Thursday, July 25, 2013

Some Serious Questions For Cr McLaren

Some information has come to the attention of Australia First Party (via a credible source) that raises some questions regarding Cr McLaren.

http://www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/story/1639977/chinese-deal-makers-prefer-low-profiles/?cs=148

Councillor Julian McLaren
Councillor Julian McLaren was first elected to Council in 2012.
Mobile: 0459500266
councillor.mclaren@wagga.nsw.gov.au

Councillor McLaren 'claims' he has not been in contact with Humphrey Xu or Lydia Zhang since becoming a councillor, ( which was September 2012 ). Councillor McLaren made these statements at both the Council meeting and to the Daily Advertiser.

If this is a lie is it what the appellate courts describe as a lie born of a conscious of guilt. "In other words a falsehood far more telling than simply being easy with the truth.

1. Can Councillor McLaren confirm or deny a phone conversation with ACA Capital (Humphrey Xu, Lydia Zhang) in June 2013 ?

2. If ICAC were to view Cr McLaren's phone records, what if anything would they find ?

If it is true, Cr McLaren should resign from Council and walk in to the office of the  ICAC and spill his guts.

We also have the contentious issue of a Councillor admitting he was offered 'support' by ACA. (We congratulate him on his honesty and integrity in coming forward). ACA seemingly have amnesia regarding the matter.

http://www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/story/1639973/chinese-whispers-aired-at-council/?cs=148

To further add to the stench Mayor Rod Kendall's (damage control) letter to the Editor (Daily Advertiser 25.7.13), is clearly an act of a drowning man. Even though there has been corroborated concerns regarding ACA Capital Investments (Humphrey Xu and Lydia Zhang), Mayor Kendall states ACA Capital are still involved in the deal.

This so called trade centre story is an evolving one and it may be in the ICAC interests to start investigating now.


............................................................................................................
Australia First Party have on behalf of the people of the Riverina forwarded this matter to the ICAC for investigation. (Email's as below). Australia First Party encourage anyone else with information on this matter or concerns should also contact the ICAC icac@icac.nsw.gov.au
to icac
Dear Sir,
 
This below link has some very serious questions and information. We implore the ICAC to act sooner rather than later on this matter, as this matter goes very deep and right to the top.
 
The situation is urgent and the Wagga City Council must be sacked in its entirety and elections called, none of the present councillors should be allowed to run for re-election. This is scandalous.
 
I will attach the information from my first email to you again for reference.
 
 
 
................................................................................................................
 
Original email sent to ICAC  on July 24th 2013 at 8.07pm
 
Dear Sir,
 
We call for an urgent investigation in to the corruption at Wagga Wagga City Council and the immediate sacking/standing down of the entire council and new elections to be called immediately. 
 
The below link is the information we base our request on and seek your earliest attention to these matters.
 
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Australia First Calls For The Sacking Of The Wagga City Council

Australia First Party calls for the  immediate sacking of the entire Wagga City Council, we do however acknowledge Cr Negline and Cr Funnell who have acted with honesty and integrity, but the council as a whole must be sacked and a new election held.

The integrity of the Wagga council is in ruins and it's starting to look like a Chinese money laundering service, with allegations of bribes and favours rife.

We reproduce below a letter to the Daily Advertiser and we note the writer has taken up many of our longstanding concerns.

It's time the ICAC got involved.


More Questions Than Answers ...

Daily Advertiser (24.7.13)

By Edwin Brooks.

My story begins a long time ago, 30 years ago in fact, and it sure seemed like 'Star Wars' at times. But it didn't take place in a far - off galaxy.
Instead it occurred right here in Wagga when the Ratepayers Association, of which I was secretary, took Wagga City Council to the NSW Ombudsman with serious complaints about "maladministration".
The Ombudsman found our complaints valid, with his final report in May 1983 describing council's behaviour as "wrong".
After all these years the specific details are unimportant. (they can be easily checked).
But what 1983 showed us more generally was democracy must never be taken for granted. Lincoln may have got it right about not fooling all the people all the time, but we can certainly get well and truly fooled if we get so bamboozled, confused or silenced that we give up.
Which brings me to Wuai, because something is going on in Wagga right now which revives memories of the early 80's when the council seemed incapable of giving straight answers. When secrecy prevailed. When letters went unanswered. When the public were treated like lepers and told to withdraw from the chamber while "key documents" were shown to the guardians of the secrets.
Perhaps most seriously of all, it was a time when rumours spread about the probity of those in high places. When rumours and scuttlebutt ran riot, and there were whispered allegations of mutual back scratching, bribery and corruption.
The first news about Wuai coming to Wagga came via a beaming Premier and local member. It sounded splendid, full of sound bites and hosannas. The only thing lacking was "Sunshine" Rudd telling us that the Millennium has arrived. If it sounded to good to be true, that's because it was.
Months have drifted by with few if any reliable facts and every sign that something is seriously wrong.
Maybe not, but council seems to be totally out of its depth in negotiating with a quasi-commercial outfit with obvious yet unspecified links to China's Communist Party.
Letters and blogs show that more and more of us are becoming worried and angry that such a giant venture - as expensive as a university - is seemingly being rammed through council at the behest of those I earlier described as the guardians of the secrets.
Had the Ratepayers Association still been around, decisive action would have been taken by now to uncover just what's going on.
In the absence of that something else must be done to get to the truth, including a public meeting where vital questions can be put and (hopefully) answered. Perhaps the Ombudsman and / or the ICAC should be approached too.
In the meantime, here are some of the questions crying out for answers. I'm sure there'll be many more in the weeks ahead.
1. What's the role of the NSW Government and the local MP in the genesis of the scheme ? What information did they possess about Wuai's existing operations, and did they provide such information to council ? Or were they too, like Wagga's ratepayers have done ever since, flying blind ?
2. Is the centre purely wholesale, as originally claimed, or also retail ? Did Mr O'Farrell and Mr Maquire themselves know when they launched the scheme six months ago in a blaze of positive but vacuous publicity ?
3. Why has the local MP, despite his many visits to China, been so slow to promote the project with hard evidence, and why has he been virtually mute when questioned by the media ?
4.Given the size, cost and strategic significance of this huge development for the wider Riverina - indeed for NSW and Australia as a whole - won't NSW rather the WWCC make the planning decision once the development application materialises ?
5. As council has yet to receive any documentation - other than possible confidential communications about which the public knows nothing - how can it be sure there will be no major adverse consequences for retailers, the housing market or local jobs ?
6. How does the council know there is to be a convention centre at the centre, and even if it appears on some sketch plan how can councillors know what it will eventually comprise and when, if ever, it will be completed ?
7. If such a convention centre does eventually materialise, at a currently undisclosed cost, who gave council (or at least the Mayor and GM) the authority to trade it off against immediate land costs ?
8. If the centre includes retail operations, how will these impact upon other retailers in Wagga ?
9. When can we expect to see the development application ?
10. Over what time scale will the project be completed ?
11. Will it be completed as a single project, or will it be built in distinct stages, each of which will be financed separately over an indeterminate time ?
12. What will its total cost be ? $400m ? $600m ?
13. Who gave the Mayor the authority to offer Wuai an additional block of land ?
14. When and why were the Mayor and the GM delegated the power to negotiate the land sale ? How was the valuation determined ? Was it envisaged that ACA - having insisted on the sale prior to the DA - would be able to walk away from the deal if the DA wasn't approved ?
15. What is the reason(s) for ASIC having twice in recent times threatened ACA with deregistration and why didn't council inform ratepayers this had happened ?
16. Why is it so difficult to discover details of ACA on the internet, such as its financial assets and its commercial record in Australia /
17. Who comprises the board and executive of ACA ? In particular, what are the official titles of Humphrey Xu and Lydia Zhang ?
18. Is Humphrey Xu the same person as the one called Harry Xu in an article published in The Age on April 20, 2013, which described "Harry Xu" as the boyfriend and business partner of Helen Liu ?
19. What due diligence has been conducted regarding the applicants ?
20. Why have most councillors yet to meet Xu and Zhang ?
21. What precisely is the relationship between Wuai and ACA and for how long has it existed ?
22. Why has so little information reached the public about the project ? For example, there is no documentation available at the civic centre desk, and no mention of it among the "projects" identified in council's glossy "Planning for our community" sent to ratepayers in May 2013 ?
23. Why hasn't council briefed the public about what is happening, and why has it seemed so keen to hasten the sale of the land prior to receiving and assessing a DA from the proposed developer?
24. What hard evidence exists about already existing and allegedly similar Wuai projects in China and other countries ?
25.Does council presume that the purchaser of the land is the same entity as the eventual owners and operators of the trade centre ?
26. What were the "key documents' that suddenly materialised at the July 15 council meeting ?
27. Why has councillors not been privy to these earlier, particularly if they were (belatedly) considered to be vital to informed debate ?
28. What was so secret about these documents that members of the public had to leave the chamber ?
29. When will ACA Capital Investments be required to make its in - depth presentation to council ?
A final thought.
In these days of internet shopping and video conferencing, why does Wuai feel it necessary to erect physical buildings at great expense in a remote part of the world ?
Why not simply put the existing facility in China on the web and let people all over the world view what's on display ? They could "walk around" electronically and place their orders without having to travel all the way to Wagga to do so.

