Sunday, January 31, 2010

Obama to control greedy banks

Mr. Barack Obama,
President of the US,
president@whitehouse.gov

Dear President,

We refer to the report below for your information and wish to congratulate you for taken this drastic action which is long overdue.

The global greedy banking cartel and other financial institutions are there to serve their own interests and must be controlled as to avoid another Great Depression!!

Yours respectfully,

Eddie Hwang
President
Unity Party WA
UnityPartyWA@westnet.com.au
http://unitypartywa.blogspot.com/
www.unitywa.org
Ph/Fax: 61 893681884
Date: 23-Jan-2010.
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Obama plan to limit the size of banks - report
From: AFP - January 21, 2010 4:24PM
US President Barack Obama will tonight propose new limits on the size of US banks after spending billions of tax-payer dollars to bail out "too-big-to-fail'' firms, a senior official says.

The measures would place sweeping new restrictions on a sector seen as responsible for sparking the largest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"A couple of months ago the President began discussing with his economic team the need to include in financial reform more specific and stronger provisions to limit the size and scope of financial institutions'' the official said.

The proposals aim "to cut down on excessive risk taking'' among the largest banks, after crises at a handful of the largest firms threatened to choke the flow of cash to the US economy.

''The President will announce a series of measures that address size and scope'' of the institutions the official said.

by efforts to rescue banks that were exposed to massive loses on the sub-prime mortgage market.

The official, who asked not to be named, said the new measures would limit banks' ability to use their own cash to buy such financial instruments, so-called proprietary trading.

"The proposal will include size and complexity limits specifically on proprietary trading,'' the source said.

Facing widespread voter anger over state take-overs of the troubled firms, Mr Obama earlier this month proposed a tax on big banks and warned the banking industry not to block or water down his planned regulatory reforms.

"It is both in the country's interests and ultimately in the financial industry's interest to have updated rules of the road to prevent abuse and excess.''

The new measures will have to be approved by Congress before becoming law.

Obama to control greedy banks

Mr. Barack Obama,
President of the US,
president@whitehouse.gov

Dear President,

We refer to the report below for your information and wish to congratulate you for taken this drastic action which is long overdue.

The global greedy banking cartel and other financial institutions are there to serve their own interests and must be controlled as to avoid another Great Depression!!

Yours respectfully,

Eddie Hwang
President
Unity Party WA
UnityPartyWA@westnet.com.au
http://unitypartywa.blogspot.com/
www.unitywa.org
Ph/Fax: 61 893681884
Date: 23-Jan-2010.
Environmental Friendly - Save the trees - Use Email.
Can you afford to give Bigpond a try?
Obama plan to limit the size of banks - report
From: AFP - January 21, 2010 4:24PM
US President Barack Obama will tonight propose new limits on the size of US banks after spending billions of tax-payer dollars to bail out "too-big-to-fail'' firms, a senior official says.

The measures would place sweeping new restrictions on a sector seen as responsible for sparking the largest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"A couple of months ago the President began discussing with his economic team the need to include in financial reform more specific and stronger provisions to limit the size and scope of financial institutions'' the official said.

The proposals aim "to cut down on excessive risk taking'' among the largest banks, after crises at a handful of the largest firms threatened to choke the flow of cash to the US economy.

''The President will announce a series of measures that address size and scope'' of the institutions the official said.

by efforts to rescue banks that were exposed to massive loses on the sub-prime mortgage market.

The official, who asked not to be named, said the new measures would limit banks' ability to use their own cash to buy such financial instruments, so-called proprietary trading.

"The proposal will include size and complexity limits specifically on proprietary trading,'' the source said.

Facing widespread voter anger over state take-overs of the troubled firms, Mr Obama earlier this month proposed a tax on big banks and warned the banking industry not to block or water down his planned regulatory reforms.

"It is both in the country's interests and ultimately in the financial industry's interest to have updated rules of the road to prevent abuse and excess.''

The new measures will have to be approved by Congress before becoming law.

Yes, Mr. Gore, we will help to spread your call

Yes Mr. Gore, we will help to spread your call.

Eddie Hwang
----- Original Message -----
From: Al Gore, The We Campaign
To: Unity Party WA
Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2008 3:35 AM
Subject: We have a choice






Call your members of Congress NOW to demand new, clean energy.

Take Action.




Dear eddie,

I need your help. Will you make a call?

Congress will consider energy legislation this week. Of course, the oil industry is pushing its "drill, drill" slogan with all its might -- and some are hoping to use this for political advantage.

