Is Kevin Rudd a Chinese Manchurian Candidate?

G'day all,

those of you who know of Kevin Rudd know that he is a well educated, and charming person. The Australian Prime Minister who swept into power virtually out of no where (sound familiar:Obama) in an election where the former prime minister John Howard looked like he threw the election, not even trying to run a successfull campaign, like he either knew that something was coming and he didnt want to be in power when it did (financial crisis or something bigger yet to come) or he got the tap on the shoulder from higher above telling him that Rudd will be leader move over.

Now, my concern with Kevin Rudd, has been his behaviour lately and that of his ministers.

Australian on this board all know the Kevin Rudd is fluent in Mandarin(Chinese),
en.wikipedia.org...

Rudd studied at the Australian National University in Canberra where he resided at Burgmann College and graduated with First Class Honours in Arts (Asian Studies). He majored in Chinese language and Chinese history, became proficient in Mandarin and acquired a Chinese alias, Lù Kèwén.

In 1980 he continued his Chinese studies at the Mandarin Training Center of National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.

So he has spent time in Taiwan, China. Yes, Wikipedia says he was studying there but who is to know for certain?

In the late 1980's Rudd was posted back to Beijing again,
en.wikipedia.org...

He and his wife spent most of the 1980s overseas posted at the Australian embassies in Stockholm, Sweden and later in Beijing, People's Republic of China.

Heres a short clip of Rudd speaking Mandarin at the OPEC summit in 2007-
www.youtube.com...

Now I know what some of you may be saying, So the man is educated in Chinese.....fair enough, but let me continue. Its his behaviour of late that has got me worried.

Is Rudd more concerned about Chinese international interests or those of Australia?

Last week, Rudd had a "secret" meeting with the No.5 highest official of the Chinese communist party, and details of this meeting were never divulged....why?
news.yahoo.com...

Last weekend, the No. 5 man in China’s ruling Politburo Standing Committee, Li Changchun, visited Rudd in Canberra, and Rudd’s office kept the visit virtually secret. Li is in charge of propaganda, media and ideology. Given these high-level contacts, it’s worthwhile listening to Rudd when he does speak about China, which he did Wednesday evening in Washington on the NewsHour With Jim Lehrer program on PBS. Rudd spoke after coming out of a meeting with Barack Obama at the White House (see photo). Here are excerpts from a transcript provided by PBS, beginning with a segment on the upcoming G-20 meeting next month in London to deal with the global financial crisis:

JIM LEHRER: Of course, one of the major economies in the world is China. Is it doing its part?
KEVIN RUDD: The Chinese have stumped up a reasonable stimulus package so far. It's probably something in the order of about $500 billion. This...
LEHRER: What is that -- put that in perspective, what does that mean, $500 billion? Is that a big package or is that -- in Chinese terms...
RUDD: Well, there are different ways of calculating such a package in China. And, of course, there's a certain opaqueness with some of the numbers in China. And there are other things which the Chinese may not be currently declaring, for example, how credit is being released through their banks to support businesses and consumers.
But if governments around the world -- and this debate on fiscal stimulus is getting going a bit at the moment -- let's just look at the possibility of governments not stepping up to the plate with what they've already done.
The IMF has calculated there will be 20 million -- nearly 20 million more people on the unemployment queue across the G-20 economies today, including China, were it not for fiscal stimulus. I think the responsible course of action is to get behind this as a temporary measure.
///
At another point, Rudd goes into great detail about his views about China:


