Vivienne Thom, upheld their allegations.

Five of the women had worked as associates to Mr Heydon, while the other had worked for a different High Court justice.

After Dr Thom completed her inquiry, Chief Justice Susan Kiefel said the findings were of "extreme concern" to all of the court's justices and staff.

"We're ashamed that this could have happened at the High Court of Australia," she said in a statement.

Today, Mr Bornstein said negotiations since then had been delayed by the case's complexity and "an unfortunate delay by the Commonwealth".

“After their experience of working in the High Court, Rachael, Chelsea and Alex have been unable to pursue the legal careers that they aspired to," he said.

"Indeed, they were so severely impacted by what happened that it took them years to come forward to pursue this matter."

The terms of the settlement remain confidential.

However, Mr Bornstein said his clients were relieved and happy with the outcome.

"They have asked me to convey their strong conviction that women should not feel ashamed to pursue financial settlements in sexual harassment cases, because sexual harassment will only start to recede when there is a clear recognition that it has a substantial cost to organisations and individuals who are implicated."

Mr Heydon, now 78, has previously denied "any allegation of sexual harassment or any offence".

He was a High Court justice from 2003 to 2013, when he reached the mandatory retirement age.

Female associates have transformed court: Attorney-General

Federal Attorney-General Michaelia Cash praised the courage of the associates who had made formal complaints, saying they had instigated a transformation of the court's culture.

"We recognise Ms Tabart's, Ms Eggerking's and Ms Collins's bravery at coming forward and telling their stories to Dr Thom, the High Court and other Australians," Ms Cash said.

"These women have told us about what they have been through during, and since, their times as associates of the High Court and the serious impacts on their lives.

"We have listened to them and we apologise."

The government accepted all six of Dr Thom's recommendations and Ms Cash said it had acted on them.

"The practices of the High Court in responding to sexual harassment, and more importantly in attempting to prevent it from occurring, have been transformed."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-14/former-high-court-judge-dyson-heydon-compensation-payment/100829210

China’s snow job can’t erase Aussie ties

WILL GLASGOW - FEBRUARY 13, 2022

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Monday is the 10th day of the Beijing Winter Games.

It’s also the 550th day since Australian journalist Cheng Lei was nabbed by Chinese agents in the Olympic host city.

The Queensland University graduate has now been behind bars for 18 months.

She still hasn’t been allowed to see her two young children.

No trial date has been set.

The single mother – who was one of the most high-profile Australians in China – now features on a long list of subjects our Olympians have been advised to handle with care at these intensely political Games.

Snowboarding legend Scotty James did his best to negotiate the difficult terrain after he bagged his silver on Friday.

“I’m sorry about those circumstances,” he said after being awarded his medal at the man-made snow town just an hour away by fast train from where Cheng was ­arrested on August 13, 2020.

The wizard from Warrandyte and the prisoner in Beijing have a backstory.

They met in Beijing in late December 2019 when Cheng interviewed James in front of a business crowd at an Australian-backed steakhouse about his path to the 2022 Games.

The night at Hurricane’s Grill left an impression.

James became Cheng’s favourite member of Australia’s Winter Olympics team, and she recently told Australian diplomats she hoped to watch him compete.

That was after her prison wardens said she and her cellmates would be allowed to watch some of what China’s President Xi Jinping calls an “inclusive, open and clean Games”.

Whether she knows James won silver will remain a mystery until her next monthly online consular visit with Australian ­officials – her only ­contact with the world outside her cell.

“I hope she got to tune in. I hope she enjoyed it,” said James, when asked about a situation that is bizarre even by the standards of these Winter Games.

What is like to win Olympic silver with a fan cheering you on from a Beijing prison cell?

“Sorry, no comment on that,” said James.

And fair enough, too – he was still hours from flying out of China to his base in the US.

The situation is the same for athletes from all around the world – and for good reason.

Only a few weeks ago, a ­senior official on the Beijing 2022 organising committee warned that any speech against Chinese laws would be “subject to certain punishment”.

If asked about the more than one million Uighurs who have been sent to re-education camps, or the snuffing of civic life in Hong Kong, or the awful plight of Cheng or fellow Australian Yang Hengjun, or about all the others trapped in China’s dark prisons, Olympians have been advised to keep quiet – at least while they are in the People’s ­Republic.

It has contributed to a surreal environment inside the Olympics bubble, one that is completely ­removed from the world outside it.

(continued)

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After The Australian spoke to James about his imprisoned fan, the silver medallist was interviewed by Chinese state media.

They had three questions for him: was he enjoying his life in China? Was the food good in the Olympic village? Had he tried Beijing duck?

The Swiss snowboarder who took the bronze had been asked the same three questions minutes earlier.

Cheng – an anchor on China Global Television Network, China’s English-language state broadcaster – was a different kind of state media employee.

She was hugely respected in the Beijing journalism ­community.

Her colleagues loved her. She even coined CGTN’s official ­slogan, “See the difference”, in an all-staff competition when the network was rebranding, as The Australian revealed last year.

Cheng joined the network a decade ago when engaging critically with the world around her and working for Chinese state media did not seem to be completely incompatible.

That has all changed in the late Xi era.

In a different political regime, right now she would be a key part of Beijing’s English language media team covering the Olympics. Instead, her imprisonment on vague “state secrets” charges contributed to the Australian government’s decision to join with the US, Canada, Japan and others in a diplomatic boycott of these Olympics.

Reports on the 46-year-old’s condition are remarkable for someone who has endured sleep deprivation and brutal interrogation by China’s Ministry of State Security.

She is learning Spanish, reading Australian literature and ­trying to keep positive – or as positive as you can be in a Chinese prison cell more than 9000km away from your two children.

In her meetings with Australian consular officials, she has been able to pass on messages to family, friends and supporters.

She became visibly emot­ional at one, when she was told about the support for her back in Australia.

“It means so much that I’m not alone and that I’m remembered and thought about,” Cheng said.

“The appreciation I feel is too big to put into words.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/chinas-snow-job-cant-erase-aussie-ties/news-story/e2103ded046bd527629a70a5de6e0b95

>>15592354

Disinformation a ‘threat to poll’, says AFP chief Reece Kershaw

CAMERON STEWART - FEBRUARY 14, 2022

The growing number of disinformation campaigns now poses a direct threat to the integrity of the forthcoming federal election, the head of the Australian Federal Police has warned.

AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw has also warned of an increase in espionage and foreign interference threats, saying the challenge is expected to get worse in the year ahead.

In his opening remarks to Senate Estimates on Monday night, Mr Kershaw pledged that the AFP would exercise its full powers to crack down on disinformation during the coming election campaign.

“In the lead-up to this year’s election, I am concerned about the prevalence of disinformation and the impact this can have on the integrity of our institutions and the election itself,” Mr Kershaw said. “Where disinformation reaches a criminal threshold, particularly where it urges or ­advocates violence, the AFP will be exercising the full force of its powers.”

Mr Kershaw did not describe the types of disinformation campaigns that the agency was most concerned about.

However, his warning comes amid a growing prevalence of online campaigns containing disinformation promoted by various interest groups, including anti-vaxxer and anti-vax-mandate protesters. Other disinformation campaigns have spread false rumours about state and federal politicians designed to undermine their chances of re-election.

“For example we charged an individual with computer, carriage service and electoral offences for his role in an offensive spam email campaign” during the 2019 Wentworth and 2020 Eden-Monaro by-elections, he said.

Mr Kershaw also warned of the growing prevalence of espionage and foreign interference. His comments follow warnings last week by ASIO director-general Mike Burgess that foreign powers were trying to meddle in the election and that espionage and foreign interference had now surpassed terrorism for the first time as the agency’s prime concern.

“The AFP is aware of increased espionage and foreign interference threats,” Mr Kershaw told Estimates.

“Most Australians won’t see foreign interference or be targeted by foreign interference. But it has the potential to affect every Australian because it erodes our democracy and our institutions.”

He said the multi-agency Counter Foreign Interference Taskforce had achieved “a number of successful disruptions”.

