Sky News host Cheng Lei warns Anthony Albanese not to be ‘naive' on China, questions why PM chose to spend ‘six days' in the country
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is set to spend the last day of his six-day long tour of China in the central city of Chengdu, kicking off his day with a trip to a panda breeding and conservation centre.
Mr Albanese has toed the CCP party line for the most part, avoiding discussing controversial topics including the Russia-Ukraine War and the Port of Darwin lease while accepting China's assertionthat it could conduct navy drills wherever it saw fit in international waters.
The two leaders also agreed that trade would go on despite the global chaos of US President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs, with Australia pledging to keep its vital trading relationship with China separate from its ties to the US.
Sky News host Cheng Lei, who was released from a Chinese jail only two years ago after spending three years behind bars, said watching the visit had been a 'surreal' experience and pointed out that 'two years ago at this time I would have still been in the cell".
Ms Lei said that while the 'content, tone and duration' of the visit had been 'warm and fuzzy," she reiterated that it 'felt quite strange, and Dr Yang is still there."
Jailed Chinese Australian academic Yang Hengjun, who was given a suspended death sentence by a Chinese court in 2024 on espionage charges, has been detained since 2019.
The Prime Minister has faced increasing pressure to advocate for Yang's release during his tour.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Thursday the PM had called for Yang's release in an expansive conversation with President Xi Jinping on Tuesday, saying 'it's important that we have consistency in terms of continuing to raise this case'.
'It is also about how vengeful China is towards an individual and this is where our fundamental difference lies, that China, with all of its might and its vastness, its strong economy can feel it needs to do things to individuals,' Ms Lei said.
'It also shows that China does not care for individuals. They are just cogs in the wheel and dispensable and this is where we have to be really, really cool-headed and clear-eyed and not drink the Kool-Aid.'
Mr Albanese has received criticism for embarking on a lengthy trip to China while the US-Australia alliance faces mounting stain, with Opposition Leader Sussan Ley stating the visit had failed to address substantial issues that undermine the country's national security.
Speaking to reporters in Brisbane, Ms Ley said she was 'disappointed the PM didn't get assurances about Chinese warships' keeping away from Australian shores.
'It's not good enough. We want a strong, respectful relationship, but that respect has to cut both ways,' Ms Ley told the Today show.
Echoing commentary from a raft of geostrategic analysts, Ms Lei asked why the PM was 'spending six days in China and not doing other visits in the region, not going to South Korea and Japan?'
She also took aim at Mr Albanese's decision to not meet with Chinese dissidents and democracy activists, and said Australia should not be 'naive' in its approach to China.
'One thing I've been told by those who have escaped China is that, while they used to have to go and brief Angela Merkel time after time at the German embassy whenever she visited, and other embassies in Beijing, they never got such invitations from our embassy,' she said.
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ABC News
28 minutes ago
- ABC News
How easy is it to trick the Australian Taxation Office?
Sam Hawley: How easy is it to trick the Australian Tax Office? Well, for fraudsters it's not hard at all and plenty have done it costing taxpayers billions of dollars that have never been recovered. Today, Angus Grigg on his Four Corners investigation into the biggest GST scam in history and how the ATO dropped the ball. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. Sam Hawley: Angus, you've been hard at work looking into what's going on at the Australian Tax Office. And you've really been having a deep look into this huge GST scam. Now, this unfolded in no other than Mildura in north-west Victoria. So, take me there and tell me about local resident Sarah. Angus Grigg: Yeah. Mildura is a really beautiful town, an irrigation town on the Murray in North West Victoria. And this GST scam really took off in Mildura. And it really was circulating within a sort of population that you might say is low socioeconomic groups, people on welfare, people with addiction issues. And we went to interview one person called Sarah. She was going through quite a bit of financial hardship at the time. I think she'd separated from her partner who was facing pretty serious charges at the time as well. And she was short of money because she needed to have some dental work done. So one of her friends showed her how to use a business that had been registered and an ABN linked to GST to claim GST refunds fraudulently. 'Sarah': The people that I was associating with at that time, they had done it and told me how easy it was to get a large amount of money quickly. And I just thought at the time it was a good idea because I was in a bit of financial trouble. Angus Grigg: She pretended, if you like, to be a hairdresser, despite the fact that she had no hairdressing qualifications. She'd never worked in a hairdresser, hadn't hired premises, had no equipment. And so she logged into her myGov account and first of all, claimed $15,000 and then did it a second time and got another $15,000. 'Sarah': I don't even really still understand how it went through. I was a single parent and then all of a sudden I'm a hairdresser that's getting this return put into my account with no other payments from clients or anything like that to balance it was needed. Like no proof. Angus Grigg: Now, bear in mind, the money went into the same account as her welfare payments and the money went within about 10 days without any verification, without any checks, without anyone from the tax office ringing and saying, what did you spend this money on? Do you have hairdressing qualifications? Have you hired premises? You know, she just absolutely couldn't believe how easy it was. 