LEHRER: You've suggested in some of the things you've written and said that you believe there is a golden opportunity for -- that's my word, not yours -- for the United States, as well as the rest of -- Australia and the rest of the so-called developed world, to collaborate more with China and kind of move together as partners in some of these areas involving economic and financial matters. Explain your point there.
RUDD: Right now we're trying to deal responsibly, globally, with this global recession, through the G-20. Now, what's the G-20? It includes 20 of the largest economies in the world, a few exceptions. But it's got some representativeness to it, because together they represent about 80 percent or 90 percent of global GDP.
But it's also a small enough body that you can actually get together and broker some decisions politically. And in the past, a lot of our international institutions have broken down because an agreement couldn't be reached.
Now, China is a player in the G-20. And, therefore, when we look at one of the decisions we're going to have to make soon, when is the reform of the International Monetary Fund, China will be expected to step up to the plate and put more resources into the fund.
But China right now, its voting rights within that fund are the equivalent of Belgium and the Netherlands. I think you've got to change that so that China has a bigger place at the table, rightly, but also that the world can then draw upon the resources which China puts responsibly into an international financial institution.
That's one example of how this G-20 group can help frame an outcome for the future of the International Monetary Fund, which also brings China into helping with the solution.
LEHRER: In a more general way -- I mean, you are a China hand, as a professional diplomat, you speak Mandarin Chinese -- should China -- what would be your advice to Americans as to how they should view China now, as a competitor, as a potential ally, as an enemy, as a potential problem? What is it? What's China represent -- should represent to the average American? Put it in any terms you want to.
RUDD: Jim, I think China represents a huge opportunity for us all for the 21st century. The numbers speak for themselves. The center of global economic gravity is moving to the Asia Pacific region in the 21st century. And so what's happening in China, we see it also with India and you also see it with many other economies in the region, in Southeast Asia, Indonesia. But China is big. And, of course, the continued strength of Japan, as well.
Therefore, when you look at China in the future, I don't think anything's to be served by simply assuming it's all going to go bad. I think the challenge is this -- and our friends in America to do the same -- work with us in integrating China into the institutions of global governance, on the political side, on the security side, also on the economic side through, for example, the G-20, and also integrate them front and center in the great challenge of climate change, as well.
If you engender that sort of environment, then you enable China to do -- as the head of the World Bank, Bob Zoellick, once said -- for China to play the role of a responsible global stakeholder.
Now, if China was to turn its back on that or not be responsible, the world would soon know. But I think the smart course of action for us all is to involve them.
They're not perfect. They've done some bad things in the past. But let's look at the opportunities, rather than simply assume it's all threat and all risk.

continued-->

[edit on 27/3/09 by Melbourne_Militia]

This has brought the opposition leader out yesterday asking everyone, what is Rudd talking about? It looks like he is trying to sell China to the world more than Australia.

Today we find out that our Defence Minister, Joel Fitzgibbon has a Chinese "Aquantice" that he has had for 16years that has bought him not only gifts but on 2 occassions, secret trips to China that Joel didnt admit under investigation.......why?

www.theage.com.au...

THE career of Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon was in grave doubt last night after he admitted failing to disclose taking two trips to China paid for by the wealthy businesswoman at the centre of a spying scandal in his department.

This woman has link to State run companies in China....this caused enough concern that military investigators had launched their own secret inquiry into Joel Fitzgibbons relationship with his Chines friend.
www.theaustralian.news.com.au...

THE Defence Department has ordered an urgent investigation into claims that Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon has been spied on by his own department.

Reports today claim the Defence Department has been spying on the minister, using the Defence Signals Directorate spy agency to tap into computers in Mr Fitzgibbon’s office to gain information about his relationship with a wealthy Chinese-born Sydney business woman, Helen Liu.

For his own department to be worried of their head defence minister, something must be up.

As the political crisis over the affair deepened, more details emerged about Ms Liu's links to senior Chinese officials.

It is believed that Ms Liu has been mentioned in secret reporting by Australian intelligence officers. Intelligence officials in Canberra have noted Ms Liu's business activities and contact with senior Chinese Government officials in the course of monitoring Chinese activity in Australia.

Mr Fitzgibbon said that, after examining his statements of interests to the parliament, he had identified two trips paid for by Ms Liu when he was an opposition MP - to Beijing and Shanghai in 2002, and to Shanghai in 2005. - that he had failed to declare. "This was a mistake and for that I apologise," he said in a statement.

This contradicted a statement his spokesman, who said earlier yesterday: "The minister has not accepted any gifts that would require a declaration on the members' interest register."

Why try and hide this? Why is Kevin Rudd so blasse about this all when the media is criticising the defence minister today saying he should resign or Rudd should sack him.

Is Rudd and Fitzgibbon in this together? Are they selling Australias secrets to the Chinese? Do they have a hiddent agenda that is not in Australias interest?

I have read reports in the past of China using spies to aquire Australian Military Technology, there have been some well documented cases, particularly in the case of Metal Storm Technology that Australia posses, that the Chinese seem to desperately want.
www.smh.com.au...

NEWLY revealed efforts by China's military to get the secrets of a Brisbane company's revolutionary new rapid-fire gun are the latest in what one intelligence expert calls a "hoover"-style espionage operation by Beijing.