Meanwhile, tax credits for investments in solar and wind power have not been extended, and the growing renewables business that just made America the largest producer of wind power in the world, is on the verge of shutting down huge planned projects all over the country.

Billions in private investment, thousands of megawatts of new, clean energy, and more than 100,000 new jobs expected for 2009 will be lost.

We face a stark choice: subsidize old, dirty energy or invest in new, clean energy. This should be easy, but the influence of the oil lobby is deep -- they've already spent more than $100 million in lobbying and advertising this year. Please call your members of Congress now and tell them to pass legislation that will Repower America.

Click here to find out how to call.

Washington is being diverted by all the political noise around "drill, drill" away from what really will make a difference -- building a new, clean energy future. Projects in the pipeline that will power millions of homes will be canceled, setting us back for years, if Congress doesn't do the right thing now. Congress needs to hear from all of us.

Click here to make a quick call today.

Thank you so much,

Al Gore

www.wecansolveit.org

EU steel makers oppose BHP-Rio iron ore deal

Mr. Kevin Rudd,
Prime Minister of Australia
postmaster@pmc.gov.au
Dear Mr. Rudd,
We refer to the reports below for your information.
Since you ignored our email below, we will upload the various reports onto our website for our global readers
to judge whether our concern that important raw materials like iron ores should never be
monopolised by countries like Australia and Brazil who are well end owed with them, to the
detriment of the world economy as a whole.
We strongly believe that a sharing of these natural resources world-wide in accordance with time-tested economic principles
aimed at maximising production and the better utilization of the world's natural resources would bring about greater justice
to humankind.
Fair and equitable distribution of natural resources to nations which are not well-endowed with them would bring about a
world that is a better place to live in for all.
Australia - the lucky country needs to act responsibly.
Yours respectfully,
Eddie Hwang
www.unitywa.org
10-Nov-2009.
EU steel makers oppose BHP-Rio iron ore deal
EUROPEAN steel makers have called on European Union antitrust regulators to probe BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto's iron
ore jont venture in WA.
The European steel industry federation Eurofer - whose members include the world's biggest steel makers ArcelorMittal SA,
ThyssenKrupp AG and Corus Group - said the joint venture isn't "much different from the effects which would have
resulted" from BHP's takeover bid for Rio last year.
"The European steel industry continues to believe that a merger of iron ore assets of this type in a world market already
dominated by just three suppliers would not be in the interests of the steel industry, European consumers or the European
economy," it said.
EU opposition to BHP's hostile $US68 billion ($A86.04 billion) bid for rival Rio forced it to abandon the takeover attempt
last year.
The European Commission saw competition problems with the deal that they said could hike prices and reduce choice for
European mineral and metals customers.
Rio also complained that the bid undervalued it.
The two miners are now planning a joint production project to pool all their iron ore assets in Western Australia, a move
that could save them billions as iron ore prices slide.
Australia's BHP will also pay Rio $US5.8 billion ($A7.34 billion) to equalise its contribution to the joint venture.
The deal rescues Rio after it scrapped a $US19.5 billion ($A24.67 billion) deal with China's Chinalco over Australian fears
that the deal would give a foreign company a strategic stake in one of the country's biggest industries.
Rio's balance sheet is weighed down by $US38.7 billion ($A48.97 billion) in debt.
Combining BHP and Rio would allow them to

Staring down the dragon

Mr. Don Argus,
Chairman - BHP
businessconduct@bhpbilliton.com

Dear Mr. Argus,

We refer to the report below for your information.

Would you like to comment, please?

We look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Eddie Hwang
President
Unity Party WA
UnityPartyWA@westnet.com.au
http://twitter.com/unitywa
http://unitypartywa.blogspot.com/
www.unitywa.org
Ph/Fax: 61 893681884
Date: 30-Jan-2010.
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Staring down the dragon: BHP's battles in China
January 30, 2010 - smh
BHP has stood up to China like no other corporation, but the world's biggest miner is playing a dangerous game, John Garnaut reports from Shanghai.

When BHP Billiton's chief executive, Marius Kloppers, flew to China last week, he was expected to reach out and try to placate officials who are overseeing iron ore negotiations and administering the country's new anti-monopoly laws.

Commentators expected he would see Shang Ming, the director-general of China's Anti-Monopoly Bureau at the Ministry of Commerce, who has spent much of the past eight months working out whether he can and will upset BHP's iron ore joint venture plans with Rio Tinto.