http://ausidentity.blogspot.com.au/2013/07/introducing-humphrey-xu-director-of-aca.html

http://ausidentity.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/daryl-maquire-some-serious-questions.html

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Lib/Lab Don't Care About Australian Industries Or Health Consequences,They Are Pimps For Their Globalist Masters.

Letter From Brian Mills, To National Party, Warren Truss, Michael McCormack & Peter Dutton, Regarding The Backflip On The Ban On Imported Citrus Concentrate.

Warren Truss,  Michael McCormack and Peter Dutton,
 
As a presenter at the Senate Inquiry into Citrus I have read the proof version of Hansard.
It is my firm belief that Lion Nathan who control at least 80% of Australian orange juice paid a bribe of at least $100,000 to reverse a ban on contaminated orange concentrate.
I represent 4,000 signatories on a petition. We want Peter Dutton to be aware of the findings of Diabetes Week. We want Warren, John Cobb, Michael and Peter to curb the influence of Lion Nathan  and phase in their processing of at least an additional 200,000 tonnes of Australian juice.
This should include up to 15% of juice grade navel oranges to maximise the benefit to farmers.
To summarise my request to you Warren and to you Michael:
1.       What is your measurable plan to save citrus?
2.       Are you prepared to use health issues to help save Australian agriculture?
3.       Are you prepared to challenge multinational juice manufacturers to phase in up to at least an additional 200,000 tons of Australian oranges per annum.
4.       Are you prepared to insist on up to 15% navel oranges for juice which is acceptable but does require some manufacturing adjustments?  It is easier to just add carbendazim laced concentrate.
I am prepared to have a debate on this with Warren and Michael at any time.
Brian Mills.
 
.........................................................................................................
 
Open Letter To Barnaby Joyce, Bill Heffernan, Warren Truss, Peter Dutton, Michael McCormack and John Cobb.
Open letter to  Barnaby Joyce, Bill Heffernan, Warren Truss, Peter Dutton, Michael McCormack and  John Cobb.

Barnaby, because I sent a fax to your economist on 9th July and he has not started to look at the question it would be good to know if he does intend to study the situation or should  we  look elsewhere?. The question - does agriculture and manufacturing less than 20% of GDP represent a government in paralysis?

Bill, the Senate Inquiry into Citrus in Griffith on 3rd July illustrated why citrus family farming could be destined for oblivion.
 
Hansard shows that a letter from Catherine King to Nick Xenophon advised that there would be a complete ban on Brazilian concentrate from April 2012. Hansard then there were sprinkles the word “lobbying” throughout the meeting and names were named.

To me,  Senate is not likely to provide any hope so a book will be printed in a month. It will feature these exhibits:
1. Graph of Rural Farm Debt showing $17bn growing at $1bn per annum
2. Columns showing agriculture as a percentage of GDP of 3% in 1996, reducing to to 2% in 2011 and 1.2% in 2013
3. Graph showing an apparent inverse relationship between tariffs and farm debt from 1970 to now

Bill, you said that the Inquiry was not the forum for columns showing agriculture reducing from 3% of GDP. Well, the forum will change to newspapers, emails and Social Media. 

Bill, Hansard shows you  cut me off while I was suggesting that a review of The Lima Declaration was overdue and that it could help citrus by..............

Peter, do you think that the ban on contaminated Brazilian concentrate which was due to apply as from April 2012 was based on health concerns?
Warren, Michael and John, we are not holding  out much hope with the Senate so our emphasis is now with you when it comes to agriculture. We have these questions:
1, Do you have different figures to suggest for 1. and 2.?
2. Your policies obviously cannot accept our contention for item 3. ,so how do you explain the increase in farm debt to the seemingly unaffordable figures which now apply?
3. What is your plan for saving citrus?
  a. Our assessment is that your principal policy appears to be the elimination of the Carbon Tax and the  Mining Tax. On our graph of farm Debt this would slightly reduce the slope of the growth of debt since 1970 as shown on our curve.
  b. Another plan attributed to you appears to be Truth in Labelling. However, Warren you claimed to have initiated the first legislation. The Senate Inquiry in January 2012 made Recommendation 8 to achieve truth in labelling. Neither are working. What legislation changes are you planning and can you project on our graph (or a graph of your choosing) the timing and extent of the improvement?
  c. Another plan you referred to  is the lowering of the Australian dollar. This has now started so can you make a projection of changes to a curve.?  This projection  should be a Work in Progress. Whichever curve you use should already be influenced by the value of the dollar coming off highs.
4. Are you prepared to discuss a plan to consider health issues to assist in saving citrus? Either you or we can involve Peter Dutton. Information accepted by the Senate is available in which Steve McCutcheon the CEO of Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) admitted to lobbying being involved. Did he set the levels of carbendazim too high? Some big juice manufacturers and others continue to  hide behind the FSANZ to shield the damage they are causing the citrus industry.
6. Perhaps these questions have been answered above but can you anticipate the ever increasing farm debt topping out and what might make it happen?
 All, are you prepared to consider:
A.      An investigation into who in the Government accepted how much in money and/or favours to reverse the ban. Bill seemed to indicate a range between “Given that there was lobbying—like 'I'll take you out to dinner, Minister,'  and no doubt some lobbyist somewhere got $100,000 out of it.”  Your estimates are welcome.
 
B.      An investigation  into which multinational juice manufacturer(s) did the lobbying and why. (There are no prizes for suggesting the profit motive due to lower cost but contaminated concentrate).
 
C.      An investigation into the quoted comments relating to  Mr. Steve McCutcheon who admitted that there was lobbying. Our assessment is that his implication  there is no health risk in drinking carbendazim should be investigated. As we import more and more imported processed food of dubious quality what else can we expect? There is a related question. Can we afford our ever increasing  health costs?
 
Yours faithfully,
Brian Mills,
 Representing 4,000 Australians ( and growing nationwide ) who have signed the petition to ban contaminated  concentrate.
 

 

Saturday, July 20, 2013

The Great GATSby

In order to put a little perspective on the Nationals true position as to Australia's strategic agricultural assets we need to refer to The Daily Advertiser (20/07/13) There you will see the Nationals have taken out a full page advertisement promoting another of their talk fests. They have rolled out Warren Truss to protest the sale of Graincorp. Mr Truss is just another of a long list of heavyweights the Nationals use in the grand deceit to make it look as if they are actually doing something for the man on the land.

