Who does run our country??
Chinese donor Xiangmo Huang calls for reform on political gifts
3 January 2017
One of Australia’s largest individual political donors has called for direct contributions to politicians to be banned and criticised Scott Morrison’s handling of the Ausgrid power sale under which a winning Chinese-dominated bid was rejected on national security grounds.
Xiangmo Huang, the billionaire head of the Yuhu Group, which has amassed a property portfolio close to Sydney’s CBD over the past four years, has also predicted a tough two years for the Australian economy driven by events in Europe and the US.
He warns that tensions between Asia and Donald Trump’s new US regime “will definitely bring no benefit to Australia’’.
The Sydney-based investor, whose holdings include Eastwood Shopping Centre in the northwest and The Miller Development in North Sydney, remains positive about the outlook for the property industry, saying the Australian environment and its free society will continue to be a magnet to investors and immigrants.
Mr Huang called on the Turnbull government to provide a “negative list’’ of off-limits investments to potential Chinese investors in the wake of the Ausgrid process, which had sent a “very negative message to foreign investors’’.
Mr Huang has become an influential figure in Sydney business circles in the past four years after setting up his Yuhu Group in Australia and frequently being photographed with politicians from all sides.
More than $6.5 million in charity donations have included $1.8m to help establish the Australian China Relations Institute at the University of Technology, Sydney, headed by former foreign minister Bob Carr, and $1m to the Children’s Medical Research Institute in Westmead.
His political donations led to him becoming embroiled in the furore that forced Labor senator Sam Dastyari to resign his frontbench position in September. While that was sparked by a $1670 bill paid by Chinese-linked Top Education Institute, there was also focus on a $5000 payment in 2014 by Yuhu to cover a legal expense for the NSW senator.
Mr Huang called for sweeping political donations reform to prevent direct contributions to politicians.
“I think we should establish a democracy fund to accept donations from individuals and companies,” he said. “The funds will not be direct to individual politicians and certain parties. The government would allocate the funds based on the percentage of vote for each of the parties.’’
He said this would avoid speculation about the motivation of the donors.
Mr Huang drew fire when reports emerged last year that he had said in an editorial for the state-run Global Times newspaper: “The Australian Chinese community is inexperienced in using political donations to satisfy political requests ... We need to learn … how to have a more efficient combination between political requests and political donations.”
Mr Huang disputes this translation of the article, which was written in Mandarin. “I never expressed a view that encouraged that donations should come with a purpose or a request,” he said. “What I was saying was simply speaking towards an ethnic group — I encouraged them to learn more about politics, learn more about what the politician says in their speech before they make their decision to make donations.’’
After donating $925,000 to political parties since 2012 — split almost evenly between the two major parties — Mr Huang is non-committal about whether he will continue to donate under the current system.
“I will pay more attention to the agenda of the political parties,” he said. “If they have a reasonable economic development strategy, I will consider to support it.
“But in general with political donations, I will be more considered. I will try to avoid misunderstandings about my position.’’
On foreign investment, Mr Huang warned that the decision by the Treasurer to reject bids for NSW power network Ausgrid by the Chinese government-owned State Grid Corp, which offered more than $12 billion, and Hong Kong-listed Cheung Kong Infrastructure group, which offered up to $16bn for the 99-year lease, could dampen enthusiasm for Australia in China and elsewhere.
“At the end of the day, the message is investing in Australia may be very risky,’’ Mr Huang said. “It could cost you a lot of time and energy and eventually the government might reject your bid.’’
Mr Huang said the government should produce a comprehensive list that stated which assets or industries, or investments above certain values, could not be acquired by foreign bidders.
“I personally can understand the decision made by the federal government,” he said.
“But other investors who came from China or other Asian companies may not be able to comprehend the decision.
“What they see is those companies that are bidding spend millions of dollars on due diligence, on research, on bidding ... but eventually the government says ‘No you can’t bid’.’’
Mr Huang said he agreed with the decision to reject the bid “but I don’t think it was made with the right approach’’.
He is wary of Mr Trump’s agenda, arguing that his election campaign mantra of rebuilding America and rebuilding US manufacturing was aimed at American self-interest.
“And that means he will sacrifice the interests of foreign nations, including Australia,’’ he said.
“Protectionism promotes the prosperity of the US — it doesn’t promote the prosperity of global nations.’’