The Chinese are buying up politicians, and making no bones about it.
Here in Greece, things are a geo-political cluster-f#%k.
Greece is wedged between western Europe on one side and Turkey and Asia on the other, and the tentacles of foreign money and power run everywhere.
Remember it was foreign investment banks that dodgied the books for Greece and fudged the debt numbers to get them into the Euro. And it was foreign governments and investment banks that began the biggest privatisation of public assets in human history.
(Not to say Greeks weren’t involved, just highlighting the role of foreign power.)
And I’m looking at this and thinking, in some ways we sure are lucky to be an island in the middle of nowhere.
But this is a global age. Global money knows no barriers. And Australia has a lot to offer.
And all this blew up last week with revelations that Labor up-and-comer Sam Dastyari let Chinese nationals with links to the Chinese governments pay personal debts.
It was declared and nothing illegal was done, but it sure didn’t smell right.
Especially when Dastyari went against his party to support China in the South-China Sea dispute.
It certainly creates the perception in the average man’s mind (speaking as an average man) that Dastyari can be bought…
… in the way that all politicians can be bought because that’s the system we’ve got.
It’s particularly disappointing because Dastyari was shaping as a bit of a hero on this front. Remember back in February when he launched a stunning attack on the state of politics, arguing that “Ten companies controlled Canberra”?
I do. From the Age:
Labor senator Sam Dastyari has warned there is something “fundamentally wrong and rotten” with Australia's entire political system, claiming there are 10 huge companies with so much power and influence they have killed proper democratic process at the federal level in this country…
“[But] none of that (time in the NSW Labor Machine) braced me for an understanding of just how concentrated, brutal and aggressive a handful of businesses operate [in Australia], and the real corporate power where it actually rests in this country,” he said.
He then claimed there are 10 companies that wield the most incredible amount of power in Australia, to the point where it has stifled proper democratic and economic progress.
They have “unprecedented concentration of corporate influence” in Australia, he said.
“The entire political debate has become so dominated by the interests that they're pushing, and the agenda that they're pushing. And [we've] ended up with this complete crowding out of a proper political discourse in this country because there is one sectional interest that is so much louder than every other voice out there combined.”
Fantastic stuff, I thought. What a hero, I thought. Finally a politician who can see the need to clean up Canberra, I thought.
But then what a disappointment. What was his solution to excessive corporate power? Balancing it out with excessive foreign power?
It’s either naïve, stupid or corrupt (just like our political system).
China in particular makes no secret of the fact that it would like to influence domestic politics. It’s not throwing money at our politicians (on both sides) because it warmly admires our western democracy. It want’s to shape it to its own ends.
From Peter Hartcher:
One of the biggest paymasters of Australian politics, the chairman of the property developer Yuhu Group, laid this out explosively for all to see this week.
…Huang has paid more than $1 million to both sides of Australian politics since 2012.
He is also the financier for Bob Carr’s pro-China outfit, giving $1.8 million to set up the Australia China Relations Institute.
…None of this is happening in a vacuum. The president of China, Xi Jinping, has publicly called on the patriotism of overseas Chinese to advance Beijing’s interests in foreign countries:
The Chinese Communist Party even has a department responsible for the co-ordination of Chinese diaspora and international communities – as sinologist Gerry Groot, of Adelaide University, has written:
“The United Front Work Department (UFWD) is the organisation through which the Party reaches out to many key non-party groups within and outside China in order to achieve important political goals.”
… Total disclosed payments to the major parties by Chinese corporate and business interests in the two years to June 30 last year was $5.89 million.
An informed official tells me: “There is very high level concern inside ASIO about the use of donations to purchase access and influence.
“It’s concern about systematic behaviour by people connected to the Chinese state apparatus. It’s centrally directed by Chinese intelligence.”
In case you’re still blinded by the polite idiocy that political donations aren’t about buying influence (I’m looking at you, Sam), the Chinese government is channelling money into Australian politics to corrupt the process and advance its own agenda.
And it’s not making a secret about it!