The Chinese sweep for technology is providing a heavy workload for traditional counter-espionage for the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, despite its shift of priorities to counter-terrorism.

Mike O'Dwyer, the inventor of the Metal Storm gun that is capable of firing a million rounds a minute, said on Channel Nine's Sunday program he had been offered $US100 million ($134 million) to move to China.

"What I was expected to do in Beijing was to divulge all the knowledge I had to enable prototypes to be built for the weapons system to be developed," Mr O'Dwyer said.

Not the first case of China spying on Australians,
www.abc.net.au...

One of China's highest profile defectors - Chen Yonglin, a diplomat in Sydney who sought asylum in 2005 - has said Beijing had more than 1,000 agents in Australia alone who kidnapped some Chinese people and repatriated them for political reasons.

And today we hear that the Chinese government is funding Kevin Rudds financial stimulus bailout of Australia's economy,
www.news.com.au...

CHINA is secretly helping to bankroll Kevin Rudd's economic rescue plan as concerns grow over the relationship between the Communist superpower and the Labor Government.

The Courier-Mail can confirm that China is a significant investor in Australian government bonds -- used by Canberra to fund billions of dollars in emergency spending.

Market insiders believe China is buying 15 to 20 per cent of the $2 billion in Treasury securities being issued every week.

This would make China the single biggest lender to Australia, although details of who owns the bonds are cloaked in secrecy.

The program, authorised by Treasurer Wayne Swan, will leave Australia with a debt bill approaching $200 billion.

In response, the Opposition has raised concerns Australia could end up politically "handcuffed" to China as a result. China's appetite for Australian bonds comes just days after the Prime Minister secretly met China's fifth most powerful figure, Li Changchun, at the Lodge.

Once again, we see secrecy when there seems to be involvement in regards to China.

This has many in Australia's own government worried about the future with the seemingly ever closer ties between China's Communist Party and the Australian Labour Party.
www.news.com.au...

Senior government figures privately admit the growing level of Chinese investment raises significant issues, including national security.

These have been but a few examples of what is going on and the real fear that alot of Australians are starting to express.

We had John Howard before this has was staunchly pro-US, and now Kevin Rudd was still says he is pro-US, but seems to bend over at the first sign of a Communist Flag.....what the hell is going on here?

Was Rudd programmed during his time in China? was he secretly funded into power by the Chinese to sell Australia to them once he gets into power?

If Australia cant pay off this debt that China has loaned to Australia, then they might claim their money back by using our natural resources for many eyars for free until they get the equivalent value back through minerals.

Does anybody else here fear where Australia is going?

Thanks for this. Very interesting to say the least, and true aswell from what I read.

It also explains the new internet censorship laws that may be enforced on us. Why would he be doing this, though - programmed by them perhaps? Seems a bit far-fetched for the Chinese to bother with. Still, there are a lot of questions you bring up.

[edit on 27/3/09 by Nventual]

China has a strict censorship on the internet there and it seems funny that they want to do the same thing here in Australia?

Yes, what are they trying to hide from us?

Heres an excerpt I just found from 2005, when a Chinese spy defected to Australia, and some of his claims, I think at this point in time what he said back then is of relevance.
www.abc.net.au...://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1385487.htm

Former intelligence analysts and agents like Dr David Wright-Neville and Warren Reed say that figure is exaggerated. But it's possible a network of informants, rather than trained spies, could be operating on that scale.

Dr David Wright-Neville says the Chinese are not just interested in keeping an eye on people they regard as troublemakers.

DAVID WRIGHT-NEVILLE: Well, I think we'd be naïve to assume that the Chinese don't have what we might want to talk about as conventional spies. They most certainly do have an interest, both in Australia's military planning, in its economic policies and so on, particularly by dent of our close relationship with the United States, the extensive character of our defence exchange relationships with the United States.

The Chinese have an interest in how we're thinking about the US alliance, have an interest in the type of technology that might be transferred from the United States to us.

They also have an interest in our economic policies. We are a competitor with China in a number of key areas, we're involved in negotiations with the Chinese in a number of other areas on trade and so on, they would be interested in getting advanced information about the nature of our trade… our negotiating positions.

So it's absolutely certain that the Chinese would have full-time intelligence officers here, but one suspects that overwhelmingly they are concerned with the activities of their own nationals.