''Everyone knows that the Chinese Government, including the Ministry of Commerce, are extremely unhappy about the proposed joint venture,'' says Allan Fels, the former Australian competition boss, who has advised Shang on administering his new anti-monopoly powers. ''And the Chinese law appears to have full extra-territorial force, which seemingly fully covers the transaction.''

Some thought Kloppers might also try to see Li Yizhong, the former oil company chief who now runs a ''super ministry'' of industry and information technology. The ministry is overseeing this year's price negotiations and is drawing up new measures to track and potentially control iron ore imports, at a time when BHP is leading the charge to tear the old benchmark pricing system down.

''The international iron ore market is monopolised by the three leading miners,'' said a spokesman for the Ministry of Industry and

Information Technology on Thursday. ''We hope that they will bear in mind the long-term interests of the industry and friendly long-term co-operation with China. We're expecting a fair price.''

But Kloppers didn't see Shang Ming, Li Yizhong or, it seems, any other senior Government official. He didn't make it to Beijing, where the company no longer has an office.

Instead, sources say, Kloppers mostly let his key customers come to him at BHP's Shanghai headquarters, which is reeling from the exodus of three of the company's most experienced and respected executives.

The China branch's president, Clinton Dines, left the company in June, after two decades. Frank Xu, who close observers say ''owned'' government relations for the company, left in July. And now Robin Bordie, the company's key China economist, has told the company she's walking out as well.

BHP is well aware that it is one of the few companies in the world with the power to set terms with China. ''If you're going to play in this game, then you have got to play with the big boys, and they know that,'' the chairman, Don Argus, told reporters in October, brushing off problems that might arise if the joint venture with Rio Tinto caused hostility in China.

BHP's clear and uncompromising China strategy has plenty of admirers. But those same people warn that success depends entirely on execution. ''It's not against the rules to start a war when dealing with China,'' says the long-time China head of another major resources company (which does not sell Australian iron ore). ''But you cannot back down, and you absolutely cannot lose.''

Jim McGregor, the former chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, warned in Time magazine last week that China is becoming an increasingly unpredictable and hostile environment for foreign companies. He says it makes sense for some companies to draw a strategic line in the sand, provided they are well prepared and know that what goes around may come around.

In the past two years Chinese companies and officials have demonstrated that gaining better terms on the iron ore trade is a national priority. They have thrown their weight around, but have so far had mixed success.

Chinalco rudely interrupted BHP's original takeover bid for Rio Tinto, which was later aborted. China's top intelligence agency tapped the phone and email traffic of Rio Tinto, then detained Stern Hu and three other members of Rio's sales team, initially treating the case as a threat to China's national security.

The China Iron and Steel Association and some government officials managed to temporarily block spot market shipments from both companies. Chinese steel mills walked away from contracts without apology when prices plunged during the financial crisis.

But, so far, the laws of supply and demand have proved too much for even the champions of ''China Inc'' to overcome.

China's iron ore imports rose an astonishing 42 per cent last year, to 630 million tonnes, while the rest of the world collapsed. It accounted for as much as 70 per cent of global seaborne trade.

Australian miners secured the lion's share of those extra shipments. Australia's global iron ore exports rose 17 per cent to 383 million tonnes, even as they fell to other major destination. Exports to China rose by 46 per cent, to 282 million tonnes - nearly three-quarters of Australia's total.

It seems both BHP and Rio Tinto can virtually do what they like for as long as China desperately needs their ore. It may be a different story when the market turns. Chinese companies with Government support are bringing forward that turning point by madly planting start-up mines around the world.

''It's pretty obvious that BHP have decided that playing hard ball with China is OK," says Arthur Kroeber, the principal at Beijing consultancy Dragonomics.

''The structure of the market here clearly favours them, because ore producers are highly consolidated and the domestic consumer base is highly fragmented, with no reasonable prospect of being tightly controlled. In that sense, it is a strategy that makes sense.''

However, he says the strategy makes sense now but might not look so good from the moment when the supply curve catches up with demand.

''Business and politics in China are even more closely intertwined here than in most other markets,'' he says.

''If you go out of your way to play very aggressively when conditions favour you, there is a likelihood that there will be reprisals of one kind or another when conditions go the other way.''

BHP headquarters is confident that the work of reading, engaging and anticipating China has not missed a beat.

''Our China office is as important to us today as it always was, given the significance of the China market,'' says a BHP spokeswoman, Samantha Evans.

But it will not be easy to make up for the loss of Clinton Dines, Frank Xu and Robin Bordie, and the closure of BHP Billiton's office in Beijing.