This is a farce.
At the very least we need to ban foreign political donations. Here’s a map showing which countries currently accept foreign donations.
Yep, that’s us in there along with paragons of democratic virtue, Chad and Uganda.
Seriously, this a joke.
But then you can’t touch foreign donations without admitting that donations to political parties, by their nature and by design, corrupt the political process.
And so that would mean banning all donations.
So do it. Put an end to this sorry joke once and for all.
Because I’m telling you, it’s one thing when your countries is a mess. But when you can’t trust the political process, and there’s murky connections going all over the place, the country falls apart.
Don’t let Australia become another Greece.
What’s the solution here?
Australia needs to ban all donations to political parties, individual politicians and any associated organisation/trust/company……hard to police
Alternatively, all donations to any part of the political process to be sent with full disclosure to the newly created ‘aust political donation (and corruption) commission’
This will never happen until neither major political party is in control. They will tinker and create loopholes and smokescreens. we need to vote for independents who sign up to this agenda. Farfetched? Nah – just need a good leader to coordinate platform and policy alliance with independents.
There will be no progressive political leadership in this country under major parties – they are too aligned with vested interests. We, the public, need better investigative journalism to expose endemic nepotism – we can feel it but can rarely document the occurrence.
This process could start with a close examination of the Governments “corporate welfare” budget.
HOW DID WE GET ONTO NAZI’S AND JEWS ETC ETC….THE MAN’S POINT WAS AUSTRALIAN POLITICAL DONATIONS……HE’S RIGHT!
jonno!! oh master of the revelationary corpus. you have indeed tapped into the vein of what is democracy and its tentacles of undesirability. i have written before about two distinctly relevant people who have uttered thus :. plato : democracy leads to corruption. (he also said it is a pathway to hell). vladimer lenin (remember him..the bolshevic leader in the russian ‘revolution). he said rather nicely that 95% of people are idiots but they are useful. lenin was a russian jew and his mate joseph stalin was a georgian jew. they together turned russia and ukraine into a slave ghetto.for 72 years murdering over 70 milion russian orthodox christians. on the prextext of saving them from the tsars!! and guess who bankrolled the revolution ? why, the rothschilds (the rothschilds are now worth over US$500tn.) of course for the sole purpose of acquiring the tsars treasury and enslaving those goddam christians..now of course vladimer putin has kicked those nasty jews out of his country and america(sometimes called jewmerica) is bloody well upset. thats the guts of it all the world over. what china is doing is a copycat of the USA. it is highly probable that most of australia is owned by the jews. they buy up land under psuedo names. you better believe it. our political landscape is a disaster. any country of consequence has complete access to our wealth. why blame the chinese? they are not necessarily a warmongering country. so there is little to fear from them. maybe our mindset needs to change. we have been, all of us, brought up on a diet of the british empire and royalty, and americana. it is little wonder we cannot see the the true landscape. there are many things happening in our world at the moment that are downright scary. and.we are not too far away from the action if that woman clinton decides to push the button. and she surely will if she lasts long enough or doesn’t go round the twist. one last thing is that the rothschild family now almost controls the western world. russia and china and iran and maybe turkey are our last hope. cheers,ron
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Are you trying to pin the horrors of Communism and of the World on Jews? Ron, you are not alone, Hitler already done this before. What is your landscape nazi?
not at all dear challah..i never try..i HAVE ‘pinned’ the horrors of the world on the jews. ..i just don’t like bolshevics. bolshevics leaders were lenin and stalin, both jews. they created communism. ever heard of the ‘holodomor? 1932/33 stalin marched his armies into the ukraine and stole all of their food…for TWO YEARS. ten million ukrainians died of starvation, survivors lived on grasshoppers and old leather, boiled , to become edible. not true you say? well you better go to canberra and ask them about the ceremony in 2009 commemorating the holodomor.