China is scared that Australia may aquire secret US technology it seems, are they concerned that we may become a superpower in the region even thou we have a small population base, our technological advancements may pose a threat to China.....or they want to know what we have here before they attempt to invade us one day?

we know that China relies heavily on our minerals and mining, ot keeps their country going as much as it keeps our economy going too, but that does not mean we should turn a blind eye to what they do and/or for us to bend over when they tell us too.

Heres another report that also links Russias spy agencies with the Chinese on trying to get intelligence out of Australia,
www.axisglobe.com...

The Australian newspaper reports that Russia and China pose the most serious espionage threat to Australia's national interest since the days of the Cold War. It claims their increased spying operations have been made easier because of Western intelligence agencies' continuing focus on Al-Qaeda and other Islamic extremist groups.
The new ranks of Russian and Chinese spies in Australia are focusing on military, scientific and industrial espionage at a time of prolific defence spending and the commodities boom. They are believed to be seeking to exploit sensitive military technologies in several key defence projects over the coming years, including the $15 billion development of the new Joint Strike Fighter and the $8 billion construction of three air warfare destroyers by ASC Pty Ltd. Industrial espionage is also a priority, as a competitive advantage is sought against a range of Australian businesses, especially those in the resources sector.
In response, ASIO has set up a new counter-espionage department, and taken on a host of new staff. In June last year, the spy agency was forced to set up the Counter Espionage and Interference Division to reflect the fact that foreign spies were re-emerging in Canberra at a disturbing rate. That division is now being expanded.

I find it concerning, that Russia and China want to try and get American military intellogence and technology for themselves through Australia.

I would be surprised if any of this comes as a surprise. So which country has the most active agents in Australia? My vote would probably go to NZ

Well here's an interesting article that may be related.

The Federal Government has rejected Minmetals' takeover bid for OZ Minerals because of national security issues.

The Chinese state-owned Minmetals had been willing to spend $2.6 billion taking over the debt-laden OZ Minerals.
The Prominent Hill gold and copper mine is considered OZ Minerals' key asset but the Federal Government says it is in the sensitive Woomera Prohibited Area in South Australia, which contributes to Australia's national defence.
The Government says it cannot approve Minmetals' bid for OZ Minerals if it includes Prominent Hill.

www.abc.net.au...

Make what you will of it.

reply to post by Melbourne_Militia

If Australia cant pay off this debt that China has loaned to Australia, then they might claim their money back by using our natural resources for many eyars for free until they get the equivalent value back through minerals. Does anybody else here fear where Australia is going?

I don’t fear where we are going but I do believe you are right well have to pay back with natural resources at some point because we won’t have the money – good old barter system to the rescue
Maybe we’ll see a government run iron ore mine open for the payback or how about uranium.

Im surprised there hasnt been more interest from fellow Aussie ATS members here on this thread......

anyway, for those that may still be interested but afraid to reply, heres another piece to the Chinese puzzle that was announced today on the news networks....

www.smh.com.au...

Another Chinese leader pays a quiet visit

THE Prime Minister had a meeting with China's security and intelligence chief, Zhou Yongkang, last year, and the Australian public never knew.

A spokeswoman last night confirmed that Kevin Rudd had met the Chinese leader but could not give details of the meeting or say why it was apparently not reported by any mainstream Australian media.

Last week a meeting between Mr Rudd and China's propaganda chief, Li Changchun, created a media storm because of claims that the Australian public had not been told about it.

As with Mr Li's visit, Mr Zhou's Australian tour was widely reported in the Chinese media at the time. The official Xinhua news agency reported that Mr Zhou met Mr Rudd in Canberra on November 9 to discuss foreign policy issues.

"Mr Zhou was a guest of the Australian Government during the first week of November 2008," confirmed a spokeswoman for Mr Rudd in an email last night in response to questions earlier yesterday.

So here we have further information to another secret meeting that Prime minister Rudd had with Chinese head of intelligence....no reports at the time in any media outlets in Australia.....

Does that not concern you?

Was the media threatened to stay quiet about it? Why did the Chinese media report it in China?

Was it seen in China as some sort of win, achievement, first step towards something bigger?

China is not the pearl in the sea of freedom in the world - they do not lead by example but are far from it.

What could China's intelligence and propaganda ministers have to tell Rudd that is so important that Rudd couldnt tell the Australian public?

Are we being threatened by China?

Does China know of a threat to Australia and is warning us?

Are we being blackmailed?

Is Rudd the primeminister we all thought he would be or is he secretly selling our Australian Soul to the Chinese Devil?