Of course this is nothing more than electioneering and will achieve absolutely nothing, in fact it is a complete ruse and the Nationals know all too well they have already sold the Australian people out. Surely Mr McCormack knows his political history and the vile act that the Nationals were party to when signing GATS with their Liberal masters. It was Warren Truss's predecessor, Mark Vaile who was one of the signatories of GATS and is a supporter of the free trade and globalist agenda that has put us in the situation where all of our strategic infrastructure was floated and sold off. Warren Truss in the meantime has been a supporter of free trade deals with the US and China, and more ominously Truss is a strident advocate for the "Asian food bowl" in the north, which will see the north of Australia ceded from Australia.

http://www.irrigator.com.au/story/1593064/foodbowl-furore-mccormack-stands-against-his-party/

The GATS treaty obligates our country to privatise all public services including electricity, health, welfare, water and most definitely strategic agricultural assets. The major parties have agreed with the UN and the WTO (World Trade Organisation) that these areas should be opened up to foreign corporate ownership.

In his book, GATS, How the WTO's New `Service' Negotiations Threaten Democracy, Canadian researcher Scott Sinclair identifies the three priorities of the current round of negotiations. First, GATS officials will attempt to expand corporate access to domestic markets. Governments will be under great pressure to list more of their services and exempt fewer. The most potent weapon will be the push to have `National Treatment' applied horizontally. National Treatment is a fundamental tenet of free trade; it forbids governments from favouring their domestic sectors over foreign based companies. Already, National Treatment applies to certain services in the GATS; the goal is to apply it across the board.
 
Recent talks were aimed at developing new GATS rules and restrictions, intended to further restrict the use of government subsidies, such as those used in public works, municipal services and social programmes. A particularly threatening development is the demand for an expansion of the  `Commercial Presence' rules. Commercial Presence allows an `investor' in one GATS country to establish a presence in any other GATS country and compete not only for business against domestic suppliers but for public funds against domestic publicly funded institutions and services. Together, these proposals will hugely expand the authority of the WTO in the day to day business of governments. They will make the exercising of democratic control over the future of basic public services a virtual impossibility. Investment houses like Merrill Lynch predict that public education will be globally privatised over the next decade and say there is an untold amount of profit to be made when this happens. The GATS serves this corporate, profit driven vision of society. It's important for those attending Mr McCormack and Mr Truss's meeting on Wednesday to understand in no uncertain terms what is at stake and that Mr McCormack and Mr Truss are signed up to the very thing that is destroying them, regardless of what they may say.



If the Nationals were truly up in arms about the ADM takeover of Graincorp,  they would have split from the Liberals years ago and would have stood against the privatization and sell off of essential infrastructure. They could have also publicly rescinded their position on the GATS agreement (they haven't). They have refused to take a real stand and continue to scrape and bow to the major parties as we lose the last of what was Australian owned infrastructure and this included the single desk. Is the MDBP just a means to facilitate the sell off of our water infrastructure via GATS? 
 
Australia First can see why Mr McCormack was in rural Canada and Mongolia recently "learning" about the fly in, fly out situation, Mr McCormack already knows what the future holds for the Riverina, he's just not telling the people of the Riverina.

Australia First if ever in power would rescind all free trade deals, tear up the GATS treaty and buy back all Australian infrastructure. We support Australian owned and grown and not a country where our future will be decided in a foreign boardroom. What do you want for your children's future?
 

Monday, July 15, 2013

Introducing Humphrey Xu Director of ACA Capital Investments

http://www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/story/1639977/chinese-deal-makers-prefer-low-profiles/?cs=148#disqus_thread

Daily Advertiser, July 16, 2013

Just who are Humphrey Xu and Lydia Zhang ?
The duo, who head up ACA Capital Investments, are the figures driving the wholesale trade centre project but have chosen to keep a low profile thus far.
Mr Xu is the company’s director, while Ms Zhang currently holds the title of general manager at ACA Capital Investments and was previously a director as recently as three years ago.
Curiously, Mr Xu is purported to never hand out business cards to people he deals with, as part of his efforts to keep out of the spotlight.
Deputy mayor Andrew Negline, who has extensive experience doing business in the Asian landscape, describes this as unusual practice among Asian business circles.
“When an Asian businessperson doesn’t hand out a business card, they are holding you with discontent,” he said.
Ms Zhang is the point of call for what little public contact ACA Capital Investments chooses to make.
“Lydia (Zhang) is the fall guy,” Councillor Negline said.
“She takes the hits – she can say things with no accountability.”
Both Mr Xu and Ms Zhang split their time between ACA Capital Investments’ offices in Sydney and China and have been doing business in Australia for more than 20 years.
Prior to being elected to council last year, Julian McLaren had dealt with Ms Zhang on a number of occasions.
He believes, given the amount of time the pair have spent in Australia, they should be well aware of the commercial landscape.
“There is no doubt in China that business is transacted in a very different manner to how it is in Australia,” he said.
“Given Lydia and Humphrey are residents of Australia they should be very aware of our rules, regulations and processes.”
Cr McLaren claims to no longer be in contact with Ms Zhang now that he is a sitting councillor.
But most Wagga councillors have never been introduced to either Mr Xu or Ms Zhang, who have dealt mainly with director-level staff at council.
It’s believed that the bulk of official communications between ACA Capital Investments and Wagga City Council regarding the trade centre have gone through council commercial and economic development director Peter Adams.
Mayor Rod Kendall has told The Daily Advertiser that he has had limited dealings with the ACA Capital Investments duo outside of signing documents requiring his approval.
Despite this, it is believed Ms Zhang has attempted to cultivate a relationship with at least one Wagga councillor behind the scenes and she is in regular contact with Member for Wagga Daryl Maguire.
Mr Maguire, currently in China, is steadfastly refusing to comment on any aspect of the trade centre deal until its development application is finalised.
Cr Kendall has often talked about the “good for Wagga” test in relation to the trade centre project.
But does council continuing to negotiate with these two individuals pass muster?
The Daily Advertiser put this question to Cr Kendall, but he declined to comment.
“The good for Wagga test is about the development,” he said.
Cr Negline believes the duo have no respect for the people of Wagga and its council.
“During this process we’ve been treated like country bumpkins,” he said.

Introducing Humphrey Xu A.K.A Harry Xu A.K.A Jian Xu

http://www.mailtimes.com.au/story/1445395/alp-donor-guilty-of-sham-marriage-migration-fraud/

ALP donor guilty of sham marriage and Migration Fraud   


Fairfax Media has uncovered evidence of Helen Liu's migration fraud despite the Immigration Department aborting its own probe into the matter without conducting a thorough investigation or interviewing key witnesses. The federal opposition is now demanding to know why the Department of Immigration and Citizenship failed to conduct a proper investigation after its immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, referred the case of ''a possible act of migration fraud'' involving Ms Liu and others to the department's secretary last year.

Fairfax Media has spoken to key players involved in the sham marriages that occurred more than 20 years ago - none of whom was contacted by Immigration - and obtained documentary evidence to show that Ms Liu obtained permanent residency after she and her then Chinese boyfriend and business partner, Harry Xu, married two young Australians in a bogus arrangement that fooled immigration officials.

The revelation comes at an awkward time for Labor, which has made immigration an even bigger election issue through Prime Minister Julia Gillard's comments on the 457 visa system for foreign workers.

Ms Liu and her companies have donated thousands of dollars to the ALP's NSW branch and paid for two trips to China for Mr Fitzgibbon in 2002 and 2005, which the then opposition MP failed to declare. Ms Liu is also close to Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr and his wife, Helena.

It can be revealed that the two Australians who married the Chinese pair, David Shultz and Grace Clague, did so on the basis that they believed they would be at risk of persecution if they returned home.

Mr Shultz and Ms Clague, who were about 20 and 18 at the time, had two of their three children together during the period they were supposedly married to the Chinese pair, who were several years older. The supposed couples never consummated their marriages or lived under the same roof.

Contrary to Ms Clague's statement that she was told the Chinese couple were at risk of persecution, Ms Liu has regularly returned to China to do business with top politicians, received millions of dollars in loans from the Bank of China and swore in a Federal Court affidavit in 1997 that her father was a ''ranking official'' in the Chinese government and many other of her relatives occupied ''high-level positions in the Chinese government''.

Ms Clague, who is the daughter of Aboriginal activist Joyce Clague and Colin Clague, who was an ALP candidate in the 2011 NSW election, said she and Mr Shultz were ''young, naive and stupid'' when they agreed to marry the Chinese couple.

