JOHN MENADUE. Who is in charge of Australia’s relations with China? The Australian Prime Minister or ASIO?

May 28, 2018

ASIO is on a roll in co-ordinating the attack on China and its alleged covert operations in Australia. Only last Friday we learnt that super patriot Andrew Hastie, formerly an officer in SAS and currently Chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, cleared his parliamentary speech with ASIO but not his own Prime Minister. That is extraordinary for a person supposedly in parliamentary charge of supervising the activities of ASIO.  

 It is becoming clear that over recent months, ASIO has been a key player in the anti-China campaign. Its Head, Duncan Lewis, has become quite a media fixture. The Australian security complex, as a branch office of the US security complex, has decided that in the national interest, as it sees it, it should brief a range of journalists, exjournalists and writers about the China ‘threat’ and what the government should do in Australia’s relations with China.

Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop are trying in their own vacillating and confused ways to build improved relations with China but ASIO and its media associates are trying to derail their attempts.

The following is what Katherine Murphy reported in The Guardian on Friday, 25 May 2018. (https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/may/26/andrew-hasties-contribution-to-our-china-effort-curious-and-curiouser?CMP=share_btn_link)

Hastie didn’t tell the prime minister or the foreign minister what he was doing, nor did he give a heads up widely to colleagues in the intelligence committee, who found out what was going on when their phones started ringing.

But the Liberal backbencher did manage to give Asio a heads up

Lewis told a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday night that Hastie “had a discussion” of a speculative nature with a junior officer in the spy agency. About 90 minutes before the speech, the director general was made aware there was “some prospect” of the contribution going ahead.

Hastie didn’t seek authorisation or clearance for his contribution, Lewis said, but he also made it clear Asio didn’t attempt to stop him from speaking, or alert the government about what might be about to unfold.

Curious, isn’t it? A parliamentarian gives a heads up to the spooks, but not to his own prime minister.

The timing was also curious. Julie Bishop had just wrapped up a lengthy bilateral meeting with her Chinese counterpart in Argentina, which was an effort to calm concerns in Beijing about the government’s foreign interference laws.

It is obvious to anyone watching politics at the moment that the government has been trying over the past few months to defuse a major diplomatic row with Beijing.

The current tensions have an implicit and an explicit trigger. The implicit trigger is the Coalition’s foreign interference laws, which the Chinese believe are directed at them.

I am assuming that this Guardian report is correct. On that assumption I cannot see how either Hastie or Lewis can remain in their positions as head of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, and ASIO.

We have known for months about Duncan Lewis’ public role. But now we learn ,at least in part how he has been acting behind the scenes. Hastie apparently reports to him. And we have also seen our mainstream media, including the ABC, in thrall of the spy narrative. They fall for the untested and gossipy tit bits. They are prepared to accept stories and advice from ASIO whilst dismissing experts of long-standing on China as either China lobbyists or stooges.

But the real tragedy of all this is that whilst there is no doubt that China like other nations including Australia, is involved in COVERT operations in other countries, we are diverted from the key OVERT issue of how we deal with China and its growing influence.

As Hugh White and others have repeated many times, we need to address carefully how we manage the situation with China becoming more powerful and the US in relative decline. China is not going away and we and our neighbours have to find a way to come to terms with that fact.

The Australian Treasury estimates that in 2030 China’s GDP will be $US42.4 trillion and America’s $US24 trillion.

There will of course be downsides as well as upsides in our future relations with China. But we are not addressing them sensibly. ASIO is not helping.

Chinese activity and influence in Australia is small beer compared with US influence. The US has not had an ambassador to Australia for two years, but it doesn’t matter. The US doesn’t really need an ambassador. American interests are represented overwhelmingly by our mainstream media and particularly, the US owned Murdoch media. Our media are branch offices of the media in New York and Washington…. and London for royal weddings. Our media overwhelmingly projects US interests and value, rather than our own.

In addition to the pervasive and saturation media coverage of US interests in Australia, we have thousands of Australian ‘leaders’ who are vocal and constant advocates of the US position. They have been the beneficiaries of generous American drip-feed in a whole range of ways, particularly free travel and grants for decades Our politicians, bureaucrats, foreign affairs media correspondents, trade unions and academics have been showered with this American largesse. US influence is so dominating and pervasive that we hardly notice how our attitudes and thinking are shaped by US interests and the values they project.

By contrast, Chinese influence, whilst growing is quite minor . But being new and different, it is noticed more by immature people like those in our security services and many in our media.

I will be writing further about my experience with our security agencies and their lack of accountability.

We need security agencies but making them accountable is a major problem. The so called supervisors and regulators, including members of parliament, like Hastie, invariably join the security club. It happens time and time again. The club has obviously captured Bill Shorten.

Why does Andrew Hastie report to Duncan Lewis rather than Malcolm Turnbull?

Who is responsible for our relations with China, the Australian government or our security services?

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