Blacklisted pair exploit MPs
SOME of Australia’s most prominent politicians are linked to an
organisation blacklisted by the Federal Government because of
concern over its dealings with government and other agencies in
China.
The Australian International Trade Association says its board
includes federal parliamentary secretary Laurie Ferguson as a
“general adviser”, along with deputy federal Opposition leader
Julie Bishop and high-profile shadow minister Bronwyn Bishop.
The so-called association also has paid for trips to China by
Julie Bishop, Victorian MP Ken Smith and former politicians Kelly
Hoare and Harry Quick, among others.
In 2005, its Beijing manager, Michael Guo, suggested Kevin Rudd
would lead a delegation to China on AITA’s behalf.
In an extraordinary flip last week, Mr Ferguson, the
parliamentary secretary for multicultural affairs and the
association’s patron, said he was no longer happy for his name to
be used on AITA’s website and was reconsidering his link with the
group.
“Mr Ferguson does not act in any form or capacity to promote
this organisation,” spokesman Khaldoun Hajaj said.
Mr Ferguson’s about-face came after The Sunday Age told
him that the former deputy prime minister and minister for trade,
Mark Vaile, had been concerned about the activities of AITA and Mr
Guo, and had distanced the Government from them.
“Neither the Australian Government, my department nor the
Australian embassy in Beijing support, endorse or are associated
with any of the activities of Mr Guo or AITA,” Mr Vaile said in a
letter to a former AITA employee in 2005.
Julie Bishop, who accepted a paid trip to China in 2003, says
she has had no contact with AITA since the trip.
“When brought to my attention several years ago that my name was
listed on their website, I wrote to the organisation formally
requesting that the reference be removed,” she told The Sunday
Age.
Her name was not taken off the site.
The Sunday Age also can reveal that the NSW Office of
Fair Trading has charged AITA’s public officer, Mr Guo’s brother
Steven Guo, under the Associations Incorporation Act for failing to
produce documents verifying that it operates as a not-for-profit
organisation.
In August 2006, the Australian Competition and Consumer
Commission’s assistant director of enforcement, Peter van de Hoek,
warned the media against running AITA’s advertisements for jobs in
China.
Meanwhile, the Victorian Department of Innovation, Industry and
Regional Development is investigating alleged breach of copyright
in educational material distributed by AITA.
At a time when Australia’s trade and political relationships
with China are seen as vital, concerns are being raised that
operators like AITA could harm them.
AITA is organising Australia-China BusinessWeek 2008 to be held
in Melbourne in June. The event’s website listed the Melbourne City
Council as one of the key sponsors.
But the council’s marketing and events committee chairman, Carl
Jetter, said: “City of Melbourne does not sponsor BusinessWeek and
we do not give it money. We did not give permission to event
organisers to use the City of Melbourne logo and we are following
that up.”
The council’s logo was dropped from the website late last
week.
Austrade, also listed as a sponsor, yesterday moved to distance
itself from BusinessWeek. A spokesman said Austrade had contacted
AITA and started proceedings to have references to Austrade and its
logo removed from the website.
Democrat senator Natasha Stott Despoja has asked Immigration
Minister Chris Evans if AITA’s practice “in facilitating employment
in China with inadequate visas is in breach of any Commonwealth
laws”.
She foreshadowed further questions on AITA’s practices when
Parliament resumes next month.
Former South Australian police superintendent Peter Magerl has
sued AITA and has been investigating the association and its
principals since August 2005 after falling out with Michael
Guo.
Mr Magerl, a policeman for 37 years, is furious that senior
politicians continued to back AITA despite his repeated warnings to
them about its practices.
“I was stupid enough to believe if I wrote to the honorary board
%26#133; that they would immediately do something. What did I get? I
got no response,” he said.
A spokesman for Harry Quick, who gave a keynote speech at an
AITA reception in China in 2005, said: “Harry did do a trip to
China %26#133; and I organised at least one reception in Parliament
House for one of their delegations. We were then contacted by two
people inside China, who had gone from Australia, about using the
wrong visas %26#133; Once we started getting that sort of material we
severed all contact with them.”
Mr Magerl, who was Michael Guo’s project officer in 2005, said
he and two Australian women who worked for AITA were threatened and
intimidated by him when they raised issues about their visas.
When contacted by The Sunday Age, Michael Guo spoke of
AITA’s goal to do good things for Australia, and said he was
bringing a multimillion-dollar project to South Australia but it
was not convenient for him to release the details yet.
AITA aims to foster government, business, trade and educational
exchanges between Australia and China. It claims wide political
support.
The Australian International Trade Association Incorporated is
listed as an association with the NSW Office of Fair Trading. Its
public officer is Steven Guo, who also is a director of Sydney
travel agency Morning Calm Travel Pty Ltd.
The Australian International Trade Association Pty Ltd has a
company listing and its director is Michael Guo.
In a further twist, The Sunday Age can reveal that Steven
Guo also uses the name Steven Moon a fact confirmed by Mr
Magerl and others including investigators from the NSW Office of
Fair Trading.
Mr Moon a member of the NSW Labor Party who has held
senior party positions is definitely the same person as
Steven Guo, according to the assistant secretary of the NSW ALP,
Rob Allen.
Mr Moon told The Sunday Age he was overseas and would not
be commenting.
When officers of the Sheriff’s office went to Mr Steven Guo’s
address in Sydney’s Croydon Park last year with a writ of property,
Wei Qing Zhu told them she was Mr Moon’s wife and did not know
Steven Guo. She refused them entry. In a telephone call that
followed, a man said: “I am not Steven Guo, I am Steven Moon.”
Posted
on
Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 5:14 pm under