Ms Clague said she and Mr Shultz had become friends with the couple after being introduced through a man who worked for an immigration consultant. ''They seemed honest, caring people and I believed their lives were at stake,'' Ms Clague said.

''I saw their love, I wanted to be part of it and share it … the final decision was made when I was told their lives were at stake.''

More than two years after the marriages, believed to have taken place in 1989 or 1990, Ms Liu received permanent residency after signing two statutory

declarations stating she was in a long-term and genuine spousal relationship with an Australian.

The marriages and residency applications were overseen by migration agents later de-registered for improper conduct.

Making false declarations to the Commonwealth and entering sham marriages for migration purposes are criminal offences that can result in a custodial sentence or substantial fines.

Despite Mr Morrison's referring the matter to Immigration Department secretary Martin Bowles, immigration officials closed the file last year, claiming there was ''insufficient evidence'' to proceed.

Documents released under freedom-of-information laws show senior Immigration Department officials regarded the case as politically ''highly sensitive'' because of Ms Liu's association with Mr Fitzgibbon, a former defence minister who was last year chief government whip.

Mr Morrison said he would again write to Mr Bowles to seek an explanation on his department's failure properly to investigate the fraud allegations.

''The investigation of possible migration fraud should not be subject to any sort of political censorship,'' he said on Friday.

In response to questions, an immigration spokeswoman said the department took ''allegations of fraud seriously''.

Ms Liu and Mr Xu used their permanent residency to obtain Australian citizenship and build a property empire worth $40 million by the mid-1990s, when their personal and business relationship soured.

Ms Liu also cultivated several useful contacts in the NSW ALP, most notably Mr Fitzgibbon, his father, former federal MP Eric Fitzgibbon, and Senator Carr, who was then premier.

She rose to prominence in March 2009 after revelations of her substantial financial support of the ALP and the Fitzgibbon family.

Ms Liu helped fund Joel Fitzgibbon's first federal election campaign in 1996.

The Immigration Department has refused on privacy grounds to release any documents under freedom of information that record its handling of Mr Morrison's request for the weddings and residency applications to be investigated.

But in other documents released in response to a separate FOI request, the department has revealed that senior immigration officers described the Liu inquiry as "highly sensitive" in the context of "media attention in regard to her relationship with former defence minister Mr Joel Fitzgibbon and his father Mr Eric Fitzgibbon".

The office of former immigration minister Chris Bowen, a close ally of Mr Fitzgibbon, was briefed on the processing of FOI applications relating to Mr Morrison's request for an investigation.

Ms Liu is engaged in litigation against Fairfax Media with the aim of forcing the disclosure of confidential sources that provided information about her business dealings and association with Joel Fitzgibbon.
 

New claims over Fitzgibbons' trip

Date

Richard Baker and Philip Dorling

ASSOCIATES of controversial businesswoman Helen Liu claim Chinese intelligence services asked them to cultivate a relationship with Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon and his father after they were flown first-class to China in 1993.
Sources with close ties to the company that paid for the Fitzgibbons' trip also allege that Chinese agents had electronically monitored the pair on their visit to Shandong province.
It was on this trip that Mr Fitzgibbon, who was then a NSW ALP official, and Eric Fitzgibbon, then a federal MP, first met Chinese-born Helen Liu, who has since become what the Defence Minister has described as "a very close" family friend.
Sources intimately familiar with the details of the 1993 trip allege Chinese intelligence services eavesdropped on the private conversations of Eric Fitzgibbon, who as a serving Australian MP had attracted their interest.
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The sources, who are close to Ms Liu's then business partner, property developer Humphrey Xu, confirmed the trip was organised and paid for by Mr Xu through his company Diamond Hill International.
According to the sources, Chinese intelligence officials expressed interest in the Fitzgibbons' preparedness to accept benefits from Mr Xu and Ms Liu, and encouraged them to continue to develop their relationship with the Fitzgibbon family back in Australia.
Mr Xu was first introduced to Eric Fitzgibbon through a NSW business acquaintance in the early 1990s. Sources claim he boosted Mr Xu's credentials as the businessman sought to negotiate a major property development in China.
After one meeting on the trip, where it is claimed Eric Fitzgibbon told Chinese businessmen that Mr Xu was "as big as Kerry Packer" in Australia, the then MP allegedly asked his benefactor, "Are you happy with that?"
Eric Fitzgibbon yesterday said he had never likened Mr Xu to Mr Packer and maintained he had "done no paid work" for Mr Xu or Ms Liu. He said he last saw Mr Xu about 18 months ago at a banquet at the Chinese embassy in Canberra.
When asked about the 1993 trip, Joel Fitzgibbon said in March this year that he went in a private capacity and that his father "was invited to turn the first sod at a tourist development in China".
Both Mr Fitzgibbon and Eric Fitzgibbon deny receiving $US20,000 for their services on the all-expenses-paid 1993 trip. Eric Fitzgibbon declared the trip in the House of Representatives register of members' interests.
In late 1995, Diamond Hill International subsequently contributed $20,000 to Mr Fitzgibbon's election campaign for the February 1996 federal election. At the time, the donation was declared by the NSW Labor Party as a donation to a "party unit" with no direct reference to Mr Fitzgibbon.
Sometime in 1996 the personal and business relationship between Mr Xu and Ms Liu broke apart and she took control of several joint companies including Diamond Hill International, Wincopy and Vision Wise Holdings.
Mr Fitzgibbon's office has confirmed that he assisted Ms Liu in obtaining legal advice in the late 1990s.
Wincopy, under Ms Liu's control, subsequently donated $20,000 to Joel Fitzgibbon's 1998 re-election campaign. Her companies gave a further $50,000 to the NSW ALP between 2001 and 2007.
Mr Fitzgibbon has been living in a Canberra townhouse owned by Ms Liu's family.
She also gave him an expensive suit, which he later returned because, his office said, he would have had to declare the gift to Parliament.
Mr Fitzgibbon put his ministerial career in jeopardy after it was discovered earlier this year that he had failed to declare Ms Liu had paid for two trips to China he had made when he was an opposition frontbencher in 2002 and 2005.
Ms Liu, who is now living in China, has denied ever being involved in spying.
ASIO released a statement in March saying it had "no information relating to Ms Helen Liu which would have given rise to any security concern regarding her activities or associations".


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/new-claims-over-fitzgibbons-trip-20090529-bqb5.html#ixzz2ZBYnnXfX


Thursday, July 11, 2013

Australia First Preference Ticket Federal Election 2013

Australia First Party preferences for the 2013 Federal Election, as follows:
 
Vote 1 Australia First Party.
( putting Australians first )
 
2. DLP
( Although the DLP has serious issues with their open the doors immigration policy and their connections to the Roman Catholic Church, they must be rewarded for their opposition to the Chinese Trade Centre in Wagga ).
 
3. Bullet Train Party
( A single issue Party with limited thrust but not anti-Australian, the rest of the Candidates do not deserve third position).
 
4. Labor.
( Undeserving of fourth spot due to their manic and destructive policies and general incompetence , unfortunately as we go down the list we have no alternative but to place Labor in fourth position).
 
5. National Party.
( Mr McCormack receives the Thespian award for his efforts in the Riverina and his general dishonesty ).
 
6. Greens
(  Socialist Internationalist mayhem, pro refugee extremists and other anti-Australian policies, but at least they admit it ).
 
7. RUAP.
( The leader of this Party is criminally insane, although he does claim to raise people from the dead, so who knows what miracles he will perform )
 
8. Palmer United Party.
( Lex Stewart, has been involved in and wrecked more parties than he's had hot dinners. This candidate is a political shonk, he has no policies, he changes parties so often he will spruik Palmer today and perhaps return back to  CEC, One Nation, Australians For Honest Politics, Great Australians, or Liberal tomorrow. He has no place in Australian politics ).
 
