While for a time I held out some hope that Putin might be a light to the West, in this time of darkness, but it seems that old commo habits die hard. Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton has recently spoken about the development of an “unholy alliance” between China and Russia that poses an existential threat to Australia and the Indo-Pacific region a “catastrophe not seen since World War II.” And on this he is surely right.
ASIO has not named the country … we all know it is communist China … but they uncovered a plot to interfere with the coming Australian election to back candidates who might be of use to the communist regime. That is surprising given almost everyone from the Left swoons at the mention of China. And, there is no doubt that the greatest victory of the tyrannical CCP has the Covid plandemic which set in motion mail-in voting and the most elaborate electoral fraud yet conducted.
“Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton has warned of an “unholy alliance” between China and Russia that threatens Australia and the Indo-Pacific region with the kind of catastrophe not seen since World War II.
“We know that our nation is facing the most complex and potentially catastrophic regional security environment since the Second World War. The threat now posed by the Chinese government aggression is very real and … it’s growing,” Dutton said on the floor of the federal parliament on Feb. 10.
“We’ve seen an unholy alliance between the Chinese government and the Russian government with President Putin—and both countries have been very open about that relationship.
“That should, I think, cause great concern right across the world, but in particular, in our own region,” he said.
The comments come a day after the boss of ASIO, Australia’s spy agency, warned that a foreign country had sought to interfere with Australia’s federal elections due to take place by May.
In his annual threat assessment speech on Feb. 9, ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess revealed the security agency had disrupted an operation by an unnamed foreign government to back electoral candidates thought to be pliable or who might already support the interfering country.
“I can confirm that ASIO recently detected and disrupted a foreign interference plot in the lead-up to an election in Australia,” Burgess said.
The political candidates targeted in the plot were unaware of the scheme, he said.
Burgess also revealed that ASIO had detected other foreign interference attempts at all levels of government and in all states and territories in Australia.
The revelations led Dutton to declare, during Question Time in parliament on Thursday, that the foreign power was the Chinese regime and alleged they had “picked” national Labor Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese as “their candidate” for prime minister.
The manager of opposition business, Tony Burke MP, called for a point of order citing precedent on house speakers ruling on unparliamentary language pertaining to “anything that goes to whether or not people are, in fact, guilty of treason, sedition, or anything against the national security.”
Dutton said he had not made any allegations against Albanese but was reflecting on the “publicly reported” comments by ASIO boss Burgess and “the actions of the Chinese government.”
“That is the context in which I made the comment, and it is perfectly in order,” he said. “It might be uncomfortable to those opposite.”
Hours after making those remarks, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation published an article citing anonymous “intelligence sources familiar with the matter,” who purportedly claim that Russia was behind the plot.
The following day, on Feb. 11, Dutton doubled down on his assertion.
“There’s no doubt in my mind about the statement that I made yesterday and I think there needs to be a greater awareness, frankly, particularly from the Labor Party, about the engagement of people who don’t have our national interests at heart. That’s the reality of the situation,” he told ABC Radio National.”