In two years BHP's China staff has been cut from about 100 to 70, including the dismantling of both its China exploration and Beijing Olympics sponsorship teams. Rio Tinto, in contrast, maintains about 130 staff in Beijing and Shanghai.

''BHP has now got no machinery at all for engaging with the Chinese Government, at a time when Australian corporate and political relations with China have never been shakier,'' says one source who has worked with BHP.

''Frank 'owned' all of the relationships with the Chinese government and media. Clinton was pretty well-known and liked by domestic and foreign media, and Robin was part of that cabinet.''

All three employees declined to talk about the reasons for their departure.

Dines, who has taken up consultancies and board directorships, hinted at differences with head office in a joint opinion article published this month in the Herald.

''One area where the big suppliers have some work to do is developing - or repairing - stable, long-term relationships," he wrote, together with an iron ore consultant, Philip Kirchlechner. ''It seems that many senior managers in the industry do not understand what a relationship is, in the East-Asian, Confucian context.''

Bordie, according to BHP's website, had brought the company ''invaluable ability to analyse the complex situation and rapid changes in China - our single-country market''. Her analysis of China's economic recovery last year is thought to have been more optimistic and therefore more right than public comments given throughout the year by Kloppers and Argus. She is joining the Noble commodities group in Hong Kong.

Xu has left BHP for the Barclays investment bank, in part because his family could not easily make the transition to Shanghai.

But maintaining his unrivalled relationships throughout the Chinese resources industry and bureaucracy was always going to be more difficult from Shanghai.

''If you call up someone like Xiong Bilin [in charge of industry and consolidation at the National Development and Reform Commission] he'll say, 'OK, I'm free, let's have dinner tonight,' " says a government relations veteran. ''You simply can't arrange things far enough in advance to get through the traffic and catch a plane from Shanghai.''

Rio Tinto's travails in China are well known and it has the bigger hole to clamber out of.

But Rio is now sharing the bad press with BHP. Reports of BHP lobbying against ''China Inc'' in Canberra have been embellished in the Chinese media, producing front-page headlines like ''BAD BOY BHP''.

This week that story mutated and again sprang back to life.

BHP's government and community relationships may not be what they were two years ago, but its commercial operations remain strong. Its steady march towards clear corporate strategic goals stands in contrast to Rio Tinto's three-year vacillations.

Rio Tinto's China operations are going through a rebuilding phase. The company's chief iron ore salesman, Stern Hu, is in jail, along with three members of Hu's sales team, while Hu's former right-hand man has retreated to the company's Singapore sales platform. Rio's China president, Tony Loo, has quit the company and headed for Las Vegas, and is yet to be replaced.

BHP's production report last week shows it continues to ruthlessly and persistently execute its five-year-long strategy to dismantle the benchmark contract pricing system. The existing system penalises Australia compared with other benchmark suppliers who carry higher freight costs, such as Brazil, and also privileges Indian and domestic Chinese suppliers, who get much higher prices on China's spot market.

In the second half of last year, BHP sold 46 per cent of shipments on ''short-term referencing pricing'', with the remainder sold on annual contract prices. The statement implies that a large majority of shipments to China were made at quarterly negotiated prices, index-based pricing or the spot market.

The significance of this lies well beyond the tens of millions of dollars BHP implicitly earned from its shipments last year that its competitors did not.

It appears to mean that by the end of March, a large number of BHP's customers will have accepted that they have rescinded on their long-term contracts - perhaps in exchange for BHP forgiving contractual non-performance during the financial crisis. At the same time, local analysts say, the company has been rapidly gaining new customers on non-benchmark terms.

BHP has gone halfway towards smashing the benchmark pricing system in its most important market, while its competitors have not. At the same time, some observers suggest BHP has quietly taken the lead on negotiating with Baosteel and the China Iron and Steel Association on this year's prices for remaining Chinese benchmark contracts.

Clearly, BHP's smart and well-regarded iron ore sales chief, Ben Williams, has been on top of his marketing job.

Williams, who has spent 20 years of the past 30 in China and speaks the local language fluently, has been elevated to China president. He has back-up from Lu Jianzhong, a sharp and affable technology and uranium expert who was formerly a diplomat at the United Nations. Lu has taken control of Chinese media relations.

But they have a power of work ahead.

Whatever the market mood - and in recent weeks it has sagged - China's efforts to get a better deal in iron ore are not about to stop.

''Iron ore is a core national interest for China,'' a senior official says.