Unless Australia First are merciless attacked in some way by the above Parties, or other Candidates enter the fray, this will remain our line up.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

More Inuendo And Lies from McCormack

Warren Truss Confirms Our Allegation: The Northern Food Bowl Will Partition Our Country

As a reaction to the strident propaganda and outreach of Australia First in the Riverina, the
calculating liar Michael McCormack MP, has distanced himself (really: how?) from his leader in the
Nationals – Warren Truss.

McCormack has bleated that he does not agree with the Nationals’ plan for an “Asian food bowl” in
the north of Australia. Among other things, Mc Cormack has said:

"Why would we be trying to create something like this somewhere else when we already have a
world-class food bowl in the Riverina?"

"Why should we be wasting our time and energy on something like that?
"There is already such an investment here ... we have the best farmers who work under the best
practice to produce the best quality food for this nation.”

"I've made my feelings known in the party room, to Warren Truss and to Tony Abbott on this
issue. Before we even contemplate doing anything in the north, we should be enhancing what we
already have."

We regard Mr. McCormack as a lying, typical, representative of the partyocracy.

If Mr. McCormack does not agree with Truss, then he should resign from the National Party. If he
does not agree, he should study the issue more deeply and draw further conclusions.

Of course, moving the Asian food bowl from the north to the Riverina is hardly an option either.
There is an absolute difference between the exports of foodstuffs and the grab for Australian
resources that Chinese imperialism is practising.

This story was carried in the Leeton Irrigator newspaper.

http://www.irrigator.com.au/story/1593064/foodbowl-furore-mccormack-stands-against-his-party/

However, we may thank that paper for reporting something unreported elsewhere. Truss said a lot
more which confirms the analysis of Australia First party – the open conspiracy to detach the north
of into a special economic zone of food production and mining to the chief benefit of the Chinese
superpower.

The Leeton Irrigator added:

“The plan is part of the Nationals Regional Investment Strategy that was launched two years ago
by party leader Warren Truss.”

“Mr Truss said the reasoning behind the push was Australia's population, which is expected to
double by 2050, along with the world population that is forecast to be more than nine billion
people. “

"And half of these people will live in the Asia-Pacific region, literally on our northern doorstep ….
We unashamedly want to establish a northern food bowl, treble mineral exports, see major new
energy developments, a larger high-value northern tourism industry, and world centres of
excellence for tropical medicine and health research all in Australia's new northern frontier.”

"Building dams and water storages to protect us from droughts and floods have the capacity to
make regional Australia, especially the north, more productive.”

"These are the right priorities at the right time for northern Australia and, more broadly, Australia's
growth and prosperity."

The frankness of the Nationals’ leader was refreshing. The increase in Australia’s population? From
where? And it’s just the way it is. Really? Who decided? And the vision? Who will really profit?

A northern zone with hundreds of thousands of visa workers, with new immigrants skewed towards
it – will very quickly become a new country. It is a partition of our Australia.

Australia First Party, unlike any other party in the country, swears that those who commit this type
of treason must be held accountable for it. Warren Truss and the rest of these running dogs of
Chinese imperialism, must be punished at some point in the future with the harshest of penalties.
The men of Kokoda – did not sacrifice for this.

More On The Trade Centre

Hello People !!    Vinco Here !!


Thank-you all for your many interested and kind responses to our articles on our Riverina Blog-site for Australia First Party.

What a welcome surprise that so many of you are like-wise awake to the lies and deceptions of "Mainstream" Politicians.

It's so good to hear that many of  you are now discussing with friends and family,  the serious issues we are presenting on our Blog-site.

I expect to be back soon, with more on my earlier articles.    In addition, as soon as I can,   I will address such matters as:-

1).   The "457" High-rollers from Communist China,  being brought in to make Mr Packer richer at his new "CHINESE LAUNDRY".

2).   "INVESTMENTS"/Bribes from Communist China  -   How much of this is GENOCIDAL MURDER MONEY from the Regime which has a system of PRODUCTION-LINE MURDER Of Its Own People FOR THE PURPOSE OF "HARVESTING" HUMAN BODY-ORGANS From The Victims ???    The Regime has AMASSED Possibly $BILLIONS From This SUB-HUMAN "ENTERPRISE" !!!    In ACCEPTING "INVESTMENTS" COMPRISED OF THE PROFITS OF THIS SATANIC PRACTICE,  WE AUSTRALIANS BECOME PARTY TO THAT GENOCIDAL MURDER !!!!   Does that make you "feel good" ????

3).   The HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS "Chinese Trade Centre" and the proposed CHINESE ENCLAVE OF OVER 4,000 HOMES For Chinese Workers At this. CTC,  ALL At Wagga Wagga.      Homes for China's "Resident Spy Battalion"  - IN A STREET NEAR YOU ????

4).    Libs/Nats and ALP/Greens Policy  -  ANYTHING FOR COMMUNIST CHINA !!!!

5).   STOLEN GENERATIONS From European Australians  -  By Our Education System,  By D.O.C.S.,  And By The Family Court.   Also includes SMASHED FAMILIES  - VICTIMS Of The Same "Institutions".

6).   LEX STEWART (Clive Palmer Candidate)   -   Will "Stand" For ANY Party In Hope of getting "ELECTED" So He Can "Play With The 'GROWN-UPS' ".
EXPERIENCED SABOTEUR OF SMALLER NATIONALIST PARTIES !!!   Supports The Chinese Trade Centre But Wants Australia To Hold 50% Of Ownership,  ie, He Wants US DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN AN "ENTERPRISE" FUNDED BY CHINA'S GENOCIDAL MURDER PROFITS !!!   CLIVE PALMER WILL BE HAPPY TO TURN RIVERINA FARMS INTO A MINERS' PARADISE ............AND ULTIMATELY A WASTE-LAND.

7).   The KATTER AUSTRALIA PARTY.   Uncle Bob - ANOTHER 'CHINA-LOVER'.
HE ALSO WANTS TO CHANNEL NORTHERN WATERS To The RIVERINA .......FOR ..... MINING   -   NOT For FARMING !!!    We Should Also be Asking Uncle Bob about The DISAPPEARANCE OF HUGE SUMS FROM HIS PARTY FUNDS .......AND...... ABOUT ALLEGATIONS OF PROLONGED ELECTRONIC SPYING/SURVEILANCE ON OFFICE STAFF IN BRISBANE !!!!

8).   PALMER &  KATTER.    NEGOTIATING EXCHANGE OF PREFERENCE VOTES ???
BOTH Want to CONTINUE The MINING RAPE & PLUNDER OF AUSTRALIA TO MAKE CHINA MORE POWERFUL .......AND AUSTRALIA POORER & LESS PRODUCTIVE FOOD-WISE.    AUSTRALIA DOES NOT NEED MINING   --   GOVERNMENTS Have DESTROYED Our Manufacturing Industries which might have depended on Mining.

9.   Katter Party seriously sabotaged in Qld & NSW by Aiden McLindon (now with 'Family First Party'),  and huge departure of Members & Supporters.  Now Uncle Bob's lost his best SABOTEUR.  But if he fields a Candidate in Riverina,  at least he'll have a chance to work with that other Class Saboteur -  Clive Palmer's LEX STEWART !!!

10.  Mr McCormack.  Supporter of the Chinese Trade Centre HAS NOT ANSWERED OUR NUMEROUS QUESTIONS re this "Trade Centre" -  WHY ???    Revelations of a trail of CORRUPTION Before, During and After the Fitzgibbon Affair CONTINUE TO EMERGE !!     DOES MR McCORMACK SUPPORT ALL THE CORRUPTION BEHIND THIS 'CTC' ???    So far, HE HAS NOT DENIED HIS SUPPORT FOR IT !!!

11.  AND REMEMBER,  BOTH CLIVE PALMER AND BOB KATTER WANT "457" FOREIGN WORKERS TO TAKE YOUR JOBS (And Eventually YOUR COUNTRY !!!).



Well,  friends,  with those happy words I'll leave you to ponder these matters seriously.

