A Trade Minister signed off a 99-year lease of an Australian port to a Chinese company. The day before he left politics, that same company put him on $880,000 a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This one\u2019s been on the public record for years, and it still stops me cold every time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2015, Andrew Robb was the federal Trade Minister. On his watch, the Port of Darwin was leased to Landbridge Group, controlled by Chinese billionaire Ye Cheng, a member of the CPPCC, an advisory body to the Chinese Communist Party. The lease runs 99 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On 1 July 2016, the day before the federal election, with Robb on his way out of Parliament, Landbridge began paying him a consultancy worth $880,000 a year. The terms: $73,000 a month for \u201cstrategic advice.\u201d No specified deliverables. Thirty days\u2019 notice to end it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ministerial standards say a former minister should wait eighteen months before cashing in on their portfolio. Robb waited zero days. He took roughly $2 million from Landbridge before quitting the arrangement in 2019, just ahead of the new foreign-influence register that would have required him to declare it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not alleging a crime. No crime has been found, and I\u2019m not a court. What I\u2019m pointing at is the structure: the decision in office, the beneficiary, the destination after office, the timing. Lease the port, leave the Parliament, bank the money. All legal. That\u2019s exactly what should worry you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is what \u201clegal corruption\u201d looks like in Australia. Not envelopes of cash. A consultancy contract, signed on the way out the door, from the company you just did the favour for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cold hard facts. Sourced. Corrected when wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peter Lyndon-James<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 2015, Andrew Robb was the federal Trade Minister. On his watch, the Port of Darwin was leased to Landbridge Group, controlled by Chinese billionaire Ye Cheng.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":482282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[273,35,118],"tags":[20710,8726,20709],"class_list":["post-482281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australia","category-breaking-news","category-china","tag-andrew-robb","tag-darwin","tag-port-of-darwin"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t