Without naming China, he said the types of interference included attempts to monitor and harass those in Australia who were viewed as dissidents by authoritarian states. “It may also ­involve attempts to silence members of the community from criticising the policies of regimes in countries to which they maintain links,” he said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/disinformation-a-threat-to-poll-says-afp-chief-reece-kershaw/news-story/01a37b01d7d84c4714cb25f094be93af

Prime Minister Scott Morrison calls on Beijing to speak up against Russian aggression

China’s criticism of Australia for hosting peaceful diplomatic talks while Beijing remains ‘chillingly silent’ on Russian troops gathering on the Ukraine border has been condemned by Scott Morrison.

Clare Armstrong - February 13, 2022

THE hypocrisy of China criticising Australia for hosting peaceful diplomatic talks, while remaining “chillingly silent” on Russian troops gathering on the Ukraine border has been condemned by Scott Morrison.

The Prime Minister called out the double standard after Beijing accused Australia of using its “Quad” alliance with the US, Japan and India to “contain” China, but has not spoken out against Russian aggression.

“Australia has been criticised by the Chinese Government for peacefully coming together with our partners in the Quad … and working together to promote peace and prosperity in our own region,” he said.

“The Chinese government is happy to criticise Australia for engaging in such peaceful activities, but yet remains chillingly silent on Russian troops amassing on the Ukrainian border.”

In some of his strongest language yet against Beijing, Mr Morrison said the “coalition of autocracies” around the world seeking to “bully other countries” was not an issue Australia would ever take a “light position” on.

“My government has always stood up for anyone who seeks to bully or coerce Australia,” he said.

“And the bullying and the coercion that we’re seeing take place on the borders of Ukraine is an example of that.

“It’s unacceptable there, and it’s unacceptable anywhere else.”

Mr Morrison said Beijing worked with Russia to shut down the UN Security Council on even basic discussions about issues like Ukraine and Taiwan.

“When autocracies start working together and co-operate and partner in this way, then that obviously raises real concerns for freedom-loving liberal democracies, like Australia,” he said.

“That’s why it’s important that we have taken such a strong stand on these issues.”

Mr Morrison said he had never had an “each way bet” on national security, accusing Labor leader Anthony Albanese of entertaining ideas of “trade offs” with China to de-escalate tensions.

But Mr Albanese said he supported the Quad “very strongly,” noting Australia was dealing with a “different China” now than in 2013.

He said this made Australia’s relationship with the US its “most important”.

China’s Foreign Minister spokesman Zhao Lijian was highly critical of the Quad meeting held in Melbourne on Friday between Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne, US Secretary of State Antony ­Blinken, India’s ­Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Japan’s Yosh­imasa Hayashi, calling it a “tool for containing and besieging China to maintain US hegemony”.

“It aims to stoke confrontation and undermine international solidarity and co-operation,” he told reporters.

A joint statement from the Quad leaders included commitments to support efforts to advance an open Indo-Pacific region and protect the interests of their people, free from coercion.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/prime-minister-scott-morrison-calls-on-beijing-to-speak-up-against-russian-aggression/news-story/5ee508b8a15f4983ab3cef281c94a023

>>15631554

Scott Morrison's remarks about China being 'chillingly silent' over Ukraine labelled 'belligerent rhetoric' by Chinese foreign ministry

Stephen Dziedzic - 15 February 2022

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has accused Scott Morrison of "clamouring for confrontation" in Ukraine as the Prime Minister intensifies his attacks on both China and Russia over the looming threat of war.

On Sunday, Mr Morrison said China that remained "chillingly silent on Russian troops amassing on the Ukrainian border", suggesting that Beijing had given Moscow tacit approval for an invasion.

And Mr Morrison intensified his attack this morning, suggesting China's position on Ukraine makes a mockery of its constant proclamations that it wants stability and peace.

"When you have a large country, in our own region, that suggests they want peace and harmony and yet are not prepared to call out the actions of an autocratic state that wants to the violate the territorial sovereignty of their neighbour, then that is very concerning. Chilling," he told radio station 2SM.

"I'm calling that out."

Mr Morrison's accusations drew a sharp retort from China's Foreign Ministry on Monday evening, with its spokesman, Wang Wenbin, calling Mr Morrison's criticisms "dangerous".

"We urge the Australian side to abandon the Cold War mentality and ideological bias and stop making belligerent rhetoric that will escalate the tensions," he told reporters in Beijing.

"Such acts of seeking selfish political gains by clamouring for confrontation are unethical and dangerous."

Morrison claims China wants ALP in government

Mr Morrison has also been ratcheting-up his attacks on Labor, repeatedly calling the opposition "soft" on Beijing and national security, despite a broad bipartisanship on most key China policies.

The Defence Minister Peter Dutton drew a furious response from the ALP when he declared in parliament last week that China's government had picked Labor leader Anthony Albanese as their "candidate".

On Monday, the Speaker ruled that claim out of order.

But this morning, Mr Morrison also claimed that China's government wants the Coalition to lose the approaching federal election, while accusing the ALP of trying to pacify Beijing.

"I can tell you what … the countries coercing us, I know they don't want to see the Liberal government re-elected. I know they're not having a one-way bet [on us], they're having a one way bet on others," he told radio station 2GB.

"We are in a very uncertain and challenging world and there is no time for weakness."

Mr Morrison's attacks come as global tensions over Ukraine continue to grow, with the Biden administration warning that Russia could launch an invasion at "any time".

The Prime Minister also said an invasion was "potentially imminent", telling 2SM there was a "real risk" of war.

But, he also stressed, there was no certainty of conflict.

Rudd hits back over 'smears'

The opposition has accused the government of shamelessly trying to exploit tensions with China – as well as the looming prospect of conflict with Russia — for domestic political gain.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd also lashed the Coalition at a press conference this morning, pointing out that the Liberal Party had leased Darwin Port to a Chinese company, attempted to ratify an extradition treaty with China and signed the 2014 Comprehensive Strategic Partnership with Beijing.

"I don't use the term 'appeasement' lightly. But when you look at the Liberal Party record over more than a decade, there's no other way to describe it but appeasement," Mr Rudd said.

"And I will not stand idly by while Dutton smears the Labor Party as somehow soft on China.

"That is rancid hypocrisy, and a rancid lie."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-15/china-foreign-ministry-scott-morrison-ukraine-conflict/100831646

>>15631554

>>15631558

Transcript - Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin’s Regular Press Conference on February 14, 2022

Reuters: Again on the Ukraine crisis, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said China has been “chillingly silent” on the large number of Russian troops amassing on the Ukraine border. What’s China’s comment?

Wang Wenbin: We urge the Australian side to abandon the Cold War mentality and ideological bias and stop making belligerent rhetoric that will escalate the tensions. Such acts of seeking selfish political gains by clamoring for confrontation are unethical and dangerous.

Bloomberg: Just a few points about the Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar. While he was visiting Australia, he criticized China’s economic actions toward Australia. And then separately, he mentioned the clash between India and China on the border had been discussed during Quad meetings. And at that time, he put the blame on China for the ongoing border conflict. Does the Foreign Ministry have any comments on the Indian Foreign Minister’s comments during the recent visit to Australia?

Wang Wenbin: With regard to the rights and wrongs of China-Australia relations, we have elaborated on China’s position many times and I will not repeat it here.

The ins and outs of the situation on the China-India border are very clear and the responsibility does not lie with China. At present, China and India are in communication on further improving border management and control and confidence-building measures. We hope that the Indian side will strictly abide by a series of agreements signed by the two sides, refrain from making irresponsible remarks and take concrete actions and work with China to jointly safeguard peace and tranquility of the border area.

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/2511_665403/202202/t20220214_10642170.html

Weak Australian leadership inhibits potential relationship reset with China

Bruce Haigh - Feb 14, 2022

1/2

A rip is a dangerous movement of water that can sweep swimmers out to sea. Struggling against a rip may lead to drowning; the best course is to move to the edge, away from the center, and swim ashore.

Australia became aware of a small rip generated by President Barack Obama. It ignored it and continued to surf. The rip strengthened under Donald Trump and Australia found itself swept along, made worse by believing the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which said there was no problem. It was false advice. Its predicament became worse with President Joe Biden maintaining the rush to deep water.

Its only hope is that the rip slows allowing it to make for shore which is now a long way off.

