Dan Andrews IS the Manchurian Candidate

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Via the Herald Sun:

Premier Daniel Andrews is set to jet to China to spruik Victoria’s biggest road project at a conference for the controversial Belt and Road Initiative.

Mr Andrews confirmed he would present at Chinese president Xi Jinping’s forum next week.

In October, Victoria signed a confidential deal linking the state to the Belt and Road Initiative — a program that will see the superpower bankroll infrastructure projects worth billions of dollars around the world.

…Asked whether the trip was to drum up support for the North East Link, Mr Andrews said: “for many projects”.
“Part of having so many projects underway is that you are able to travel to other parts of the world and talk with confidence to construction companies, to those who might provide investment support, to those who build things,” he said.

This has to stop. Andrews is going directly against a federal push to reduce Chinese “sharp power” influence in Australia. Australian infrastructure can be funded without selling out to China, which we know comes with strings attached. Sure, they can underbid others owing to their state sponsorship of debt but that’s the problem. You pay the price in lost sovereignty.

There is also this at Banking Day today:

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The monthly rate of expansion in Bank of China’s government deposits is so dramatic that it is almost matching – in absolute terms – growth recorded by the Commonwealth Bank.

CBA, the largest holder of public sector deposits in the country, grew its government deposit base by A$348 million in the five months to the end of February.

Westpac, which has recently lost several key mandates to provide transaction banking and payments services in the government sector, suffered a net outflow of government deposits of almost A$11 billion in the same five month period.

The Victorian Government last night declined to comment on whether it had lodged funds in accounts with the Bank of China but a spokesperson could not rule out the possibility that it had.

However, the spokesperson for Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas said the government had not sourced any borrowings directly from the bank.

“Neither the Victorian Government or its agencies have borrowed from the Bank of China,” said the Treasurer’s spokesperson.

“All direct financing for the government and its agencies and departments is provided by the Treasury Corporation of Victoria.

“The Corporation sources funding through bond programs in the wholesale financial markets.”

And earlier this week, via AFR:

Victorian premier Daniel Andrews will attend Chinese president Xi Jinping’s forum to promote its controversial Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) infrastructure program next week, as Australia’s relationship with Beijing comes under fresh scrutiny ahead of the federal election.

The visit by Mr Andrews and Australian business groups to China comes as tensions resurface in Australia’s relationship with China over a ban on Huawei’s 5G equipment and restrictions on Australia’s coal imports. China has complained about Australia’s ban to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

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But is all as it seems? At Banking Day:

Bank of China faces a bout of public scrutiny after its emergence as the fifth largest lender to the Australian government sector behind the Big Four domestic banks.

Disclosures in APRA’s monthly banking statistics show that a government customer borrowed A$100 million from the state-owned Chinese bank in October last year.

It is rare for Australian governments or their agencies to borrow directly from state-owned foreign banks given the potential for such arrangements to create conflicts of interest for domestic governments.

Banking Day has not been able to verify the identity of the government borrower, but the reporting of the loan to APRA coincided with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews signing a bilateral trade deal with the Chinese government on 8 October last year.

Somebody in the security services needs to give Victoria’s Manchurian Candidate a vigorous briefing.

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About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.