Watch this space very carefully for I am sure there will be more revelations to come in the near future.

Very nice post and well looked into, good work MM

This year will be very interesting to say the least. There are so many things going on at the moment, all around the world. We have the world economy failing, the possibility of the “War on terror” expanding to Pakistan as well as open talk of revolution in the United States. Something is bound to happen.

We may find ourselves living in a different world at any moment. It feels like this is the end game we were warned about and we the little people have no idea of what is about to come. And we won't know untill its too late.

BUT

The British Crown would not allow our Prime Minister to be a puppet of the Chinese, unless that was they wanted.

Excellent thread MM.

Wonder though if this doesn't go way back before Rudd to Hawke and Keating.

It used to make me ill how many times I heard Keating say that Australia needs to align with Asia. This was waaay before any of this financial crisis and chinese sponsored bail outs.

So you have to ask the question, if the ground work for all this was put into place by Hawke and then Keating and Rudd is the one to bring it all to fruition?
And if so, does that mean that Labour always were and always will be Asia (and Chinas specifically) lap dogs?

I've never felt comfortable with Labours ties and promotion of Asia for quite a while now.
We are so different, culturally and idealogically.
Its the main reason why I vote Liberal.
At least they want to align themselves with our allies , which makes sense especially when it comes to money IMO

[edit on 30-3-2009 by Flighty]

[edit on 30-3-2009 by Flighty]

Excellent post MM.

I only heard the news this morning about Rudd's other meeting with the Head of Chinese security, which was also kept secret.

I must admit I find this to be an issue of deep concern, especially as I held the view that the Liberal Party did everything they could to lose the last election and make sure Rudd was in power to help prevent a war with China.

Now, I'm left scratching my head.

The issue of having the Chinese buy up government bonds isn't much different from the US situation, where both Japan and China hold a massive amount of US government debt. China is becoming increasingly wary of holding US debt. There is a lot of speculation that with the US printing so much money to enable "quantitative easing" - in other words "devaluing the dollar" - the Chinese might be worried they'll be left holding worthless IOUs. It's sensible on their part to diversify and Australia (which had a $20B SURPLUS when Rudd came into office courtesy of the previous government) is generally managed pretty well (ongoing concerns about the monthly balance of payments aside).

So in isolation there's nothing terribly sinister about China buying up Australian government bonds. However, when you add this piece of the puzzle to all the other bits of news the picture taking shape out of this jigsaw becomes somewhat alarming.

It's clear that Rudd is acutely aware of the fine line he has to walk as there was news overnight on the radio that he asked to be moved away from the Chinese Ambassador to Great Britain at an official function. He tried to laugh it off and state that he just wanted to sit next to his friend, a British Minister, but it's timing is in the very least , curious but in my view, quite damning. In my view Rudd is aware that the government could be handing the opposition a golden opportunity to smash them in the polls. A recent survey has just nominated Rudd as the most popular PM ever - alongside Hawke. I think he'd want to protect that.

In addition to this you have the ongoing conflict between the Defence Department and Fitzgibbon. I'm pretty sure I know where the Defence Dept's loyalties lie and it won't be to any politician who thinks he or she can sell out Australia.

Did you also hear the news this morning that was released? Basically it was announced that our defence had been underfunded for 3 decades and we wouldn't stand a chance in an open war. Is pressure being put on the government ahead of the release of it's White Paper (due shortly)? Or is there another agenda - that of softening us for the blow that we can't even hope to stand up for ourselves. Or is it a wheel within a wheel - projecting weakness when we are, in fact, strong?

For what it's worth, I believe no country has a hope of invading us (well...one - the USA - but they'd lose a couple of carriers at least). So I'm left wondering what one earth is going on.

I'll contribute more to this thread later. But I will say for now there's more going on than any of us are aware of.

great info here, thanks MM

It will be interesting to see the G20 outcomes...will China have a bigger voice?

Originally posted by Flighty
Excellent thread MM.

Wonder though if this doesn't go way back before Rudd to Hawke and Keating.

very valid point Flighty...if Rudd was posted in China for a lot of the 80's it would have been Hawke/Keating who put him there wouldn't it? Grooming??

Great thread, IMO Ruddy is smart enough to understand who is who in our Region, allegiance to Europe and her countries would be useless if the poop hit the fan in the Asia / Pacific region.

Smart Politics if anything else.