Should Anthony Albanese become Prime Minister he will need help to get to shore. At the moment he is being swept along by a fear of upsetting voters prior to the Federal election due in weeks. The Murdoch-dominated media in Australia is anti-China and many in the Australian population go along with this view.

In addition, Albanese is a cautious person and politician. He is not an intellectual. He has demonstrated a propensity to believe the US view of the world without analysis. He appears to have accepted AUKUS and a dangerously increased US defense presence in Australia, particularly in the north.

Albanese could never be compared to Whitlam. He is not a lateral thinker, he is not creative, he will not be a charismatic leader. He will be a safe leader, if not an ordinary leader. If he were an officer in the army, he might lead a brigade but he would not be placed in a position to plan; stubborn defense might be seen as his forte.

Nonetheless, in comparison to Morrison, he positively shines, such is the abysmal state of Australian politics. Recently the head of ASIO, Mike Burgess, implied that he had thwarted attempts by a state player to infiltrate the selection process for Labor Party election candidates. The player was widely understood to be China. Under questioning he backed off giving just one example, without details, of an attempt to infiltrate the Australian political process through the Labor Party. Again, it was understood to be China.

(continued)

>>15631625

2/2

Dutton, the defense minister, who is rabidly anti-China and believed to be heavily influenced by ASPI, the US state department and arms manufacturers (who also contribute to ASPI's funding), recently accused the Labor Party of being "soft on China" and of seeking to cultivate dangerous ties.

Albanese pushed back, but it was an unequivocal indication of the thinking of the majority in the LNP.

All of which conspires to make Albanese very cautious in the run-up to the election. He will be under sustained pressure from the US to implement the dangerous AUKUS understanding, which the US hopes will translate into an agreement.

Albanese looks increasingly likely to win the election, not because of anything he has done but because Morrison's LNP is imploding, through corruption, failure to manage COVID-19 and a range of other anti-social programs and prejudices.

One would like to see a reset in the relationship with China, but Australian leadership is weak and American pressure is sustained.

The Australian relationship with China was fine until America became aware of its steady decline, a fact increasingly obvious to others since the end of the war in Vietnam, through growing gun sponsored crime and violence, deteriorating race relations, the disasters of Iraq and Afghanistan and the election of Trump.

America panicked when it rightly perceived its power and influence to be waning particularly when set against the achievements of China. Rivalry turned to competition, hostility and then threats. Trump with his inestimable stupidity and bombast pushed deed and rhetoric to dangerous levels coupled to unsustainable accusations.

The Murdoch media became his faithful mouthpiece and Australia, under sustained US pressure, acquiesced. Morrison signaled the dramatic turn with his Trump-inspired Wuhan/COVID aspersion.

It was a pathetic attempt to please a ridiculous President.

Morrison is a clown. Fewer and fewer people in Australia are taking him seriously, which is a hopeful sign for the future.

The hope for a reset in the relationship rests with diplomacy - careful, cautious and creative discussions, free from outside pressure or influence and conducted out of the spotlight. What other course would a retired diplomat advocate?

The author was a diplomat from 1972- 1995 and was a Tribunal Member until 2000. He writes and comments on domestic and international relations. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202202/1252207.shtml

https://brucehaigh.com.au/

https://twitter.com/bruce_haigh

>All assets deployed.

>Win by any means necessary.

gu'day anons

refresh

good of you to report spam on QR gen

saw your plea, given the ban for a bit, let me know if it works

~Dart

>>15631768

o7

Deeply appreciated!

WWG1WGA!

>>15592354

Labor senator Kimberley Kitching names billionaire Chau Chak Wing as 'puppeteer' in foreign interference plot

Andrew Greene - 15 February 2022

A federal senator has used parliamentary privilege to suggest a prominent Chinese-Australian political donor is the mysterious "puppeteer" behind a thwarted foreign interference plot to back political candidates in the next election.

During a Senate estimates hearing, Labor senator Kimberley Kitching alleged the wealthy businessman behind the recent overseas conspiracy was property developer Chau Chak Wing.

Dr Chau has denied the claim, labelling it "baseless and reckless".

Her comments follow last week’s revelation from ASIO boss Mike Burgess that his security agency recently blocked an overseas-funded operation to bankroll unsuspecting candidates in an unspecified election.

During his annual threat assessment speech on Wednesday, Mr Burgess declined to name the country behind the conspiracy, or whether it was a federal, state or local election that was targeted.

“I am reliably informed that the puppeteer mentioned in your case study in your annual threat assessment speech given last week is Chau Chak Wing,” Senator Kitching told the committee hearing on Monday night.

“I believe it to be Chau Chak Wing. Are you able to confirm that it is Chau Chak Wing?” Senator Kitching asked Mr Burgess.

The ASIO boss told the committee he would not discuss the matter publicly.

“Senator, as I said before, I will not comment on speculation of who is and who isn't targets, in general or in specific, as you are asking me there," Mr Burgess said.

“I think it's unfair that you ask me that question in public."

In a statement, Dr Chau said Senator Kitching had hidden behind the "shield of parliamentary privilege" to vilify and attack him without evidence.

"I am a businessman and philanthropist. I have never had any involvement or interest in interfering with the democratic election process in Australia," Dr Chau said.

"In 2017, the ABC and Nine journalist Nick McKenzie made a similar allegation in a Four Corners report. The Federal Court subsequently awarded me very substantial damages which I donated to charity.

"I invite Senator Kitching to show some courage and integrity by repeating her claim and revealing the sources she says she relied on, outside the parliament."

Dr Chau is an Australian citizen originally from China, who has donated millions of dollars to Australia’s major political parties, universities and charities that help veterans.

In 2018, Liberal MP Andrew Hastie also named Dr Chau in parliament as being closely associated with the Chinese Communist Party’s lobbying arm, the United Front Work Department, and alleged he was a co-conspirator in an FBI bribery case.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-15/labor-senator-names-chau-chak-wing-interference-plot/100830078

>>15631870

Chau Chak Wing hits back after Labor senator suggested he was ‘puppeteer’ in foiled election plot

ASHLEIGH GLEESON - FEBRUARY 15, 2022

The billionaire and political donor named in a parliamentary hearing as the “puppeteer” involved in a foreign interference plot has hit back, calling the claim “baseless”.

Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching on Monday night put to Australia’s spy agency boss Mike Burgess that the wealthy individual involved in the foiled plot to rig the upcoming election was Chau Chak Wing.

“I am reliably informed that the puppeteer mentioned in your case study in your annual threat assessment speech last week is Chau Chak Wing,” Senator Kitching said, using parliamentary privilege.

“I believe it to be Chau Chak Wing.

“Are you able to confirm it is Chau Chak Wing?”

Mr Burgess, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) director-general, declined to answer.

“Senator as I’ve said before, I will not comment on speculation of who is and who isn’t targets in general or specifically,” he said.

“I think it is unfair you ask me that question in public.”

On Tuesday afternoon Dr Chau issued a furious statement which labelled the claim by Senator Kitching as “baseless”.

“I am shocked and disappointed at the baseless and reckless claim made by Senator Kimberley Kitching during a Senate Estimates hearing on Monday,” he said.

“It is always unfortunate when elected representatives use the shield of parliamentary privilege as a platform to vilify and attack Australian citizens without producing a shred of evidence.

“I am a businessman and philanthropist. I have never had any involvement or interest in interfering with the democratic election process in Australia.”

Dr Chau, who was last year awarded a large sum in a defamation case involving similar allegations, invited Senator Kitching to repeat her claim without parliamentary privilege.

“I invite Senator Kitching to show some courage and integrity by repeating her claim and revealing the sources she says she relied on, outside the parliament,” he said.

Mr Burgess first revealed that spies had plotted to rig an election during his annual threat assessment speech last week.

He said it involved a wealthy individual who he dubbed the “puppeteer” and the network sought to get candidates in positions of power before it was shut down.

“This case involved a wealthy individual who maintained direct and deep connections with a foreign government and its intelligence agencies,” he said.

“I’ll call this person ‘the puppeteer’, although it’s important to remember that while the puppeteer pulled the strings, the foreign government called the shots.”