'Sarah': Yeah, I just couldn't believe it that it was just sitting there on my everyday access debit bank card. Angus Grigg: Now, the other thing to bear in mind, to receive a GST refund of $30,000, she would have needed to have capital expenditure or bought stock and other items for her hairdressing business of about $300,000. Now, surely a single mother living on welfare, getting family tax benefits, that should have been a red flag for the tax office. Sam Hawley: Wow. Okay. So Sarah, which is not her real name, just by the way, you've changed that for this story to keep her anonymous. She just tells the ATO she's a hairdresser and then the tax office falls for it. That's extraordinary. Angus Grigg: It is. And the fact that you don't need a receipt, you don't need any proof of the line of work you're in is extraordinary. And that's because the tax office basically fired most of the humans in the loop and started relying on algorithms or computers, if you like, to make these payments. They wanted to ensure the timely payment of GST refunds to businesses. But in doing that, they really opened the door up to fraud. Sam Hawley: Right. Sure. So the tax office wants to streamline things. But in the meantime, people like Sarah are all of a sudden dabbling in fraud. And as we've mentioned, she's not the only one. There's a lot of other people doing a very similar thing. Tell me about Linden Phillips. What was he up to? Angus Grigg: Linden Phillips, once again from Mildura, for us, he was like patient zero. It looks like he was the really one of the very, very early people in this scam. So what happens is that Linden Phillips gets out of jail in August 2021. And he already has a company registered. And so he reactivates his GST registration through his ABN and his MyGov account. And then within a couple of weeks of getting out of jail, he does what I'd sort of call a test run. And he claims $13,000 in GST refunds from the tax office. Once again, no documents, no receipts, no verification required. He gets that money within a couple of weeks and clearly then thinks, OK, I'm going to go for the big one. And so what he does is he lodges 46 backdated GST claims for an amount of $821,000 in GST. And the real kicker here is that for most of the period those GST claims are lodged, he's actually in jail. Sam Hawley: Oh my gosh. Angus Grigg: I know. He just couldn't make it up. Sam Hawley: What does he do with all that money? Angus Grigg: Well, of course, he spends it, right? Within a couple of weeks, the money's completely gone. He buys himself a second-hand Porsche. Somewhat endearingly, he buys his mother a house. But the really damning thing here is that the tax office notice it. Finally, someone, there's a human in the loop and they pick up the fact that, hey, maybe something's a bit wrong here. And so they ring him up and he says, oh yeah, no, it's all legitimate. I'll get my accountant to call you. The accountant never calls. They send him some emails. They write him some letters. He ignores them all. And the really damning thing here is the tax office does nothing for four months. And in that four month period, this scam absolutely explodes. So what we did is we went back and we deconstructed, if you like, the tax office's narrative. And the narrative was that this fraud took off on social media. The tax office noticed it. They cracked down really hard, really quickly, and they brought it under control. Now we sort about testing that idea. Sam Hawley: So the ATO says it did this great job. It cracked down on this fraud. But what actually happened? Because you actually had a look at that and discovered, in fact, the ATO didn't do much at all. Angus Grigg: No, exactly. So Linden Phillips does finally get caught, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the ATO. It all comes down to the smarts of a local detective in Mildura named Vanessa Power. Now, she is attending Phillips's house on a drugs and gun charge, and she searches his premises, his house, and she confiscates a phone. And using the sort of smarts that the ATO should be employing, she sees that on his phone there appears to be a pretty elaborate GST scam. And in fact, it looks as though that Linden Phillips had helped 60 other people perpetrate this scam. Linden Phillips is arrested. And then a few weeks later, the ATO finally launch what they call Operation Protego, which is to crack down on this GST scam. Sam Hawley: Wow. Okay. And at that point, of course, Sarah, who we spoke about earlier, she was also arrested back in December 2022. But the thing is, the money, it's sort of gone, right? 'Sarah': I can't pay it back. It's not even an option at the moment. Or it probably never will be. Sam Hawley: Is there any way the tax office can actually get these funds back? Angus Grigg: Well, this is the point, right? In the end, $2 billion was stolen from the tax system by 56,000 people. Now, the ATO tell us that of those 56,000 people who perpetrated this scam, just 120, I think it might be 122 now, have been convicted. Secondly, of the $2 billion stolen, the ATO tells us that only 160 million, or around 8% of that, has been recovered. Sam Hawley: And, Angus, that money, it really is just a drop in the ocean, right? Because you've also looked at all the other funds that the ATO hasn't managed to collect, and you've spoken to Karen Payne. Now, she's a former Inspector General of Taxation. She basically says if the ATO had collected what it was owed, then we would all be paying less tax. Angus Grigg: Yeah. Karen Payne, she really focused on what's called collectible debt. And that is this sort of giant number that the ATO doesn't like to talk about. And when she started looking at it, it was about $30 billion. Then it rose to about $50 billion. The figure is now $53 billion. And that is the amount of money or taxes that the ATO has levied, if you like, but not collected. Karen