Nobody knows how the next round of iron ore wars will be played out. Shang Ming at the Ministry of Commerce might rule that the BHP-Rio joint venture is anti-competitive. But it's not obvious that he has legal sanctions in his armoury that would hurt the miners more than Chinese mills.

''Because BHP Billiton has almost no assets in China and there appears to be very little grip that the Chinese Government can have on this offshore transaction,'' says Fels, the former chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

In June, shortly after announcing the Rio Tinto joint venture, Kloppers dismissed the risk of Chinese or Japanese regulators intervening with the deal.

He said his company was ''just largely a seller of product into those markets, so we don't have any local businesses in China or Japan that would be affected by this''.

An adviser attached to China's Ministry of Commerce immediately begged to differ.

''According to China's anti-trust law, we can veto such a merger agreement if the concentration of overseas business operators will affect domestic market competition,'' said Ma Yu, a director of the Foreign Investment Department at the ministry's Academy of International Trade and Economic Co-operation. ''If the joint venture is set up regardless of China's opposition, the Government can also resort to trade sanctions against the two entities on future business transactions with China.''

Business and government veterans of the Australia-China relationship and iron ore trade are impressed at the strategic vision of Kloppers and his chairman, Don Argus. But they worry that the pair have underestimated China before and may be doing so again.

Premier talks tough over ore royalties

Mr.Colin Barnett,
Premier of Western Australia,
Premier.Barnett@dpc.wa.gov.au

Dear Premier,

We refer to the reports below for your information.

We wish to congratulate you that the minerals belonged to the States and WA would never give up its sovereign ownership of natural resources.

Yours respectfully,

Eddie Hwang
Unity Party WA
UnityPartyWA@westnet.com.au
www.unitywa.org
Ph/Fax: 61 893681884
Date: 11- Nov - 2009.
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Premier talks tough over ore royalties
ROBERT TAYLOR and PETER KERR, The West Australian November 11, 2009, 2:25 am
Colin Barnett claims to hold the whip hand in royalty negotiations with mining giants BHP-Billiton and Rio Tinto over the proposal to merge their WA iron ore assets.

Ahead of last night's scheduled meeting with BHP boss Marius Kloppers and Rio's Tom Albanese, Mr Barnett said yesterday the deal required State Parliament's approval.

The Government wants BHP and Rio to pay the same full royalty new producers such as Fortescue Metals pay for iron ore.

The mining giants negotiated concessional rates in original State agreements when the industry was being established in the Pilbara but a merger requires a new State agreement.

"I'll be detailing what the State's expectations will be if they proceed (and) the State's expectation will be that they pay the price for iron ore," Mr Barnett said.

"We're 50 years on, they're not investing in towns today. That was appropriate in the 1960s and 70s when the mines were being developed."

The Government has written $540 million into the State Budget over the next four years in anticipation of a new royalties deal.

Mr Barnett also wants the companies to give smaller producers access to their rail lines and has not ruled out pushing for a windfall stamp duty on the merger despite the probability it would require special retrospective legislation.

Also, Mr Barnett again warned that WA would "never give an inch" on its mining taxation powers after reports suggested the Commonwealth was keen to pursue a proposal to share mining royalties through a rent resources tax.

Mr Barnett said the plan was "foolhardy" and would mean companies paying higher taxes with a devastating impact on WA's mining industry.

He said constitutionally the minerals belonged to the States and WA would never give up its sovereign ownership of natural resources.

Mr Barnett ruled out ceding some royalties to Canberra in return for a share of other revenue streams such as income tax.

Japanese giant warns Rio merger could affect trade
NIPPON Steel chairman Akio Mimura is pressuring West Australian Premier Colin Barnett to block the BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto Pilbara iron ore merger, labelling mining oligopolies uncompetitive and a form of resource imperialism.

He cautioned that companies and governments should exercise discipline and uphold the principles of free and fair trade to prevent the strong Japanese-Australian trade relationship from deteriorating.

His comments came as Mr Barnett met with BHP's chief executive, Marius Kloppers, and Rio Tinto CEO Tom Albanese in Perth last night to discuss the government's demands for a higher rate of royalties as part of any joint production plan.........

And in a thinly veiled threat to BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, Akio Mimura said countries must be wary of letting major resources companies grow to a size where they could abuse their market power.

Hu may have roken our laws - academic

Mr. Kevin Rudd,
Prime Minister of Australia
postmaster@pmc.gov.au

Dear Prime Minister,

We refer to the reports below for your information.

Would you like to comment, please?