Originally posted by 7even
Great thread, IMO Ruddy is smart enough to understand who is who in our Region, allegiance to Europe and her countries would be useless if the poop hit the fan in the Asia / Pacific region.

Smart Politics if anything else.

When he won office Rudd reaffirmed Australia's commitment to the alliance with the USA. I think that will remain as our long term security relies on that alliance.

I'm pretty sure our defence forces feel the same way and good luck to any politician who would try to align Australia away from the USA and towards an Asian power.

Great job on the research Melbourne_Militia. In light of all of this completely covert information, which has been "hidden" in plain view of the Austalian people through the mass media (LOL).

I wonder why his popularity is so high? Not that I think the figures given in the media can be entirely trusted.

Id like to know why his popularity is so high too....

Im not a liberal voter at all, but I dont see him doing anything extra special at the moment other than jet setting, having secret meetings, and throwing some cash around.

He has been put in place of leadership for a reason I beleive like answerman....I didnt like Johnny Howard at all, but he seemed to do all he could to throw the last election, like he knew what was coming or he got the tap on the shoulder and told, "this bloke Rudd is gonna take the reigns for the next little bit ok?"

I wonder if Rud is working behind the scenes to try and help instigate a new world order.....he has given some high profile lectures in recent times about the global economy, and got praise from the US mob on his recent visit there...not that I know what for?

But what if he is working out a deal between China, Europe and the US for the new world government to be setup here in Australia?

We all know a war in the northern hemisphere is around the corner...like a tinder box about to explode. so is Ruddy doing deals to transfer all the world assetts, I mean all the "Elites Assetts" over to australia, a place secure from the coming war?

There have been many articles written in the past about how the parliament house in canberra was designed to house a global government, unfrotuntely I cannot find any links at the moment.

anyway, my rant over....still watching Rudd, he's gonna slip up soon enough.

Very informative and interesting read,threads like this are what ATS is all about,wasn't aware relations ran so deep,I don't follow Australian politics but Ruud to me could possibly be weak,he may be some type of puppet,who knows.

Espionage could be related to pine gap facility cause if any of the reports are true this seems to be a very peculiar place with lots of strange activity.Howard wasnt even allowed to visit,Thats pathetic people,anything with that much secrecy surrounding it is sinister,simple as that.

I'm vey cynical about the following comments made by Ruud,they would almost seem to be interjected so he would nt sound too pro Chinese,read the interview carefully and then he says this,its lacks coherency and comes out of the blue.

"They're not perfect. They've done some bad things in the past. But let's look at the opportunities, rather than simply assume it's all threat and all risk "






[edit on 1-4-2009 by aeon80]

reply to post by answerman


While I agree that the US and Britain will forever remian our "friends" I was thinking more along the lines of a Business / Trading pact, allthough I can't see how any form of Trade agreement with Asian countries is really helping out our interests here in Aus, especially concerning manufactoring.

It just gets worse for Fitzgibbon. I wasn't aware that his father was a Labour MP and the Chinese government have apparently been working long and hard on "their man Joel". I think he's history.

The following is from Today's Herald-Sun.

CHINESE-BORN businesswoman Helen Liu paid for Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon to travel first-class to China in 1993 before they had ever met, giving him access to top Communist Party officials. One of Ms Liu's companies paid for Mr Fitzgibbon and his father Eric Fitzgibbon, a then federal Labor MP, to fly to China in June 1993 to mark the start of work on a tourist development.

As he was not an MP at the time of the 1993 trip (he was a senior NSW ALP official and an electorate officer for his father), he was not obliged to declare it to Parliament. But he also did not mention the 1993 trip last week when asked about claims he had received expensive gifts from Ms Liu. Mr Fitzgibbon's spokesman said yesterday Ms Liu had told Eric Fitzgibbon he could bring a guest on the 1993 trip. Two years later, Ms Liu gave Joel Fitzgibbon $20,000 to use in his campaign to succeed his father as the member for the NSW electorate of Hunter. The revelation that Ms Liu funded the 1993 trip puts further pressure on Mr Fitzgibbon over his relationship with her. It has also cast doubt on previous comments by his office about the reason for the 1993 trip.

From the sounds of it Fitzgibbon has a bit of trouble telling the truth. If the Rudd Government doesn't act now and get rid of Fitzgibbon then it would appear that they are implicitly approving of his behaviour.

And if that's the case then God help us.

Full story HERE