It was later reported the case Mr Burgess was talking about involved Chinese spies trying to bankroll the campaigns of NSW Labor candidates in the upcoming federal election.

Dr Chau is a Chinese-Australian philanthropist and political donor who was last year awarded $590,000 in a defamation case against the ABC and Nine over a Four Corners episode in 2017.

The program, titled “Power and Influence”, investigated Chinese interference in Australian politics.

Dr Chau successfully argued in court the program falsely painted him as a corrupt Chinese Communist Party (CCP) spy who paid a bribe to a UN official.

“In 2017, the ABC and Nine journalist Nick McKenzie made a similar allegation in a Four Corners report,” Dr Chau said in his statement on Tuesday.

“The Federal Court subsequently awarded me very substantial damages which I donated to charity.”

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/chau-chak-wing-hits-back-after-labor-senator-suggested-he-was-puppeteer-in-foiled-election-plot/news-story/932719b885f986309affcb53f319abca

>>15631625

Chinese propaganda outlet endorses Anthony Albanese as ‘better PM’ than Scott Morrison

SHARRI MARKSON - FEBRUARY 15, 2022

The Chinese Government’s propaganda mouthpiece, The Global Times, has published an article endorsing Labor leader Anthony Albanese as a better prime minister than Scott Morrison.

The government-owned media outlet, which espouses the views of the Chinese Communist Party, is promoting an article praising Albanese as a “safe leader”, saying he “positively shines compared to Morrison”.

By contrast, Morrison is described as a “clown” and is accused of leading a government that is “imploding through corruption, failure to manage Covid-19 and a range of other anti-social programs and prejudices”.

The Global Times tweeted on February 14: “Albanese will not be a charismatic leader but he positively shines compared to Morrison. Such is abysmal state of Oz politics. One would like to see a reset in ties with China, but Oz leadership is weak and US pressure is sustained.”

The author of the piece is Bruce Haigh, a former diplomat with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

In his article, he writes that the “Murdoch-dominated media in Australia is anti-China and many in the Australian population go along with this view”.

“Mr Albanese is “being swept along by a fear of upsetting voters prior to the federal election due in weeks,” he claims.

The Global Times article criticises Mr Albanese for believing the “US view of the world without analysis”, and for accepting “AUKUS and a dangerously increased US defence presence in Australia”.

The Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, James Paterson, said the Global Times was a tool of propaganda of the Chinese Communist Party.

“They don’t typically publish opinion they disagree with,” he said.

“It’s increasingly clear those who seek to coerce Australia don’t want to see the Morrison government re-elected this year.”

It comes as the Morrison government launched an attack on Mr Albanese and his team for being weak on national security and the Chinese Government’s party of choice.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton made a controversial claim in parliament last week that China would prefer an Albanese government to a Coalition victory at the looming election.

Labor accused him of weaponising national security and said there was no evidence China’s preference was for Labor to win.

The Global Times article describes Mr Dutton as “rapidly anti-China”.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/chinese-propaganda-outlet-endorses-anthony-albanese-as-better-pm-than-scott-morrison/news-story/e3e26b3a608654854fef7c64f853bfb1

https://twitter.com/globaltimesnews/status/1493177378809462784

Prince Andrew settles civil sexual assault claim with Virginia Giuffre

Victoria Ward and Josie Ensor - 15 February 2022

The Duke of York has reached an out-of-court financial settlement with his accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre.

The deal brings an end to the legal process and means he will not face a jury trial in the civil case on sexual abuse claims.

The terms of the deal will remain secret, but in a joint statement the Duke expressed regret about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and confirmed that he will make a "substantial donation" to Ms Giuffre’s charity in support of victims’ rights.

Ms Giuffre alleged that she was sexually abused or raped by Prince Andrew on three separate occasions in 2001 when she was 17. She had sued him for unspecified damages.

In a joint statement, the two sides said: "Virginia Giuffre and Prince Andrew have reached an out-of-court settlement."

It said they would file a request to dismiss the case when the undisclosed sum had been received.

"Prince Andrew has never intended to malign Ms Giuffre’s character, and he accepts that she has suffered both as an established victim of abuse and as a result of unfair public attacks," it said.

"It is known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years. Prince Andrew regrets his association with Epstein, and commends the bravery of Ms Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others.

"He pledges to demonstrate his regret for his association with Epstein by supporting the fight against the evils of sex trafficking, and by supporting its victims."

In a joint court filing, the parties told the New York judge overseeing the case that they anticipated that it would be brought to a close within 30 days and asked that all action be suspended in the meantime.

The Duke had been due to give a deposition under oath on March 10.

Sigrid McCawley, representing Ms Giuffre, told The Telegraph: "As a managing partner at a firm that has from its beginning acted upon the belief that the law should be marshalled to bring justice to the most vulnerable, I can say, without hesitation, that our representation of survivors upholds that tradition.

"I am very pleased with the resolution of Virginia Giuffre’s litigation against Prince Andrew."

Lisa Bloom, an attorney representing eight victims of Jeffrey Epstein, said: "We hail Virginia’s victory today. She has accomplished what no one else could: getting Prince Andrew to stop his nonsense and side with sexual abuse victims.

"We salute Virginia’s stunning courage."

Penny Junor, the Royal author, said the settlement is likely to come as a "huge relief" to the rest of the Royal family.

"Going to trial, it could have been very, very nasty," she said. "It could have been embarrassing, humiliating, and it would have been huge fodder for the tabloid press.

"It could have really taken the shine off the Queen's Platinum Jubilee year."

Another royal expert said the Duke would "forever be tainted" by the civil sex assault claim brought against him.

Joe Little, of Majesty magazine, told the PA news agency: "I just don't think he's ever likely to resume work as a working member of the royal family.

"I think that too much water has gone under the bridge for that and the institution of monarchy has been tainted by his association with Epstein and I just think that there's no going back on all that."

On the likely reaction of the rest of the royal family, he said: "I'm sure that they're glad this (settlement agreement) has happened but does it exonerate the prince who really has not been charged with anything criminal?

"He will, I think, forever be tainted by this scandal, for want of a better way of describing it."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/02/15/prince-andrew-settles-legal-case-virginia-roberts-giuffre/

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/60119368/giuffre-v-prince-andrew/?order_by=desc

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.564713/gov.uscourts.nysd.564713.78.0_1.pdf

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.564713/gov.uscourts.nysd.564713.78.1_3.pdf

>>15640077

Did this email from Ghislaine Maxwell sink Prince Andrew's case and cost the royal $16M? 2015 email exchange between Epstein's madam and lawyer Alan Dershowitz confirms infamous image of the royal with Virginia Roberts is real

DANIEL BATES - 16 February 2022

Before he settled out of court last night, Prince Andrew was set to be dealt a major blow in his US sex case thanks to Ghislaine Maxwell.

A leaked email from the prince's friend and now convicted sex trafficker appeared to confirm the authenticity of an infamous picture of the duke standing with his arm around his accuser, Virginia Roberts.

The photograph, said to be taken in Maxwell's London townhouse in 2001, had been questioned by Andrew and just this week his legal team had demanded Miss Roberts turn over the original.

The duke's legal team had claimed it might be a fake, but an email obtained by the Daily Mail shows that even Maxwell, who appears in the background of the photo, believes it to be real.

In the message, sent in 2015, Maxwell says: 'It looks real. I think it is.'

On a dramatic day of developments yesterday, it was claimed that Miss Roberts had lost the original copy of the image.

But that was disputed by her legal team, who said the hard copy was with the FBI and that Miss Roberts misplaced a CD containing a copy of the image.

The photo was set to be a key piece of evidence in her claims for battery and infliction of emotional distress against Andrew, 61, which he had denied.

The duke's lawyers had lined up an image expert to cast doubt on the veracity of the photo.

If Miss Roberts had not produced the original, Andrew's team could have argued copies could not be admitted as evidence as they could not be properly tested.

Not being able to rely on the photograph as proof they met would have put a sizeable dint in his accuser's case.

But in an email exchange seen by the Mail, the picture was discussed by Maxwell and Epstein's former lawyer, Alan Dershowitz.

On January 10, 2015, Mr Dershowitz wrote: 'Dear G. Do you know whether the photo of Andrew and virginia is real? You are in the background.'