Much Kindness to All,


Vinco Stelmonovic.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

The Australian Social Disaster Created By Our Socialist Internationalist Government Policies, Disguised As "Human Rights".

http://www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/story/1621534/mail-deliveries-stamped-out-after-postie-attacked/?cs=2452

More than 200 households in eight streets have been left without mail deliveries after Australia Post slapped a ban on a troublesome area in West Dubbo.
The action followed the latest in a series of attacks on postal delivery officers.
Police said a group of youths surrounded a female postie in O'Donnell Street on Wednesday, "handling'' her motorcycle and allegedly stealing a parcel.
The next morning residents of Crum Avenue and Leavers, Alcheringa, Illura, Coolabah, O'Donnell, Wattle and East streets were told Australia Post had enough.
"We are ceasing daily mail deliveries to your area from today,'' an official letter said.
"A series of incidents that have occurred since April (pose) a serious safety risk to our postie and an unacceptable environment in which to work.
"As our postie has once again been targeted by unprovoked and unnecessary intimidation, we have made a decision to cease mail delivery to the area and make mail available from collection at the West Dubbo LPO (post office).
"We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause, however the safety of our people is paramount and Australia Post will not put the health and safety of our postie at further risk.''
The Daily Liberal has been told postal delivery officers working in the troubled spot had been subjected to attacks from groups of out-of-control youths, some as young as five.
Posties had been spat on and hit by rocks and bottles. Some had returned to the mail delivery centre with bruises the size of cricket balls on their backs.
"It's hard to comprehend that small children can create so much havoc and continue to get away with it,'' a worker, who asked to remain anonymous, said.
"The violence and intimidation has been unbelievable. It's terrible that the delivery of mail has been stopped but action was needed to protect the posties.
"I just feel sorry for the people who live in the area. They put up with so much because of these youths and now they can't even get their mail.''
A man who has lived in Leavers Street for 43 years yesterday expressed his disgust with the behaviour of "rampaging youths''.
"I swore out loud when I got the letter about the mail delivery ban,'' he said.
"It's all due to feral kids. People living in the area were warned back in April that delivery would be stopped if attacks on posties continued.
"It's the same gang of kids, ranging in age from five to 15. They offend in small and large groups and terrorise the neighbourhood.
"Residents lock themselves inside their houses when things get bad. We're not even brave enough to go into our gardens.
The resident said he would be able to drive to the Delroy shopping centre to collect his mail from the post office.
"It will be inconvenient but at least I have a car,'' he said.
"Some of the people who live in this area don't have transport and a number are frail aged or disabled.
"I'd love to give the troublesome kids a kick in the tail. Something has to be done to stop them. They are out of control and starting to run the town.
"They cause trouble all over West Dubbo and in the central business district. It's particularly bad when they get on drugs and alcohol. I fear what these kids will be like when they get older.''
A spokesperson for Australia Post said everyone in the community had a role to play in keeping posties safe.
"We apologise for the inconvenience (caused by the cessation of mail deliveries in the area) but we won't compromise the safety of our people,'' the spokesperson said.
"Nor will we tolerate this type of behaviour from a small minority who are putting the health and safety at risk.''

Rudd Treats Australians With Contempt

After being sworn in as Prime Minister last week Mr Rudd said he was "revolted" by the reports of corruption coming out of NSW Labor. "I am revolted by what I have seen unfold through the ICAC inquiry. I am revolted that this could've been seen to have been acceptable practice," he said on Friday.
 
The new rules will be aimed at heading off corrupt practices and make it harder for developers to influence the ALP by standing for election and being involved in candidate selection.
 
The new rules would also ensure any party member subject to investigation for improper conduct could be immediately suspended from the ALP if they bring the party into disrepute.
 Source, The Australian.
Rudd also said "I want a Labor Party which is free from the taint of some of the things we have seen emerge in ICAC in NSW", concerning O'Beid and friends.
Kevin Rudd and the Labor Party must think the Australian people have amnesia, as Kevin Rudd himself is still under on-going scrutiny regarding the Heiner Affair and the shredding of documents during his time in the QLD Goss government in relation to child sexual abuse.

 http://www.heineraffair.info/site_pages/Rudd.html

Further to the stench that still surrounds Kevin Rudd and the Heiner Affair days, is the matter of the Fitzgibbon Affair, the very same Fitzgibbon a well known Rudd supporter that Mr Rudd has appointed to the front bench as Minister for Agriculture. The matter of Mr Joel Fitzgibbon and his 16 years of involvement with Chinese developers and matters of espionage.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/fitzgibbons-150000-from-developer-20100202-nb4w.html

Australia First Party call for Mr Rudd and Mr Fitzgibbon to be stood down under Kevin Rudd's new anti corruption laws, until the Heiner Affair and the Fitzgibbon Affair are resolved.
 