Payne, Inspector General of Taxation, 2019-24: The large percentage of the debts that were due were in fact owned by a very small number of taxpayers or they're related to a small number of taxpayer accounts. So you'd kind of think it's a small number of people you need to be chasing. Angus Grigg: And the point that Karen Payne was making is that if we collected all that tax, perhaps we would not have to pay as much tax, all of us, but also we'd have more money to spend on really basic things like schools, roads and hospitals. Karen Payne, Inspector General of Taxation, 2019-24: The fact that it keeps rising is troubling. So it's fundamental, I think, that we've got good administration of the tax system because the integrity of the tax system is fundamentally important to all of us. It pays for all of the services that we benefit from. Sam Hawley: Angus, despite everything that you have said, which is frankly really concerning, the ATO itself thinks it's doing a pretty good job, right? Because Chris Jordan, who was the tax commissioner up until 2024, he's been putting a rather positive spin on the ATO's work. Angus Grigg: Yeah. This is the really extraordinary thing. Despite all these scandals, the ATO tells us they are doing a great job. Just before Chris Jordan stepped down as tax commissioner, he did a victory lap, if you like, at the National Press Club, and he pointed out all the great, terrific things that the ATO has done. Chris Jordan, Tax Commissioner, 2013-24: We've successfully charted a massive program of transformation. We've cut red tape and we've modernised our administration of the tax system as part of the digital revolution to make tax just happen.
The Age
2 hours ago
- The Age
Power giant warns of ‘two-speed' green shift which benefits only the rich
Millions of Australians face being left behind in the race to greener energy, one of the nation's largest power distributors has warned, as renters miss out on huge savings from solar panels while homes without off-street parking cannot install electric vehicle chargers. From this year, home-owners with solar panels stand to benefit from even bigger electricity bill cuts following the introduction of federal government rebates wiping thousands of dollars off the cost of installing batteries that can soak up their excess energy. Increasing home battery uptake has many advantages: it will enable Australia to harness more of its world-leading per-person solar panel uptake to use after sunset, drive down greenhouse gas emissions and smooth out volatile price swings across the market. But the household clean energy boom may create winners and losers, warns Ausgrid, the largest power distribution company on Australia's eastern seaboard. The company points to renters and lower-income Australians who are unable to make the switch and are forced to stay on increasingly expensive fossil fuel-based energy supplies. 'The problem we see is that if you don't own your own home, or have the financial wherewithal, you are faced with the full system cost of the transition,' said Rob Amphlett Lewis, Ausgrid's group executive of distributed services. Loading 'What we are in danger of is a two-speed transition that works for the 'haves' and is paid for by the 'have-nots'.' Ausgrid and other Australian distribution network service providers are seeking to expand their reach beyond building and maintaining the network's poles and wires and into other future-facing functions where they believe they are well placed to deliver more efficient outcomes for consumers. Their push, however, has opened a major new rift in the industry between network operators and a wide range of other electricity market participants, which are urging regulators against any waiver from 'ring-fencing' rules designed to prevent monopolies from encroaching on competitive markets, and argue it could drive up costs.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Power giant warns of ‘two-speed' green shift which benefits only the rich
Millions of Australians face being left behind in the race to greener energy, one of the nation's largest power distributors has warned, as renters miss out on huge savings from solar panels while homes without off-street parking cannot install electric vehicle chargers. From this year, home-owners with solar panels stand to benefit from even bigger electricity bill cuts following the introduction of federal government rebates wiping thousands of dollars off the cost of installing batteries that can soak up their excess energy. Increasing home battery uptake has many advantages: it will enable Australia to harness more of its world-leading per-person solar panel uptake to use after sunset, drive down greenhouse gas emissions and smooth out volatile price swings across the market. But the household clean energy boom may create winners and losers, warns Ausgrid, the largest power distribution company on Australia's eastern seaboard. The company points to renters and lower-income Australians who are unable to make the switch and are forced to stay on increasingly expensive fossil fuel-based energy supplies. 'The problem we see is that if you don't own your own home, or have the financial wherewithal, you are faced with the full system cost of the transition,' said Rob Amphlett Lewis, Ausgrid's group executive of distributed services. Loading 'What we are in danger of is a two-speed transition that works for the 'haves' and is paid for by the 'have-nots'.' Ausgrid and other Australian distribution network service providers are seeking to expand their reach beyond building and maintaining the network's poles and wires and into other future-facing functions where they believe they are well placed to deliver more efficient outcomes for consumers. Their push, however, has opened a major new rift in the industry between network operators and a wide range of other electricity market participants, which are urging regulators against any waiver from 'ring-fencing' rules designed to prevent monopolies from encroaching on competitive markets, and argue it could drive up costs.