Eleven minutes later, Maxwell replied: 'It looks real. I think it is.'

The timing of the exchange is significant because days earlier Miss Roberts claimed for the first time in court papers that she had been forced to have sex with both Andrew and Mr Dershowitz.

The allegation was struck out by a judge who branded it 'impertinent'. But it caused panic for Andrew and in emails previously reported by the BBC, he contacted Maxwell at 5.50am on January 3, 2015.

The duke wrote: 'Let me know when we can talk. Got some specific questions to ask you about Virginia Roberts.'

Maxwell replied: 'Have some info. Call me when you have a moment.'

Mr Dershowitz has vehemently denied having sex with Miss Roberts.

Last year she dropped a battery allegation she filed against him after he claimed a civil settlement she signed with Epstein in 2009 gave him immunity.

Miss Roberts is currently suing Mr Dershowitz for defamation, a case he is fighting.

His lawyers did not respond to requests asking for comment.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10516655/Duke-set-sex-trial-bombshell-leaked-message-Ghislaine-Maxwell-appeared.html

>Sometimes it's the people in the background that are of greater significance.

>>15640164

Q Post #4565

Jul 2 2020 12:53:00 (EST)

Possible Epstein was a puppet [not the main person(s) of interest]?

Financed by who or what [F] entities?

1. [Primary] gather blackmail on elected pols, dignitaries, royalty, hollywood influencers, wall street and other financial top level players, other high profile industry specific people, etc.

2. Feed an addiction [controllable]

Maxwell family background?

Robert Maxwell history [intel, agency, wealth, [CLAS 1-99]]?

Sometimes it's the people in the background that are of greater significance.

Q

https://qanon.pub/#4565

>>15631870

Anthony Albanese attended Chau Chak Wing event after ASIO warning

Anthony Albanese gave effusive praise for Chinese billionaire Dr Chau Chak Wing just weeks after ASIO warnings over foreign influence risks.

Samantha Maiden - February 16, 2022

Labor leader Anthony Albanese offered effusive praise for the Chinese billionaire Dr Chau Chak Wing at a dinner in Sydney in 2020 just weeks after ASIO warnings over foreign influence risks.

Dr Chau, who previously hit the headlines for spending $70 million on James Packer’s mega mansion, is the Chinese businessman named in Parliament this week as the “puppet master” ASIO was referring to in a major speech.

The businessman has slammed the claims as “reckless” and “baseless” and ASIO has refused to confirm or deny the allegations made under parliamentary privilege.

Despite previous warnings by ASIO to both the major parties about taking money from two Chinese donors including Dr Chau Chak Wing and the risk of foreign influence operations, Mr Albanese attended an event in his honour in November, 2020.

Government sources, that are trying to elevate the issue of China’s influence in the Labor Party ahead of the election, briefed journalists last night that the Prime Minister had declined the invitation on the basis of national security advice.

But Mr Albanese paid tribute to the billionaire’s generosity in his speech, offering effusive praise for the businessman who has donated an estimated $40 million to Australian universities.

“The Chau Chak Wing Museum has risen thanks to the generosity of the man whose name that it bears, but also along with the Ian Potter Foundation, the Nelson Meers Foundation and Penelope Seidler AM,’’ he said.

“Four great philanthropists. We should not take that for granted for their generosity.”

Dr Chau was not in attendance and remained in China as a result of border closures. He does not read or speak English but has been a generous donor to both the major political parties and the universities.

Mr Albanese said Dr Chau’s museum was more than just a good news story.

“It is a reminder and a reassurance that beyond coronavirus, a brighter future is within our reach, if we dare to dream it,’’ he said.

“It will open minds and it will connect people a bit more powerfully to their place in our human race. It is an honour to be here”

Mr Albanese’s speech was delivered just a month after ASIO boss Mike Burgess told Senate estimates in October, 2020 that he would write to all federal MPs warning they were potential targets for foreign spies looking to steal Australia’s secrets and gain a foothold in the nation.

“We see evidence of intelligence services deceptively cultivating politicians at all levels of government who will advance the interests of the foreign countries,’’ Mr Burgess said.

Victorian Labor senator Kimberley Kitching used parliamentary privilege on Monday night to ask Mike Burgess, the head of Australia’s spy agency ASIO, whether the property developer was the mystery man involved in the alleged plot.

Dr Chau has slammed the allegations as baseless.

“I am shocked and disappointed at the baseless and reckless claim made by Senator Kimberley Kitching during a Senate Estimates hearing on Monday,” he said in a statement.

“It is always unfortunate when elected representatives use the shield of parliamentary privilege as a platform to vilify and attack Australian citizens without producing a shred of evidence.

“I am a businessman and philanthropist. I have never had any involvement or interest in interfering with the democratic election process in Australia.

“In 2017, the ABC and Nine journalist Nick McKenzie made a similar allegation in a Four Corners report. The Federal Court subsequently awarded me very substantial damages which I donated to charity.”

Dr Chau has previously been awarded $590,000 after a judge found he was defamed by an ABC program that portrayed him as a Communist Party member.

His lawyers argued the program carried six false and defamatory imputations including that he “betrayed” his country through espionage, is a member of China’s Communist Party and made enormous donations to influence politicians.

By naming Dr Chau under parliamentary privilege on Monday night, Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching cannot be sued for defamation.

The well-connected Dr Chau has always had powerful friends in high places and over the years has been photographed with former Prime Minister John Howard, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Australian war memorial director Brendan Nelson and former foreign minister Julie Bishop.

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/anthony-albanese-attended-chau-chak-wing-event-after-asio-warning/news-story/942a450b49a38fe476141c2054c196b3

>>15631870

>>15640316

Who is Chau Chak Wing? The alleged ‘puppeteer’ behind foreign interference plot

Anthony Galloway - February 15, 2022

1/2

There are few political donors better connected or more controversial than Chinese-Australian businessman Chau Chak Wing.

Mr Chau has often made headlines for his generous donations but serious accusations have been made against him a number of times in Federal Parliament, most recently on Monday when Labor senator Kimberley Kitching claimed he was the “puppeteer” behind a foreign interference plot.

He responded on Tuesday, labelling the claim “baseless” and inviting Senator Kitching to repeat her comments outside Parliament.

“I am shocked and disappointed at the baseless and reckless claim made by Senator Kimberley Kitching during a Senate Estimates hearing on Monday,” he said.

“It is always unfortunate when elected representatives use the shield of parliamentary privilege as a platform to vilify and attack Australian citizens without producing a shred of evidence.

“I am a businessman and philanthropist. I have never had any involvement or interest in interfering with the democratic election process in Australia.”

In 2019 Nine, owner of this masthead, was ordered to pay Mr Chau $225,000 in damages after a Federal Court judge found he was defamed in an article on The Sydney Morning Herald’s website that went online in October 2015. Last year, Nine and the ABC were ordered to pay Mr Chau $590,000 in damages for a joint investigation with Four Corners that aired in June 2017. The subsequent reimbursement of Mr Chau’s legal expenses, plus paying their own expenses to defend the cases, cost the media outlets millions of dollars.

The outlets were found to have erred in suggesting Mr Chau paid “bribes” in the form of political donations and for imputations that he carried out the work of the Chinese Communist Party’s secret lobbying arm, the United Front Work Department. The media outlets’ defences that their reporting was in the public interest were rejected by the courts.

Since then, barely a word has been written about Mr Chau. Until this week.

Senator Kitching’s accusation in a Senate estimates hearing relates to foreign interference whereby the “puppeteer” hired an employee to begin identifying and bankrolling candidates likely to run for Labor in the federal election.

The head of Australia’s counter-espionage agency ASIO, Mike Burgess, told the same hearing that ASIO stepped in to foil the plot and that no current Labor candidates were of any concern to his agency. He said it was critical that Australia did not let the fear of foreign interference undermine stakeholder engagement or stoke community division, as that would have the “same corrosive impact on our democracy as foreign interference itself”.

Mr Chau has long been a well-connected businessman with ties to both major parties. He has donated more than $4 million to Australia’s major political parties since 2004 – although it is believed they have stopped taking money from him. He has also donated more than $45 million to Australian universities, making him one of the biggest donors in Australian history.