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours respectfully,

Eddie Hwang
President
Unity Party WA
UnityPartyWA@westnet.com.au
www.unitywa.org
Ph/Fax: 61 893681884
Date: 29-Dec-2009.
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More Aussies breaking law abroad
Emma Chalmers - The Courier-Mail - December 29, 2009 12:25AM

More than 1,000 Australians arrested overseas
295 convicted, sentenced and imprisoned
334 travellers get emergency Govt loans
MORE Australians are playing up abroad, with a record number arrested overseas during the past year.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade helped more than 27,800 Australians in difficulty during 2008-09.

More than 1000 Australians were arrested and 295 were convicted, sentenced and imprisoned.

Melbourne woman Annice Smoel, 36, was one of the year's highest-profile cases, making international headlines and risking five years' jail for allegedly stealing a bar mat from a pub on the Thai resort island of Phuket. She was fined $30 and allowed home after pleading guilty.

In its annual report, DFAT said its consular case load increased as the number of Australians who travelled overseas exceeded six million for the first time.

"Managing increasing expectations of the level of consular assistance, especially in cases involving Australians detained or imprisoned under foreign laws, remained a significant challenge," DFAT said.

The consular emergency centre received more than 37,000 calls in 2008-09, and almost 18,000 people contacted DFAT worried about relatives they could not contact overseas - an increase of 4000.
"Our consular case load was complex and diverse, often directed to Australians requiring assistance in remote and politically unstable locations," DFAT's annual report said.

DFAT responded to several kidnappings during the year, including the case of 37-year-old Bundaberg photojournalist Nigel Brennan, who was released from captivity in Somalia just weeks ago after a private negotiator paid a ransom.

The department also helped Yandina man Hayden Adcock, who spent 11 days lost in the Laotian jungle. It also weathered a storm of publicity over the murder of backpacker Britt Lapthorne in Croatia. DFAT said it also helped an Australian family to leave Kabul in Afghanistan "following a dispute that led to threats to the welfare of several children and their mother".

Among more than 60 international crises the department responded to were the Bangkok bomb attack, a tourist bus crash in Israel, Fiji floods and the Mumbai terror attacks.

The Federal Government provided more than $415,000 in emergency loans to 334 travellers overseas, including to some prisoners to ensure they received proper food and care.

Hu may have broken our laws: academic

Brendan Nicholson Foreign Affairs Correspondent - August 4, 2009 - The Australian

STERN HU, the Rio Tinto executive detained in China, could be investigated by the Australian Federal Police and charged under Australian law with bribery of foreign officials, says a top international law expert.

Don Rothwell, from the Australian National University College of Law, suggested yesterday the Australian Federal Police should carry out an investigation into Mr Hu’s activities.

A spokeswoman for the Minister for Home Affairs, Brendan O’Connor, was checking last night whether any such investigation was under way.

Professor Rothwell said that while the Chinese Government had released limited information about the case, it could be asserted under Australian law that Mr Hu’s dealings with some officials in the Chinese steel industry amounted to bribery.

It is not a defence under Australian law that bribing officials in another country might be considered customary, necessary, or required, he said.

Professor Rothwell was responding to comments by the Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister, Liu Jieyu, that Mr Hu’s alleged crimes would have broken Australian law had they taken place in Australia. Mr Liu said the Chinese Government believed

the case against Mr Hu was strong and he added that the facts ‘‘would constitute a violation of Australian laws’’.

Mr Hu and three Chinese nationals have been held without charge for a month on suspicion of stealing state secrets while negotiating iron ore deals.

Professor Rothwell said Australia had campaigned hard against the bribery of officials around the world and if Mr Hu had that he would have broken Australian law.

‘‘Stern Hu could be charged with bribery under Australian law,’’ Professor Rothwell said.

‘‘This raises issues as to whether the Australian Federal Police, in light of the revelations in this case, are conducting their own inquiries into the conduct of Stern Hu in China with a view to possible criminal proceedings under Australian law.’’

In 1999 Australia committed itself to combating bribery of officials by signing an OECD convention on combating bribery of foreign public officials in international transactions.

‘‘This convention is designed to … combat a culture of graft, corruption and bribery … ,’’ Professor Rothwell said

UK wants Australia, former colony to keep its criminals

Mr. Chris Evans,
Minister for Immigration,
minister@immi.gov.au

Dear Minister,

We refer to the report below for your information.

You are to be congratulated for taking the appropriate action in dealing with criminals as we are an independent nation, rather than a "colony".