i love the russian and ukranian peoples. the ‘west’, which is us, is almost determined to blame the russians at every turn. (that is THEM) so us and them have problems. ha ha so ‘challah’, is that your real name? ok. then lets focus on peace around the world. but then peace comes at a price. i often ask my friends and relies about putin and russia. they have the same views as most people..but i ask them have they read a history of russia or ever been there and they go blank. have they met putin personally..no of course not. but they have an opinion.
but based on what? oh its generally known.they say..you see it on tv and read about it in the newspapers. lol little wonder lenin said that 95% of peoples are idiots. george orwell depicted most people in a cartoon….walking around with tv sets where their heads should be.. well it is a definite fact that the newspapers of the world (and australia) are controlled(owned) by the jews…and you know the old saying challah..the pen is mightier that the sword…cheers
Stalin and Lenin are Jews as Putin is, have not even being close. Your Nazi propaganda is sickening Ron.
You and everyone similar love Russians and Ukrainians so much so you stayed very quiet when they went head to head last year over Crimea.
challah..are you a jew? putin definitely is not..he has risen the orthodox christian church to great heights again in russia ukraine. about russia ukraine going head to head. it was an american invasion and a puppet pres. poreshenko (jew) was instated resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent ukrainians. as you read this poreshenko’s ‘army’ is shelling eastern ukraine quite heavily. there will be very many thousands killed dear challah. but you won’t read that in the newspapers or on tv..many very concerned americans write to me about the morass in their country. apparently america has invaded no less that 31 countries since ww2 and is responsible for the deaths of over 20m people. dropping more bombs in that period than the entire ww2. nazi? me? no dear challah..i just don’t like mass murder. mass murder is the domain of one woman: hilary clinton. if she is elected pres. there will be a 3rd ww and you will be involved up to your neck. wake up and get some education. i can say you are not really debating anything at all.
Going by you theory Hillary Clinton is Jewish too Hahaha
I guess all education you got ron is to spell one word correctly and i know which one
dear ass, jew and jew shill. a shill refers to a person who is a spy or confederate for or of the jews. i am curious as to the word you mention as the only one i know. i thought that this debate was detatched from personal attacks by contributors. the origin of this comment was to see what we thought of political donations etc etc etc. what i am doing here is showing what i know about what is really happening in this strange world. if i invite criticism ok. from what is written in the bible and forever after in many places it would appear that jewry is a problem. they stir up trouble all over the planet and stand back and watch everybody fight each other. you will not find many jewboys in the us army. incidentally the islam problem is only a sideshow. once again orchestrated by the wonderful jews in london and washington. there are bigger fish in this act. i am sorry if i have offended your jewish sentiments ‘ass’ and ‘challah’. i am even more worried that you haven’t got nice names like the rest of us poor illiterate christians. btw i am not religious. no way. cheers, ron
You deserve to be poor my friend ron!
Hijacking interesting post and progandising antisemitism through Jon’s web site.
thank you tony. the stuff i write merely enlarges on what jonno is putting out. corruption is rife and always has been and more so now in politics, religion and banking. if you can but get your head out of the sand you may understand this. btw i knew some very good jews in melbourne when i played football there in 1962. i will never forget dear hiram..a huge fellow : 6’8″ playing as first ruck. at the bounce the ball came to me, the very astute centreman, and hiram, clumsy bugger, fell on my neck. i got a free kick of course. but the other jewboys were saying “naughty boy hiram, don’t DO that” poor hiram was so upset. i was almost laughing. we had a beer after the game..we had good mates then amongst the other teams. sorry to spoil your day tony.
WOW…..This has always been glaringly obvious how a supposedly first world country is able to exist and progress for the good of it people, when this rot is allowed to continue.
Concerns of global warming the automation of jobs and the global economy flat lining all run at a very distant second to the importance of political donations and our very corruptible political system.
This has to change for Australia to survive.
Ron,
Your soliloquy runs rampant like an aussie Christmas bushfire and if JG’s audience wasn’t so well read they might brand you a radical or as my better half calls me “… a conspiracy theorist…”
I can live with conspiracy theorist. You are not a radical, merely telling the truth… but history shows a myriad of good people gone missing when they tell the inconvenient truth.