Politicians who have previously met Mr Chau include former prime ministers John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard, as well as former foreign affairs ministers Julie Bishop and Bob Carr.

But there is a now wide gap between what Australian politicians are prepared to say about Mr Chau within the Federal Parliament and outside its walls.

Speaking at the opening of the Chau Chak Wing Museum on November 16, 2020, Labor leader Anthony Albanese said the institution at the University of Sydney had risen “thanks to the generosity of the man whose name that it bears”, as well as three other philanthropists.

“Four great philanthropists. We should not take that for granted – their generosity,” Mr Albanese said at the event, which Mr Carr and former Liberal leader Brendan Nelson also attended, but not Mr Chau.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age has seen an invitation to Prime Minister Scott Morrison to attend the same event, which was declined by his office.

Defence Minister Peter Dutton appeared to be pointing this out in Parliament on Tuesday, when he said “we don’t hang out in a museum with Bob Carr … and other murky figures”.

Asked why he attended the event, a spokesperson for Mr Albanese said: “As an alumnus, Mr Albanese regularly attends events at Sydney University.”

(continued)

>>15640346

2/2

According to last year’s defamation court judgment, Mr Chau was born in Guangdong province in China in 1949 and became an Australian citizen in about 1999.

“He came from a poor family and had no tertiary education. As he was growing up, he saw the value of a good education at a tertiary institution through the success in life of a person who had lived in his village and later obtained such an education,” the court judgment reads.

“Mr Chau’s childhood ambition, which he has pursued with the benefit of his own business success, was to support education and educational institutions.”

Liberal MP Andrew Hastie told Parliament in 2018 that he learnt from US authorities that Mr Chau was the unindicted co-conspirator identified in a New York court indictment as “CC-3”.

CC-3 was alleged in the indictment to have funded a $US200,000 ($263,000) bribe which was funnelled to the former president of the UN General Assembly, John Ashe, in 2013.

Chinese-Australian businesswoman Sheri Yan was jailed in the US in 2016 after pleading guilty to bribing Mr Ashe, but CC-3 was never charged.

“It’s time we applied sunlight to our political system and a person who has featured prominently in Australian politics,” Mr Hastie said in his 2018 speech to Parliament.

“For reasons that are best undisclosed, the United States government did not seek to charge CC-3 for his involvement in the bribery of John Ashe. We know that CC-3 was willing to participate in the bribery of the 68th United Nations President of the General Assembly in 2013.

“We also know that … CC-3 was in close contact with the United Front, the influence arm of the Chinese Communist Party in 2007.

Mr Hastie said that CC-3 had “also been a very significant donor to both of our major political parties”.

“He has given more than $4 million since 2004. He has also donated $45 million to universities in Australia. It is now my duty to inform the House — and the Australian people – that CC-3 is Mr Chau Chak Wing.”

When Nine and the ABC had tried to report these same allegations years earlier - without the benefit of parliamentary privilege - they were met with defamation claims from Mr Chau, the rebuke of multiple judges, and severe financial losses.

The spectre of Chinese government interference has been an issue that has plagued both major parties in recent years. In November 2020, Liberal Party member Sunny Duong became the first person charged under Australia’s landmark foreign interference laws for an alleged plot to target then-acting immigration minister Alan Tudge.

Leading into this year’s election, the Coalition is likely to increase its attacks on Labor over its stance on China, despite the opposition not differing from the federal government when it comes to substantive policies.

Mr Morrison and Mr Dutton have both accused Labor of appeasement in recent days when it comes to China. Former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd on Tuesday called a press conference to hit back, saying that the Liberal Party’s record over more than a decade showed that it was guilty of “rancid hypocrisy, and a rancid lie”.

With China to remain the biggest foreign policy challenge of the coming generation, divisions like these are exactly what Beijing wants.

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/who-is-chau-chak-wing-the-alleged-puppeteer-behind-foreign-interference-plot-20220215-p59wjt.html

>>15631625

>>15632005

PM accuses Labor MP of being a 'Manchurian candidate' in Question Time, before quickly withdrawing accusation

Henry Belot - 16 February 2022

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been forced to withdraw a reference to Labor frontbencher Richard Marles as a "Manchurian candidate", an insult used to describe someone as a puppet acting on behalf of an enemy power.

Senior ministers have spent the week attacking Labor’s record on national security and arguing — without substantial evidence — that the Chinese Communist Party would prefer Anthony Albanese and Labor win the federal election.

Towards the end of an answer attacking Labor’s record on national security in Question Time, Mr Morrison said, "We’ve got another Manchurian Candidate", in reference to Mr Marles.

Speaker Andrew Wallace said he did not hear the comment spoken into the microphone but, after condemnation from Labor MPs, the Prime Minister withdrew the remark.

Mr Morrison had been referring to a speech given by Mr Marles at the Beijing Foreign Studies University in 2019, where he said Australia should embrace closer military cooperation with China.

In response, Mr Marles accused the government of undermining the "dignity of the house", and said the idea of defence cooperation started with the Coalition.

Fears bipartisanship on national security being undermined

Some national security experts have expressed concern about the tone of the national security debate heading into the election, noting that, in reality, there is little difference between the two party's policies.

"It’s all pretty unfortunate, unedifying, and frankly not healthy for the Australian national interest and it risks undermining a lot of the bipartisanship that I think both sides have built up over the past five years or more," said the head of Australian National University's National Security College, Rory Medcalf.

Mr Medcalf also encouraged people to ignore an opinion piece by former Australian diplomat and Coalition critic Bruce Haigh that endorsed Mr Albanese, which was published in the state-controlled Chinese newspaper The Global Times.

"The very timing of a ridiculous article in a Chinese propaganda newspaper — that amplifies the idea that, somehow, the Labor Leader is China’s preferred candidate [for Prime Minister] — suggests that discord is part of China’s playbook,” Mr Medcalf told the ABC.

"We absolutely should ignore it because, if you think about the value in advertising in propaganda terms, the Australian parliament and the Australian media amplifying a second-rate opinion piece in a Chinese propaganda newspaper, then that very small act has had a major effect."

Liberal MP Ted O'Brien made reference to the article in parliament on Tuesday.

"I am also concerned that the Chinese Communist Party's mouthpiece, The Global Times, has now endorsed Anthony Albanese as our next prime minister," he said.

On Twitter, Labor MP Julian Hill said Mr Morrison's insult played "right into the hands of authoritarian leaders".

"Scott Morrison is now doing Beijing’s bidding. Desperately politicising national security, spreading lies, creating division for his own political purposes," he wrote.

Labor frontbencher Ed Husic accused the Coalition of running a scare campaign to distract attention away from a difficult two weeks in parliament.

"I think what we saw today was classic panic," Mr Husic told the ABC.

"[Scott Morrison] is under huge pressure. We have a national crisis in aged care. He stuffed up the vaccine rollout, empty grocery shelves, all this leaking out of cabinet that is happening and even his own colleagues [undermining] him."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-16/prime-minister-labels-labor-mp-manchurian-candidate/100837380

West Australian ban thwarts AUKUS submarines tour

BEN PACKHAM and PAUL GARVEY - FEBRUARY 15, 2022

A high-level AUKUS delegation to Australia to help fast-track the nation’s nuclear submarines has been forced to postpone a planned visit to Western Australia’s HMAS Stirling – home of the Collins-class subs – due to the McGowan government’s strict quarantine requirements.

The delegation includes top US and UK officials, including Admiral James Caldwell, director of the US Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, and UK Defence Nuclear Organisation head Vanessa Nicholls.

The US co-ordinator for AUKUS initiatives, Dr James Miller, is also heading to Australia with the 10-person mission, hosted by the head of Australia’s AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine task force, Vice Admiral Jonathan Mead.

The experts will arrive in Australia on Thursday to tour Adelaide’s Osborne naval shipyards, and visit Australia’s only nuclear reactor at Sydney’s Lucas Heights.

They will also stop in Canberra to meet with Admiral Mead’s task force, and visit Melbourne for further talks with Defence officials.

The delegation had hoped to inspect Australia’s main submarine base at HMAS Stirling in Perth, where the planned nuclear boats would be based.