Yours respectfully,

Eddie Hwang
President
Unity Party WA
UnityPartyWA@westnet.com.au
www.unitywa.org
Ph/Fax: 61 893681884
Date: 03-Jan-2010.
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UK wants Australia, former colony, to keep its criminals
By Charles Miranda - PerthNow - January 02, 2010 11:47PM
TWO hundred years ago its worst citizens were transported to the other side of the world, creating Australia in the process.

Now cash-strapped Britain wants its former colony to keep its criminals again.

In the past 12 months, dozens of British-born paedophiles, rapists and career criminals, many in their late 50s and 60s, were deported to the UK after finishing their sentences in Australian jails, despite having lived most of their lives Down Under.

Among them was notorious paedophile Raymond Horne, who was given a police escort through Heathrow Airport amid British outrage over his forced return from Queensland.

UK campaigners fear that a lack of connection to their former homeland, including no support base of family and friends, makes serial offenders more likely to reoffend.

Australia last year jettisoned more than 60 criminals to their countries of origin, mostly the UK and New Zealand.

UK child welfare campaigner Shy Keenan said while offenders had court-backed restrictions in Australia that would have them back behind bars if breached, once they were deported to the UK the ability to restrict their actions was limited.
She called on British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to raise the issue with his Australian counterpart Kevin Rudd.

"It's just not fair," she said.

"In law they do belong here, in essence they are British citizens, but whether they are morally or ethically British is another argument.

"They will be assessed when they come here to Britain and made to sign the sex offenders' register but beyond that there is very little they can do. The slate is effectively wiped clean."

Read more: http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/outraged-brits-say-keep-ex-criminals/story-e6frg12c-1225815434878

Ombudsman to go ahead despite law societies' protest

Mr. Robert McClelland
Federal Attorney-General
r.mcclelland.mp@aph.gov.au

Dear Attorney General,

We refer to the reports below for your information.

We fully support the Council of Australian Governments for the setting up of a national ombudsman to regulate the profession.

The case of ''Caesar judging Caesar'' or "police investigate police" should not be tolerated in the 21st century.

Yours respectfully,

Eddie Hwang
President
Unity Party WA
UnityPartyWA@westnet.com.au
http://unitypartywa.blogspot.com/
www.unitywa.org
Ph/Fax: 61 893681884
Date: 21-Jan-2010.
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Ombudsman to go ahead despite law societies' protest
JOEL GIBSON - January 21, 2010
Only lawyers have the expertise to investigate other lawyers for alleged misconduct, their professional associations say, and they have asked the Federal Government to reconsider its plan for a national ombudsman to regulate the profession.

A Fed. Attorney General would be expensive and slow, they argue, and would not be an ombudsman in the true sense of the word.

But the state and federal governments are standing firm, saying confidence in the profession will only improve when lawyers stop investigating their own.

As national regulations are being drafted this month, the chiefs of all state and territory law societies have argued in a submission to a Federal Government taskforce that consumers will lose out if lawyers are stripped of self-regulation.

In NSW misconduct complaints are investigated by the Law Society with the oversight of the Legal Services Commissioner.

Last year one in nine solicitors was the subject of a complaint but 83 per cent of conduct complaints were dismissed, which the law societies say is evidence that ''despite claims to the contrary, there are very few complaints of substance about members of the legal profession''.

Of the complaints investigated by the NSW Law Society in the past five years, 250 have been referred to the Legal Services Commissioner for review, which the law societies argue is evidence of satisfaction at their handling of investigations.

''As far as any of us is aware, and combined our experience of the complaint processes across Australia is very substantial, there is no systemic failure with the current … processes. Claims to the contrary are unjustified,'' the law society chiefs say.

They have also denied any need for increased protections against lawyers who overcharge.

The negotiations over new national rules for lawyers are heating up in the lead-up to a May deadline set by the Council of Australian Governments.

Consumer advocates say lawyers are protecting their own turf and are decades behind other industries and professions in accepting independent oversight.

The federal Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, has described the self-regulation of lawyers as ''Caesar judging Caesar''.

High Court judge criticises courts 'nightmare'
Article from: - SEAN FEWSTER - July 30, 2009 12:01am
JUSTICE is beyond the reach of ordinary Australians because they cannot afford the "nightmare" of going to court, a former High Court judge says.

Michael Kirby – who retired from the bench in February – says more cases should be resolved out of court so clients can speak for themselves, instead of having lawyers "fight it out".

