Belt and Road company in ‘unusual’ pitch to Tas gov
Company that advised Victoria lobbied Tasmania to ‘co-launch’ report spruiking Beijing.
A company that advised Victoria on its Belt and Road deal with China repeatedly lobbied Tasmania’s government to “co-launch” a report spruiking Beijing’s controversial program to the nation’s agriculture sector.
Documents show the Australia-China Belt and Road Initiative repeatedly lobbied Tasmania’s government last year to co-launch “the first major report on the Belt and Road trade opportunities for Australian agriculture”.
Tasmanian government officials entertained the request but ultimately rejected it as against “usual practice”.
ACBRI is a Melbourne-based company that advised the Victorian government on Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, which that state signed up to via several deals in 2018 and 2019.
The Morrison government has opposed the Victorian deal, while US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned BRI projects are designed to boost the power of the Chinese Communist Party.
Some China analysts have recently expressed concern about what they say is the increased operation of CCP “agents of influence” in Tasmania since President Xi Jinping’s 2014 visit to Hobart.
Emails between ACBRI — headed by former Chinese TV journalist Jean Dong — and Tasmanian bureaucrats, obtained under Right to Information laws, show an ACBRI representative approached a contact in the state government on May 12, last year.
While names and parts of the texts are redacted, allegedly for privacy reasons, it appears the ACBRI representative had previously had dealings with the official. Ms Dong’s mobile number is listed under the first email sent by ACBRI.
“We would like to seek the opportunity to co-launch with Tasmanian government,” the ACBRI representative wrote. “Given your previous role with the State Growth department, I would like to seek your advice.
“Which government department or key person we shall contact regarding co-hosting this report launch with us?”
The ACBRI representative followed up with a telephone call a few days later, after which a State Growth bureaucrat replied on May 16: “Long-time no contact … Good talking with you just now … grateful if you’re able to send a draft through for our information.”
On May 21, ACBRI sent a copy of the report and thanked the official for discussing the co-launch idea. “Once you have the chance to read it in detail and have internal discussions, we can discuss further,” the company rep said.
However, any internal discussions did not go well for ACBRI. On August 6, the Tasmanian bureaucrat politely declined the co-launch “because we (Tas Gov) did not provide input into the report nor does the report have any references to or case studies about Tasmania specifically”.
“It would not be usual practice for us to host the launch,” the official wrote.
Ms Dong declined to be interviewed but ACBRI provided a statement saying it “does not suggest BRI agreements with governments”. “Rather, we try to identify BRI commercial opportunities for Australian businesses which is why we were funded by DFAT,” it said.
“We reached out to the Tasmanian government to co-launch the agriculture commercial implications report because we thought that would help put our work in front of a local business audience. As it turned out, nothing progressed and no discussions took place.”
ACBRI, which recruited former Liberal trade minister Andrew Robb and former Labor finance minister Lindsay Tanner as advisers, has in recent weeks taken down its website, amid controversy over its role in the Victoria BRI deal.