Australia's Chinese Fifth Column

Beijing Bob enlists Labor in new China influence row
By Nick McKenzie & Nick O'Malley

Chinese agent Bob Carr, aka Beijing Bob

Former Labor Foreign Minister Bob Carr, aka Beijing Bob, is using ALP senator Kristina Keneally to quiz the prime minister and senior officials about Malcolm Turnbull’s key former adviser on Beijing’s espionage and interference operations in Australia.
Fairfax Media has confirmed that Carr, who heads a think tank created by a Chinese businessman closely connected to Beijing, has asked Senator Keneally to use parliament to find out details of the employment, job title, and contract of government adviser John Garnaut.
Mr Garnaut is a China expert and former Fairfax Media China correspondent who was tasked by the prime minister in August 2016 to conduct a highly classified inquiry with ASIO into Beijing’s clandestine activities in Australia.

China's fifth column: Beijing Bob (L) and Huang Xiangmo (R)

The inquiry, which has never been released, is understood to have examined the activities of Huang Xiangmo, the same Chinese businessman who created Carr’s Australian China Relations Institute, and who separately headed a Sydney lobbying organisation aligned with the Chinese Communist Party.
Carr first suggested in a phone call to Senator Keneally and her office on the evening of February 27 that she use the parliament to ask questions about Mr Garnaut, according to sources familiar with the matter. 

He subsequently asked Ms Keneally on at least one other occasion to use parliament to scrutinise Mr Garnaut’s work.

ASIO chief Duncan Lewis sounds fresh alarm over Chinese interference threat

Carr’s role in pushing for questions to be asked was only disclosed to many in the ALP after Senator Kimberly Kitching quizzed senior bureaucrats on May 22 about Mr Garnaut, relying on questions scripted by Labor staffers.
Labor sources said that Senator Kitching, who could not be reached for comment, was later told by Senator Keneally that Carr had requested the questions be asked.
Two Labor sources who spoke to Senator Kitching said she was “furious”. 

She also revealed to ALP colleagues that Senator Keneally had told her that Carr “will owe you a favour” for having asked the questions.
Carr and Ms Keneally told Fairfax Media that the questions about Mr Garnaut were not written by Carr, with Ms Keneally stating that it was "legitimate to ask questions on notice or in estimates about staffing and contractual arrangements to determine who is providing advice to government". 

Carr said he had never met Senator Kitching.
After he was quizzed by Fairfax Media, Beijing Bob released a statement describing Mr Garnaut as one of ''the leaders of the recent anti-China panic in the Australian media" who should not be "carrying on the campaign" while on the Prime Minister's payroll.
Senator Keneally also placed questions on notice to Mr Turnbull on May 18 that mirror those suggested by Carr and later asked by Senator Kitching.
Ms Keneally has asked in what “capacity” Mr Garnaut worked for the government between September 2015 and June 2017.
“What was his job title, to whom did he report, and what were the dates of his employment,” Ms Keneally asked in her question on notice.
Fairfax Media has confirmed that between August 2016 and September 2017, Mr Garnaut was responsible for what is known in national security circles as the Garnaut-ASIO inquiry.
The inquiry probed efforts by Beijing to influence Australian political parties, academia and the media. 

It is understood to have examined the activities of, among others, Huang Xiangmo, the former financial backer of Carr’s think tank, a Chinese billionaire and big political donor.
Huang previously provided generous funding to the Carr-led ACRI and has boasted about hiring Carr to head the pro-China think tank.
Huang’s relationship with NSW senator Sam Dastyari led to Dastyari’s resignation from parliament in December 2017, paving the way for Senator Keneally to take his spot.
The revelations about Carr come with Labor divided over whether to support reforms proposed by Mr Turnbull to counter what ASIO has described as "unprecedented" levels of Chinese interference in Australia. 

Mr Garnaut helped shape the reforms.

Former Turnbull policy adviser John Garnaut.

Mr Garnaut's involvement in a classified inquiry has been well known in Canberra for 12 months, although the findings of the inquiry have never been released.
In March, Fairfax Media reported Mr Garnaut delivered incendiary testimony about clandestine Chinese government interference operations in Australia before a US Congress national security committee in Washington DC.
Mr Garnaut was described in this story as “Mr Turnbull’s China specialist in 2016 before shifting to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to work on China-related policy."
The story also stated that Mr Garnaut was "a private consultant... assisting western government agencies, including in the US, to deal with influence operations.”
While denying he had any role in pushing Ms Keneally to ask questions about Mr Garnaut, Beijing Bob said on Monday night it was reasonable to scrutinise Mr Garnaut. 

In response to the questions asked by Ms Kitching, the department of prime minister and cabinet said that he was currently contracted as a specialist speechwriter.
Beijing Bob said in his statement of Mr Garnaut: “Fuelling a campaign against a friendly foreign country is incompatible with an advisory and speech writing role on the Prime Minister’s staff.
"When the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister give the impression of reining in rhetoric on China, the revelation that Mr Garnaut has been on the Prime Minister’s payroll is decidedly unhelpful.”
Last week, the foreign interference laws were back at the centre of political debate after an explosive speech in federal parliament by Liberal MP Andrew Hastie and which explored allegations Beijing was interfering in Australian politics.