But Defence was informed its members were unlikely to receive exemptions to enter the state without quarantine, under WA’s hard border rules.

The US and UK have vowed to help deliver Australia’s planned eight nuclear submarines “at the earliest possible date” under the trilateral AUKUS partnership, after initial forecasts the first would not be in the water until at least 2040.

WA’s hard border regime has been notoriously impervious for much of the pandemic.

Until February 5, when the restrictions were partially eased, people trying to return to WA from states to visit dying relatives or attend funerals were barred from entry if they were from a state experiencing a large-scale outbreak.

The rules were changed earlier this month to allow people with family connections or compassionate reasons to travel to WA on the condition they isolate upon arrival. That isolation period for people entering WA from overseas or interstate has since been trimmed from 14 days to seven.

Exemptions to that isolation requirement have proved all but impossible to obtain, although several sporting teams – most recently two AFLW sides from Victoria – have received special authority to enter the state on the provision they instead observe strict biosecurity protocols.

The requirement to isolate upon entry extends to the uppermost reaches of politics. Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese would both need to isolate for a week if they entered WA under the current rules, and have had to amend their election campaign strategies accordingly.

Even WA Premier Mark McGowan faces the prospect of being caught up in the isolation requirements, given he will have to travel to Sydney later this month to testify in his defamation battle with Clive Palmer. The Premier will be required to isolate for a week upon his return.

Mr McGowan on Tuesday flagged that the end of the border rules may be nearing, telling reporters a new date could be set by the end of this month.

“We are reviewing (the border restrictions) as we speak. We are going to review it over February and no doubt we will reach an announcement some time in February,” he said.

“The reality is though that we are getting the third dose vaccination rate up, the eastern states appear to be coming off their peak, which is a good thing. We are getting children vaccinated, and every thing we are doing every single day is saving many West Australian lives.”

Admiral Mead’s task force has been given 18 months to examine every aspect of the nuclear submarine acquisition, including the planned design, regulatory issues, and how they will be built in Adelaide as promised by the Morrison government.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told The Australian last week the US was “focused very intensively on the pathways to the submarines, looking at what the most efficient and effective pathway would be”.

“That’s being very actively looked at by our experts right now,” he said.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/defence/west-australian-ban-thwarts-aukus-submarines-tour/news-story/5613b85163de8b6fa35fcd5ab5aae039

>>15640390

Australia looks to landlocked Czech Republic to win European support for contentious AUKUS submarine plan

Andrew Greene and Stephen Dziedzic - 16 February 2022

Stunning gothic architecture, a medieval Old Town square and the historic Charles Bridge typically draw millions of tourists to Prague each year and, for the first time in almost 20 years, an Australian foreign minister will soon get a chance to experience the picturesque city on an official visit.

The ABC can reveal that Foreign Minister Marise Payne will fly to the Czech capital next week for a visit, where discussions will focus on shared concerns, such as cyber security and the growing fear of war in Ukraine.

Diplomatic sources say they are hopeful the landlocked, former Cold War foe could help Australia's efforts in Europe to fight back against Beijing's efforts to stymie the controversial AUKUS nuclear submarine plan.

Last week the ABC revealed that Australia is bulking-up specialised diplomatic teams in both Canberra and Vienna to win international acceptance for the AUKUS initiative as it braces for a massive "disinformation" campaign from China as well as Russia.

A public announcement of Senator Payne's Prague stopover is yet to be made, as diplomats work to confirm meetings with key figures in the new Czech government led by its Prime Minister, Petr Fiala.

Closer cooperation on cyber security is expected to be discussed by Senator Payne, as well as concerns over Chinese and Russian foreign interference operations, and the growing military ties between those two military powers.

Czech officials have privately claimed credit for helping convince some European nations to back a campaign to have former finance minister Mathias Cormann elected as the new head of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Last month, the Czech ambassador to Canberra lodged a diplomatic protest with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade after tennis player Renata Vorácová was deported, ahead of the Australian Open.

Concerns over Russia and China front of mind during European visit

Alexander Downer was the last Australian foreign minister to visit the Czech Republic in 2005, when questions about the Iraq War dominated.

However, in 2022, concerns over a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine are top of mind.

Since the Velvet Revolution, Czech lawmakers have remained wary of Moscow's continued efforts to interfere in the small NATO member's affairs, but in recent years there has been growing alarm about Chinese Communist Party's influence.

Last year the Czech Republic expelled dozens of Russian diplomats and their families after accusing Moscow of deploying intelligence agencies to carry out two explosions at a military arms depot in 2014.

Tensions between the Czech Republic and China also flared last year when the Taiwanese Foreign Minister, Joseph Wu, was welcomed by legislators to the central European nation's parliament.

Senator Payne will also travel to Germany to attend the high-profile Munich Security Conference, which brings together political leaders and top officials from around the region.

While the conference will focus on a broader array of security challenges, this year's event is likely to be consumed by discussions about whether Russia is on the brink of invading Ukraine and how NATO can deter Moscow.

Ahead of her arrival in Prague, the Foreign Minister will visit Paris, where the government is still smarting at Australia's decision last year to scrap the $90 billion French submarine project, in favour of a yet-to-be-chosen nuclear powered fleet.

During her brief stopover in Paris, Senator Payne will attend a meeting of Indo-Pacific foreign ministers organised by the French government.

The trip may also offer Senator Payne a chance to begin patching-up ties with France, although it is not yet clear if she has secured any bilateral meetings with her French counterparts.

The Foreign Minister was expected to visit Thailand on her way home, but she told Senate Estimates that leg of the trip was no longer occurring.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-16/foreign-minister-to-visit-czech-republic-over-ukraine-submarines/100832342

>>15600712

Ben Roberts-Smith trial: soldier tells court at least two men pulled from tunnel in Afghanistan compound

Events at the compound on 12 April, 2009 have emerged as central to the defamation trial brought by Roberts-Smith

Ben Doherty - 16 Feb 2022

A serving SAS soldier has told a court that at least two men were pulled from a tunnel inside a compound being raided by Australian SAS troops during a 2009 clearance operation in Afghanistan, a mission that has since become a key element of the defamation trial brought by Ben Roberts-Smith.

Roberts-Smith is suing the Age, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Canberra Times for defamation over a series of ­reports he alleges are defamatory and portray him as committing war crimes, including murder. The newspapers are pleading a defence of truth. Roberts-Smith denies any wrongdoing.

Anonymised before the federal court as Person 42, the Warrant Officer Class 2 and veteran of more than two decades’ military service appeared in court as a witness for the Nine newspapers’ defence.

Person 42 told the court he and other soldiers discovered the hidden tunnel during the raid on a compound called Whiskey 108. The soldiers called out in Pashto for anyone hiding inside to come out.

“They came out unarmed, they came out freely, they came out relatively quickly once we gave them the commands,” he said.

Person 42 said he took custody of one of the men and patted him down to ensure he was unarmed before passing him to the control of another soldier. He did not see the man again.

The events at Whiskey 108 on 12 April 2009 – and the presence or otherwise of men in the tunnel – have emerged as central to the allegations made against Roberts-Smith in the newspapers’ defence of the defamation claim. Roberts-Smith is a Victoria Cross winner and one of Australia’s most decorated soldiers.

Roberts-Smith has been accused in the course of the newspapers’ defence of ordering the execution an elderly Afghan man and murdering another man who had a prosthetic leg, both of whom had been taken from the tunnel in the compound. Roberts-Smith denies the allegations and says there was no one discovered in the tunnel.

Two other soldiers have previously given evidence in the trial on behalf of the newspapers about the alleged executions of the two men at Whiskey 108.

One soldier, Person 41, told the court Roberts-Smith and another soldier borrowed his suppressor which was then used in the execution of the elderly man. Person 41 also said he later saw Roberts-Smith “frogmarch” the man with a prosthetic leg outside a village compound, throw him to the ground and machine-gun him to death.

Another soldier, Person 14, said he saw an Australian soldier carrying a distinctive weapon, a Minimi machine gun, throw a human-shaped object to the ground and fire a burst of bullets into it. He said he later saw Roberts-Smith carrying a Minimi during that mission.