It’s still a shock to my system how the Rothschilds have, through the banking and finance system, managed to enslave the bulk of the population with 25 year mortgages and take over full control of our ‘democracy’ and now they have reached new highs (or lows?) where they are doing it and telling us they are doing it to our faces through their various puppets all around the world.
They have said numerous times, in numerous places and in so many ways that there is no way anything can stop them and their new world order which will come into effect in our lifetime. The challenge for us is how can any man communicate his / her opinion on anything to anyone without fear of being monitored (thank you www), found (via IP address), reprimanded (or worse) in the years to come.
I’m just trying to build a life and a future for my wife and I without fear of 1984 coming to reality. I want to be able to live in a country with some semblance of rules and parameters. I teach my kids parameters … without them anarchy and disrespect rule the roost. No future in that for a marriage, a business, a family, a community, a country or a government.
I fear that ‘democracy’ will eventually be a word for our grandchildren to study in the history books and ponder “… what those days must have been like…” much like my ex still watches the ‘The Waltons’ and wishes she was born in that era (ayayayay!)
Will our lives become something similar to that of former communist regimes where the powers that be give the citizens just enough food to survive, just enough of a blind eye to allow some locals to brew their own hard liquor to drown their sorrows, just enough freedom to sing songs that stir their souls behind closed doors only, just enough money from the banks to be able to build a basic family home, just enough of this and that so that the masses do not really feel the need to protest or disrupt or overthrow the controlling regime? Are we there yet ? Are we far off ?
The positive side of me thinks that perhaps the credit crunch will hit us but we as a people will hang to our standard of living and will not let that go easily. This thought allows me to close my eyes at night and get some sleep knowing that as aussies we probably will fight tooth and nail for the freedoms we enjoy. How much will remain of the lifestyle that we enjoy is to be seen but I hope we don’t have to go to Cronulla riots level to ensure we retain our freedom and lifestyle.
Jon, I truly enjoy reading your no B.S. tales .. absolute gems .. food for thought.
Ron, I agree with your thoughts and, ideally, we would somehow stop political donations and other ‘wrongdoings’ within our political system but I think it is too far gone to make it completely and utterly a true democracy.
Best regards to all.
hi steve, its nice to know someone else is aware of things. there is so much more to learn in our lifetime. just yesterday i learned what an argument really is. its a discussion between, say, two people of opposing views(without getting too excited)..socrates was the master of discussion. cheers, ron
There is a big picture:
China lacks human rights, free speech and religion. It is hugely building up its armed forces, way past defence and preparing for offence. (It has already taken over Tibet and border areas of India by force. And Chinese generals and newspapers have threatened nuke attacks on US cities.) Now China is trying to take over most of the South China Sea, and is threatening bordering countries. (It has dumped chemicals in the Philippine fishing grounds to kill the fish and drive the fishermen off their islands, even deep within the Philippine Exclusive Economic Zone.) It ignores international law, and threatens those who side with such findings. It engages in high levels of cyber espionage in both military and commercial areas. It is buying up infrastructure and political influence across the world. It is building for global economic and military dominance.
This is 21st century colonialism, Chinese style.
And guess which country is closest to China and provides large amounts of land, arable farming land and food supply, copious amounts of natural resources and wealth from mining, and welcomes everyone with open arms and no sense of protecting their way of life, human rights, freedom of speech and religion? Australia is not ready to defend itself against a takeover bid by China, in fact we have sold huge amounts of our best farming land already to Chinese and other foreign buyers. It’s a scary prospect but is it so far removed from the realms of possibility? China have proven they don’t give two hoots about international laws and rulings… Who will stop them if the decide to set up camp in our country?