Friday, July 5, 2013

Government Policies Destroy Australian Children


Girls Gone Wild

http://www.dailyadvertiser.com.au/story/1620377/girls-gone-wild/?cs=7

If we get into a fight," says Jamie, "you're not gonna call the cops on us, are you?" I'm sitting in the living room of a hostel for homeless Aboriginal women and children in Sydney's west, talking to two young self-confessed "bad bitches" who in 2011 were charged with carjacking and larceny.
Jamie and Leeyah, 18 and 17 at the time respectively, along with another teenage girl, were crossing a road on their way to meet their drug dealer in Toongabbie when they spotted a woman parking her car and, more importantly, the handbag on her lap. Leeyah lunged at the open window, grabbed the handbag and pulled the driver from the car. She then jumped behind the wheel and threw the bag on the floor while Jamie leaped into the passenger side and the third girl dove into the back. They took off at high speed down the laneway, careened around a corner and onto a main street.
For the next two-and-a-half weeks they joy-rode through outer Sydney, buying and using drugs and accidentally hitting telegraph poles and garbage bins. The girls were finally caught when a drunk relative crashed the car near a breathalyser unit.
Jamie and Leeyah have agreed to meet me to discuss their lives and the perceived rise of underage violence and gang activities among Australian girls. According to NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics data, the number of juvenile female offenders soared by 36 per cent in the decade to June 2009, compared to an 8 per cent increase for juvenile males.
There's anecdotal evidence, too. In September 2011, YouTube clips of pre-arranged brawls between girls as young as 14 in Sydney's south-west went viral and were reported throughout the world. The same year, four girls, aged 14 and 15, bashed and robbed a 26-year-old woman in Sydney's south-east while she was waiting for a bus. Last January, two 14-year-old girls attempted to rob a man on a Sydney train by punching him in the face and burning his head with a lit cigarette. The same week, two more girls, aged 16 and 17, tried to hold up a man at Lakemba train station with a pair of fake guns.
I'm especially curious about this phenomenon because as a teenager I grew up in a public housing estate in Carlton, Melbourne, with an alcoholic single mother, after having been on the run for a year - and through three states - from my violent stepfather. During that time I got into drugs (cocaine, marijuana, LSD), did a fair bit of shoplifting, and was busted once for writing graffiti. But it never occurred to me to join a group of other girls and attack a stranger for money or other possessions. As a 15-year-old, if I needed cash I did it the traditional way: babysitting, cleaning houses, teaching children to swim.
"I just wanna know," says a slim woman in her early 40s, leaning against the doorjamb of the hostel's living room and folding her arms, "are you undercover or what?" This is Jamie's mother, who also lives in the hostel. I have to stop myself from laughing. "If I were an undercover cop," I answer, "do you think I'd tell you?" After giving me a dismissive once-over, she nods to her daughter and disappears down the hall.
Jamie's face has a girlish gentleness, but when I ask her where she grew up and where she went to school, her expression clouds. "I grew up in DOCS," she confesses. "I grew up all over." In foster homes?
She nods and explains that her three sisters also grew up in state care. She looks into her lap and fiddles with her mobile. "I only met my real mother three years ago."
Jamie tells me that when she was 13 she was released into the care of an aunt. In a Faginesque twist, a relative forced her to shoplift. As a consequence, Jamie ran away from home and lived with an uncle for three weeks before he was arrested and jailed for drug abuse. By the time she was 16, she had been placed with a foster family at Kemps Creek, but only lasted three days before running away yet again, ending up in the care of another relative who, she says, also demanded that she shoplift and steal.
As Jamie talks, her breathing grows short and she becomes agitated, pulling on her ponytail, turning the phone in her hands, as if she's reliving a time she'd rather forget. She met her closest ally, cousin Leeyah, three years ago, and since then they've become inseparable. During that short time they've also managed to get into an extraordinary amount of trouble together.
"It usually happens when we want to get on [pot]," explains Leeyah. "We're okay if we can have a cone first thing in the morning, but if we can't we get really stressed and that's usually when we tend to get violent."
When I ask about details of the carjacking two years ago, Leeyah's eyes widen and she shoots me a cheeky grin. "We don't just rob anyone," she replies, shaking her head. "Like, we wouldn't have stolen the car if there'd been a baby in the back, or if it'd been an old person driving."
She pauses and crosses her arms: "We do have ethics, you know!"
Leeyah goes on to tell me that she grew up on a public-housing estate with 17 siblings in Sydney's west and has convictions dating back to the age of 12, when she attempted to rob a woman at an ATM. Since then, she has been in out and of juvenile detention centres for various crimes, including theft, assault, and intimidating a police officer. "People think juvenile detention is a bad influence on kids, but really it's a f...ing paradise!" When Leeyah smiles, her face glows with a sepia-toned beauty. "There's swimming pools, sports ovals, nice rooms ..."
Her eyes flicker around the hostel's pale grey walls. I lean forward. "So did you keep committing crimes so you could go back to juvie?"
She laughs to herself and nods. "Course! Who'd ever want to leave there? It's a f...ing paradise!"
It's now 5pm and the hostel's dinner bell has rung. As I prepare to leave I ask them both what they think will happen to them beyond this - living day to day at the hostel, carjacking and rolling people for money. The girls fall quiet for a few moments and the gale outside rattles the window panes.
"I think I'll end up in jail," Leeyah finally admits, without a trace of self-pity.
I suggest that there seems to be only two options for girls in her situation - going to jail, or getting pregnant and getting into the system that way.
Leeyah glances across at Jamie and briefly smiles. "And I think you'll be the one who'll get pregnant," she says, pointing at her cousin. Jamie thinks for a moment, grins shyly, and agrees.
It would be easy to assume that the rise of underage female crime is limited to Sydney and Melbourne, but smaller cities and regional areas have become just as dangerous. Five years ago, for example, 39-year-old mother-of-three Tanya Rowe died as a result of being bashed by a gang of girls outside a Perth railway station. Another attack and robbery occurred in May, 2011, also at a Perth station, after one gang member stole a woman's handbag and the 20 or so others turned on the victim, dragging her to the ground by her hair and punching and kicking her face and body, leaving her with a shattered cheekbone and missing teeth. And in 2010, Newcastle police were hunting a group of girls nicknamed "the Pyjama Gang", who were sneaking out at night in their boxer shorts and dressing gowns to roll women for money and phones.
In the northern NSW town of Casino in 2008, a gang of five girls attacked then 17-year-old Julie-Anne Gill one Friday night. In spite of a police highway patrol car passing during the beginning of the incident, and two security guards watching on from the nightclub across the road, Gill was pushed to the ground, dragged along the road and kicked and punched for 20 minutes. As a result, she sustained a black eye, fractured nose, chipped tooth, skinned legs and ripped toenails.
"It still affects me every day," the mother of two tells me over the phone. "For a while afterwards I slept in my mother's bed with her. I had nightmares. It took me two years before I could walk downtown on my own. Even now, I'm still scared." What made the attack even worse, she adds in a shaky voice, was that it occurred only 12 weeks after her father had passed away.
Gill believes that in her case the attack was random and possibly a case of mistaken identity. "A lot of kids do it because they're bored - because there's nothing to do in the town." She tells me that two weeks after she was bashed, another gang of girls attacked two of her closest friends outside the Casino Golf Club, knocking out several teeth from one of them, before stealing their purses and mobile phones.
She agrees that some of the problems are due to slack parenting and underage drinking, but for her the situation is much more complicated. "Here in Casino we don't have a police force on the weekends. If there's any trouble we've got to call the cops in Lismore [30 kilometres away] and half the time they don't even turn up."
She adds that many residents of the town, when reporting a crime, are often forced to exaggerate the severity of an incident in order to be taken seriously by the Lismore police. "They keep doing it because they can get away with it," she says. "There's no authority."
When I tell the Melbourne taxi driver I want to go to the suburb of Sunshine, the first thing he asks me is, "Why?" He says he rarely takes fares to or from Sunshine because he's been robbed too many times. "By teenage girls?" I ask. He nods and adjusts the rear-view mirror. "Once they get close to home they just jump out of the cab and run!"
I've heard it said that Sunshine is so beset with violent teenage girls that housewives now carry two handbags when they catch the train - one for their belongings and one to give up in case they're robbed. And Sunshine is far from the only troubled Melbourne suburb. As we drive up Flemington Road, I remember reading about a 34-year-old woman who, in February 2010, was assaulted and robbed at knifepoint by two teenage girls while waiting for a bus outside Glenroy railway station. As the cab swings through Footscray, past gaudy graffiti and the long shadows of housing department high rises, I also recall that, last year, a gang of four girls attacked 17-year-old Chantelle Papi in Fawkner before stealing her credit cards, mobile phone, and identification.
University of Tasmania criminologist Professor Rob White, who last month published the book Youth Gangs, Violence and Social Respect, argues that most of what the media reports about female teenage violence in Australia is not related to gang activity in the conventional sense (initiations, tattoos, tags and territorialism) but is more a result of loose-knit groups of girlfriends and/or relations who enjoy getting into trouble.
White maintains that, for some young women, fighting is indeed "a regular part of their street experience [and] motivated by excitement, status and protection", adding that "over half of all female appearances in juvenile court are related to acts intended to cause injury or theft".
In a laneway near Sunshine railway station, a boom box blares rap music as teenage boys spray graffiti. A group of Sudanese teenage girls, with long, egret-like legs protruding from their school uniforms, pauses to watch them. The suburb is a stew of ethnicities and businesses: discount variety stores, African dress shops, tattoo parlours, tobacco outlets, Vietnamese sweet stores and pawn shops. Suddenly a toddler appears wearing pink gumboots. Holding a toy mobile phone, she's intrigued by the rap music and begins to dance in circles. Her young, pregnant mother struggles past, pushing a stroller against the wind. Inside lies a baby with a chocolate-ringed mouth and watery blue eyes.