Roberts-Smith has consistently denied those versions of events, describing them as “completely false”. In his evidence last year, he said he never ordered an elderly man shot, and says he killed the man with a prosthetic leg outside Whiskey 108 because the man was a legitimate target, armed and running away, and was killed in accordance with troops’ rules of engagement.

He said no people were taken out of the tunnel in the compound.

“There were no people in the tunnel at Whiskey 108,” he told the court.

Whiskey 108 was a compound in the village of Kakarak, known as an insurgent stronghold, on the western side of the Dorafshan River in Uruzgan province and near an allied forward operating base.

In court on Wednesday, Person 42 said Whiskey 108 had been bombed by allied aircraft ahead of the Australian troops’ mission to ‘clear’ the compound on 12 April 2009, checking for insurgents, weapons, and bomb-making materials.

They found some weapons, ammunition and grenades, but “there were no enemy combatants found as part of the assault”, he said.

Shown pictures of the bodies of the men allegedly killed during the raid on Whiskey 108, Person 42 said he was unable to positively identify them.

Under cross-examination, he said Australian troops discovered the tunnel after being alerted to it by women, and possibly children, who were in the compound.

Arthur Moses SC, acting for Roberts-Smith, put it to Person 42 that his evidence was not true “because you weren’t there”.

“That is not true,” the soldier replied.

The trial before Justice Anthony Besanko continues.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/feb/16/ben-roberts-smith-trial-soldier-tells-court-at-least-two-men-pulled-from-tunnel-in-afghanistan-compound

Military air bases fast tracked for upgrade as Australia joins US Pacific push

Australian military bases and airstrips are to be upgraded as US forces look for more part-time homes for their combat aircraft, troops and ships.

Charles Miranda - February 16, 2022

Military airstrips and bases providing a chain-link defence to Australia’s north are in for a multi-billion upgrade under a fast-tracked Australia-US drive to secure the Pacific region.

Strategic fuel and war-fighting ordinance storages, defence missile systems and base upgrade plans have been brought forward, with a Defence department review identifying security shortfalls.

China’s rapid expansionist ambitions in the region and supply chain challenges exposed by Covid-19 flagged vulnerabilities for both Australia’s national security and America’s war-fighting capabilities in the region.

That has now sparked a sense of urgency with a “credible chance” of armed conflict before the end of the decade, according to the latest Defence review.

A delegation led by US Indo-Pacific Command’s director for logistics and engineering Brigadier General Jered Helwig is currently inspecting military infrastructure in the Northern Territory and Queensland for “logistic opportunities”.

The US has already identified vulnerabilities around its major base in Guam, which is within missile range of China.

It is now looking at closer base-share arrangements in Australia, to park and service military hardware and, if needed, use as a forward operating base, as well as having a troop rotation above the current 2500 Marines here at any one time.

That’s more ships, aircraft and troops to visit.

The upgrades plan goes beyond those already known to be approved at RAAF Tindal and RAAF Darwin, where the US military is funding expansions, and Cocos Keeling Islands airport, which has also been approved for upgrade.

But also now the “bare bases” currently only in ad hoc use are being looked at to help form a chain-link defence effect to Australia’s north, including RAAF Scherger on Cape York Peninsula, RAAF Curtin in northwest WA and RAAF Learmonth on the North West Cape.

Even runway assets rarely used since World War II, such as Batchelor, 100km south of Darwin, have been reviewed by Defence, as have, more broadly, vehicle highways that could be used in the event of a conflict where an air base runway is damaged.

The ADF’s acting commander joint logistics command Brigadier Jason Walk said the US delegation visit would progress a commitment to establish “cooperative logistics, sustainment, and maintenance enterprises’’ in Australia.

“The Indo-Pacific Region is the priority theatre for the United States and working alongside Australia is critically important in this long-term partnership to achieve our collective goals of maintaining peace and stability in the region,” Brigadier General Helwig said.

Defence joint standing committee chair Senator David Fawcett welcomed the commitment to spend on the bases and the increased military interoperability with the US.

“The need has been recognised, funding has been allocated and Defence is working to making sure we have resilience capability,” he said.

“I am really pleased they are now talking about bare base resilience and looking at whether the bases are fit for purpose, I am pleased to see that development.”

Former Army major general turned senator Jim Molan has also long agitated for bare base upgrades.

“We have an obligation in this strategic environment to protect our major assets, which really are aircraft, ships and infrastructure such as communications and fuel,” he said.

“I think the fact the federal government’s allocating money to this and secondly receiving a US facilities and infrastructure group reflects how serious the government is taking the strategic future.”

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/military-air-bases-fast-tracked-for-upgrade-as-australia-joins-us-pacific-push/news-story/17f2466a23f6c0b6b5f37566b9e2cb48

U.S. reassured of Australian alliance regardless of election outcome - U.S. official

Kirsty Needham - FEBRUARY 17, 2022

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The United States is confident its alliance with Australia “transcends politics” and would remain strong regardless of which party won the Australian election, a senior U.S. official said on Thursday.

With an election due by May, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has launched a political attack on opposition Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese over national security, claiming the ruling Liberal party will take a tougher stance than Labor on China. Security analysts have said there was no difference in the two parties’ policy on China.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Melbourne last week for a meeting of the Quad group of the United States, Australia, India and Japan. He also met separately with PM Morrison and Labor’s Albanese.

Daniel Kritenbrink, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said in a call with reporters that Blinken came away from the Australian meetings reassured.

“We came away reassured that these principles that we hold dear and our vitally important alliance transcends politics and any one party,” he said, in response to a question.

“We came away absolutely confident that whomever the Australian people select as their next leadership in the upcoming election, we are confident that the U.S.-Australia alliance will endure and remain as strong as ever.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-politics-usa/u-s-reassured-of-australian-alliance-regardless-of-election-outcome-u-s-official-idUSKBN2KM09X

UK pledges $34 mln to enhance security in Indo-Pacific

Jahnavi Nidumolu - February 17, 2022

SYDNEY, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Britain committed 25 million pounds ($34 million) to strengthen security in the Indo-Pacific as part of a pact with Australia, and leaders of both countries expressed "grave concerns" about China's policies in its far western region of Xinjiang.

In a video call on Thursday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison also called for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and warned Russia against invading Ukraine.

"They agreed the need for de-escalation and underscored that any further Russian incursion in Ukraine would be a massive strategic mistake and have a stark humanitarian cost," the leaders said in a joint statement after their meeting.

The funds pledged to the Indo-Pacific security agreement would strengthen regional resilience in areas including cyberspace, state threats and maritime security, Morrison and Johnson said.

The bilateral talks come just a week after the so-called Quad group of Australia, the United States, Japan and India pledged to deepen cooperation to ensure the Indo-Pacific region was free from "coercion", a thinly veiled swipe at China's economic and military expansion.

Johnson and Morrison expressed "grave concerns about credible reports of human rights violations in Xinjiang, and called on China to protect the rights, freedoms and high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong."

The United States accuses China of genocide in its treatment of minority Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang and abuse including forced and prison labour. China denies the accusations.

China imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, a move critics said undercut the greater freedoms promised under the "one country, two systems" framework agreed when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

Morrison and Johnson also stressed "the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and expressed support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organisations."

China claims Taiwan as its own territory. Taiwan has complained about frequent incursions by China's air force into its air defence zone, part of what Taipei says is a pattern of harassment by Beijing.

The British and Australian leaders also stressed the importance of maritime rights and freedoms in the South China Sea, saying they were strongly opposed "to any unilateral actions that could escalate tensions and undermine regional stability and the international rules-based order, including militarisation, coercion, and intimidation."

($1 = 0.7364 pounds)

https://www.reuters.com/world/uk-sign-25-mln-stg-security-deal-with-australia-2022-02-16/

Visiting US General Charles Flynn endorses Australia's new multi-billion-dollar American tanks

Andrew Greene - 17 February 2022

One of America's most senior generals is strongly backing Australia's decision to spend billions of dollars on new army fighting vehicles and tanks, saying they will be crucial for any major future conflicts.

Commander of US Army Pacific General Charles Flynn has flown to Canberra, where he is promoting closer cooperation with like-minded nations such as Australia to provide a "powerful counterweight" to any threats posed by China in the region.