hi hugh, as i have said here just now the chinese are great copycats..they carbon copy everything the americans do. remember that america, britain, france portuguese and the dutch carved up the middle kingdom in the nineteenth century. cheap chinese labour attracted american industries to china in the late ninetees and this century to the detriment of the u.s. economy. as you sow, so shall you reap. and we in the west are reaping the rewards of the past..the white man’s burden, cheers,
oh the ‘yellow peril’..yes and what about the ‘white peril’..i’ll bet the local black fellahs would have been delighted to know of our plans in 1788 and 1829. don’t be a hypocrite..acknowledge that we were invaders. just like the chinese are(?) south china sea…refer to u.s.a. and nicaragua 20 years ago ..same story different countries. cheers. ron
The biggest threat to world peace and security is the USA. The yanks can’t keep their noses out of everyone else’s business. If China doesn’t give a rat’s arse about anyone else, someone got it right, they “copy catted” it of the USA. Well who told the yanks they could invade certain oil rich countries, or Vietnam for their rubber, and say they were stopping the spread of Communism.
ron,
You obviously have a very high regard for Jews. You attribute to them control of the world’s finances as well as responsibility for the world’s ills- yet they number only 0.2% of the worlds population. (16 million Jews worldwide). Despite their obsession with wealth accumulation and causing misery, surprisingly they have been awarded 20% of all Nobel prizes. I thought these were in recognition for more noble causes.
yes stan. that figures. i never said that they were stupid. just plain ornery critters. nobel prize winners? hmmm. i wonder who were the judges. just a thought. 0.2% of the world population is correct. it would be bloody awful if there were any more than that. and the pres candidate hilary c. is a jew shrill and gets a way with murder both literally and metaphorically. because she is supported by the jerwy press in the usa. she can do no wrong. many many intelligent people in usa are saying that if she wins the election all hell will break loose all over the world…australia included. i am afraid that our cacoon existence is a gonna be threatened sooner or later..we have never experienced war in this country, save for darwin 1942..and the prime minister drew a line from brisbane to adelaide.(the brisbane line) all of the western and northern places were to be sacrificed so that sydney and melbourne could be defended. my mother took us three kids, 6, 4 and 2 to a place named narrogin to get away from perth if it was attacked. my father stayed on the fremantle wharf to bring in supplies. second world war…. once again the prize was russia. its a sad twisted tale the second world war. cheers ron
You only have to read the ‘Protocols of elders of zion’ read some real history, you could understand what ron is saying.
Wow. This discussion today is better than UFC cage fighting. Conspirocies, takeovers, war, spies no wonder Hollywood has a mountain of material to let their immaginative juices fly. A couple of things, there is very little talk about what happened to the Ukrainians, the Baltics (where I come from)and even the Russian peasants themselves. The numbers murdered were staggering but no movies, no world wide yearly recognition, nothing. The middleclass of Chine is growing and getting smarter. As someone said, they are not a warmongoring race. Yes they flex their muscles but so does everybody else with always a good excuse. I can’t see that China will create something to take the country to the edge. The advantage here is that they just love Australia. Throwing money around is just business with China, just like it is here in Australia where politicians throw money around to buy farms know of rezoning and potential mining (lets see the end result of that???) So what are we doing, in our ouwn small way that other countries are trying to do in a much bigger way. War, what sort of a war. Nuclear, can’t see that in our lifetime. You see, which ever system you live under, the stuff that we enjoy and play with is far to preciouse to let go of. Greed and the love of it. You think we are going to destoy this? War will remain local, with drones and a gameboard of battleships and cruisers. Keep up the sparring. Love it.
Thanks Jon for showing us this map. Very interesting. Available at:
http://www.idea.int/political-finance/question.cfm?field=246
Interesting that Allowing countries include a number in Europe, namely Denmark, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands and Switzerland, among others.
I guess it depends on the strength of your democracy – which I generally regard as just a much more sophisticated con of the people than any other form of government. I mean, it’s easy to hate a dictator, and work to overthrow him. Similarly, Monarchies, albeit possibly harder to overthrow. But “Democracy”? That’s a beauty. Why would the people overthrow something over which they believe they have power? Democracies allow the “powers that be” to carry on from year to year with much less hindrance from the outside.