While the toddler continues to dance, I chat with the mother, Tanya. She admits that as a teenager she fell in with the wrong crowd through a boyfriend and got into hard drugs. Now, at 28, she has three children under nine, two stepchildren, and a baby due in six weeks' time. The irony is that she has become terrified of the very same kind of teenagers she once embraced.
She tells me that, just before Christmas last year, she was walking out of a store with her kids when a group of teenage girls slammed the baby's stroller over, with the infant still inside, and made off with the baby bag that had been hanging from the handle. When police found and returned the discarded bag the next day, everything was missing: $100, an heirloom ring and the toddler's clothes, disposable nappies and formula.
As her daughter continues to dance, Tanya lights a Longbeach. She tells me that last year she was waiting with her kids on a platform at the railway station when her eight-year-old daughter walked into the public toilet and accidentally interrupted two teenage girls shooting up heroin outside the stalls. The teenagers first began verbally abusing the daughter for "f...king up their fit" and pushed her outside. When Tanya attempted to intervene, the girls slammed her up against a wall and threatened to bash her senseless unless she compensated them for the heroin they'd accidentally spilled. While they continued to threaten and rough up Tanya, the quick-thinking eight-year-old grabbed the baby stroller, ran down the platform with it, out of harm's way, and used her mother's mobile to call 000.
Now, as the toddler continues to dance to the booming rap music, waving her fake mobile like a fairy wand, I can imagine her in about 10 years' time, trawling the same lanes and streets, still intrigued by music and mobile phones, but no longer so fresh-faced and innocent.
The following day I meet youth worker les Twentyman in a cafe overlooking Whitten Oval in Footscray. The offices of his foundation, the 20th Man Fund, are just down the road, and were established over two decades ago to provide social services for Melbourne's troubled teens.
With his white hair and beard and twinkling eyes, Twentyman looks more like a grandfather who could double as Santa Claus than a tireless worker trawling Melbourne's streets at night, helping the young, the violent, the drug-addicted, and the abused. "The problems [of violent girls] often stem from homelessness," says Twentyman, gazing over the empty sports field. "These girls are often getting abused at home, in so many ways - it could be incest or parents on crack or whatever - and running away, getting into gangs and drugs ... well, living like that is often better, for them, than being abused at home."
He tells me that earlier this year he reunited a formerly homeless 15-year-old girl with her mother and stepfather, after the parents had passed all safety checks with DOCS and other services. But the girl only remained with them for a few days before running away again. Twentyman recently discovered the reason for the second disappearance: the mother and stepfather had established an unlicensed brothel in the home and expected the daughter to service clients.
He tells me that there are three main girl gangs currently operating in Melbourne, the Lavs (from the suburb of Laverton), the West Sides, and the Dun-bees: "The Lavs are all Pacific Islander girls who are having trouble transitioning from primary school to high school, the West Sides are a gang who bash up any girls who dare to go out with any of their ex-boyfriends, and a couple of years ago Dun-bees were involved in the stabbing of two people in Sunshine."
All three groups appear to have emerged from established male gangs. I've noticed, however, some crucial differences between the male and female gang members. Male gang members are usually aged between 17 and 26; they brawl with machetes, bottles, poles, knuckle-dusters and knives; and most admit that riots and fights arise because they are protecting their "territories". Members of a girl gangs, on the other hand, can be as young as 12, usually don't use dangerous weapons, and prefer attacking victims by punching, kicking and hair-pulling. Their prime motivation, it seems, is not protecting their "area", like the males, but stealing for materialistic reasons.
Nearly all of these girls come from disadvantaged areas. They don't have much power and enjoy very little respect from the wider community. They're also bombarded daily with images and narratives promoting materialism and excess, yet they have little access to the wealth they witness. Hence the obsession with beating up older, more affluent women and stealing possessions that will earn them peer respect: cars, cash, handbags and mobiles.
Twentyman scoops his phone from the table and begins stabbing the keys. After a brief "Hello", he hands the mobile over to me and I find myself talking to Detective Superintendent Pat Boyle, a deep-voiced man completing an MA thesis on Melbourne gang activity who has been in the force for 37 years. "A lot of guys in gangs will use their girlfriends - that's how they get involved," he says. "They get them to carry the drugs and the guns, 'cause the guys think it's safer."
In Darwin recently, a gang of teenage girls attacked four young women in Smith Street Mall, with one victim being dragged by her hair along the pavement while others kicked her in the back and their male friends stood back and watched. And in 2010, two teenage girls and a 20-year-old man from Casino took turns to stab a man six times in the car park of a tourist lookout near Kyogle. The three also filmed the torture on their mobile phones before rolling the wounded man over an embankment.
Detective Boyle tells me that when the police are confronted by gangs of both boys and girls in Melbourne, "the girls are the most violent, especially when they're drunk. They like showing off in front of their boyfriends."
When I inquire about the potential benefits of juvenile detention - counselling, health and education services - Boyle is not overly enthusiastic. "Though there are systems in place to rehabilitate youth, there is still a need for the individual to make the most of those opportunities, and there can be peer group pressure that upsets those with potential for change. This is also no different outside those environments."
I ask Twentyman what might be done to assist girls who get into trouble at such a premature age. He fixes me with a hard, blue-eyed stare: "We've got to start dealing with these girls as victims rather than locking them up all the time."
He goes on to explain that the baby bonus - currently at $5000 for the first child - has not helped the plight of vulnerable young women. "There's the old cliché of teenage mums splurging on flat-screen TVs, but most of the time, in this kind of culture, it's the boyfriend who takes the $5000 bonus and blows it all on drugs."
Twentyman hands me his phone again and I find myself talking to 16-year-old Crystal, who joined the Dun-Bees gang at age 13 and spent a couple of years with them. Expecting to hear a voice cracked and corrupted by her experiences, I'm shocked to hear instead what seems like a soft-voiced seven-year-old who has suddenly found herself lost in a fairground.
Crystal says that when she was a member, the gang consisted of about 10 girls, all aged between 13 and 14. "We used to just get really drunk," she confesses. "And then we'd go into the city and bash and rob people."
Twentyman explains that Crystal had a violent upbringing and that her mother is a former heroin addict. "These days, lots of kids are growing up around hard drugs in the home," he says. "It becomes normal. Then they stop going to school and start getting into trouble."
In the past year, more than 2000 children have been expelled from schools in Melbourne's western suburbs, but Twentyman is adamant that punishing kids by refusing them an education is neither effective nor fair, and he cites the 56 per cent unemployment rate of teenagers aged 15 to 19 in Melbourne's north-west.
"I'd also recommend the introduction of compulsory national service for teenagers not in school or being employed," he adds. "Not for military training, but to gain life skills, job skills, and to improve their self-esteem."
Back in Sydney, I meet Jamie and Leeyah to have their pictures taken. As the photographer sets up the camera in a lane by the railway, I ask Jamie if she'd been abused during her years in foster care. She flicks her hair back and nods. "I had to clean their houses for them. Babysit for them. Steal for some of them. I was treated like a slave," she says, shivering in the wind. "A slave," she adds for emphasis.
She admits she was fortunate in that she was never sexually abused in care, but when I ask how many foster homes she's grown up in, her eyes are suddenly glazed and remote. She finally shakes her head. "There's been so many. I can't remember."
As a train roars above us, I decide to change the subject: "Do you have any plans for the weekend?"
Her eyebrows do a little dance. "Shake and take," she murmurs.
On the trains?
"Yeah, well we have to," she replies. "We need to get some yarny [marijuana] and everything we've got is in hock at the moment."
When two Asian women amble up the lane and begin to pass us, Jamie can't help herself - she reaches out playfully and touches the large purse one of them is carrying. The woman reels away, terrified, not realising that Jamie at this moment is only horsing around. I find it a telling piece of improvised acting on Jamie's part, demonstrating to me how easy it is for her to snatch a bag and get away with it.
I ask Leeyah if jail is better than juvenile detention. "Jail's m-a-a-a-d, eh?" she replies enthusiastically. She admits that she didn't even mind being in isolation for two weeks, her punishment for having "hit a screw". "There was only a shower and a bed and I was only allowed out for an hour a day. But they let me draw in isolation - that's what I like doing, drawing - and I could also smoke in the cell, so I didn't care."
Leeyah also tells me she got into trouble after the marijuana supply in the prison dried up. "I made a deal with one of the gardeners: I traded tobacco for a can of petrol that I could sniff." She was busted after displaying manic behaviour and reeking of fumes, ending up in isolation yet again.
As the girls shiver in the westerly wind and stare down the lens of the camera, I think back to my teenage years. My mother may have been single, alcoholic and living in public housing, but she always had dinner on the table at 6pm, made sure I went to school, encouraged me in my desire to write, and never failed to let me know that I was loved unconditionally. I eventually grew out of that rebellious stage and by the age of 17 began to study visual art instead.
Purple-black clouds are massing above us and there's the smell of rain in the air. A car drives up the lane towards us. "Watch this," says Jamie, as she moves directly in front of it. "You watch, the locks'll go straight down."
And of course she's right: as soon as the female Asian driver glimpses the figure of Jamie blocking her way, the windows shoot up and door locks thump down. There's a stand-off for about two minutes; the driver's too scared to get out and confront her and Jamie's enjoying herself too much to bother moving.
It's only when the woman's face tightens into an exasperated scowl, when we see her silently curse and thump the steering wheel, that Jamie gives way. She slowly backs off and, as the terrified driver slams down the accelerator, Jamie leaps onto the footpath and begins to laugh.