He said mediation before trials would help ensure "normal citizens" had their cases dealt with quickly and inexpensively, sparing them "tremendous pressure, strain and emotional anxiety".

Mr Kirby yesterday told an arbitration conference in Adelaide that Australia's legal system was proud, uncorrupted and functioned "like a Rolls-Royce".

Monday, January 25, 2010

Can we afford to vote Labor or Liberal?

Mr. Kevin Rudd,
Prime Minister of Australia
postmaster@pmc.gov.au
Mr. Tony Abbott, Leader of the Opposition
tony.abbott.mp@aph.gov.au

Dear Sirs,

We refer to the reports below for your information.

Can we afford to vote Labor who has gone back to racist Arthur Calwell's days when "2 Wong don't make a White" - by increasing the English Test from (4.5) to (5)?

Can we afford to vote Liberal who says that migrants weaken values - what values?

What can the minor parties/Independent do for us?

We wait for your reply soon.

Yours respectfully,

Eddie Hwang
President
Unity Party WA
UnityPartyWA@westnet.com.au
http://unitypartywa.blogspot.com/ (Uploaded)
www.unitywa.org
Ph/Fax: 61 893681884
Date: 25-Jan-2010.
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Migrants weaken values, Abbott says
ANDREW TILLETT MELBOURNE, The West Australian January 23, 2010, 2:35 am

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says the influx of boat people, ethnic crime and migrants' lack of respect for Australian values is undermining Australia's willingness to welcome foreigners.

In a provocative speech to the Australia Day Council in Melbourne last night, Mr Abbott suggested the "great prize" of Australian citizenship was not appreciated fully and was given away too lightly.

But far from wanting to shut the door to migrants, Mr Abbott declared there was no limit to Australia's population if immigration was managed properly, echoing Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's recent call for a "big Australia" of 35 million people by mid-century.

Mr Abbott said Australian immigration had been a "success almost unparalleled in history" but the public felt anxious about it because the surge of boat people renewed fears borders were uncontrolled, some immigrants seemed resistant to notions of equality and there were doubts whether the environment and infrastructure could handle more people.

Despite this, he insisted Australians accepted other races. "For all the misguided and sometimes cruel treatment of Aborigines, the ethnic typecasting and occasional snobbery which still exists, Australia has rarely seen domestic discrimination based on race or culture," he said.

In a swipe at the Government, Mr Abbott said soft border protection encouraged people to risk their lives.

While the main villains were people smugglers, a government that let desperate people think getting on a boat might be a shortcut to permanent residency would hardly be blameless. "A strong border protection policy is perfectly consistent with a large and inclusive immigration policy," he said.

A Nation's line in the sand
RICK FENELEY - January 23, 2010

Side by side ... Mecca Laalaa and Kim Short walk along Cronulla beach. They became friends while walking the Kokoda Track last year, an initiative organised in the wake of the Cronulla riots. Photo: Kate Geraghty

Race relations are again under scrutiny, and the question remains: what must be done to heal the wounds left by so many ugly acts. Rick Feneley reports.

You can't see the bridge from Bankstown to Cronulla, but it's there. The community bridge builders got to work soon after the Cronulla riots of December 2005, when Australians were sickened and shamed by a two-day orgy of violence that erupted from a cocktail of booze, testosterone and pent-up racial tension.
In direct response, women from Cronulla and the surrounding Sutherland Shire volunteered to teach Arabic women to speak English. Young Muslims like Mecca Laalaa and Suheil Damouny travelled to the beachside suburb to become surf lifesavers, part of the federally funded On The Same Wave project.

And last year, Laalaa and other young Muslims made lifelong friends with lifesavers from the Cronulla clubs when they walked the Kokoda Track together. They were led on this trek by some of the bridge builders to emerge from the dust of the riots: Jamal Rifi, a family doctor from Belmore; Scott Morrison, the Liberal MP for Cook, covering Cronulla; and Jason Clare, Labor member for Blaxland, covering Bankstown. Morrison and Clare have become mates, one of the many enduring friendships to result from those two days that rocked Australia.

As Damouny says: ''We were the guinea pigs.''

If it can be regarded as an experiment, it has worked in many ways. Last June, Damouny's father, Hythem, followed his lead to Cronulla. He and his business partner, Anan Qasam - two Palestinians via Lebanon and Jordan, then Yagoona - bought the convenience store on the Cronulla beachfront. Despite some lingering concerns about the horrifying scenes of 2005, Qasam says he was confident. ''I thought, that was not the Australia I knew.''

What, then, is the Australia we know?

In his address this week for Australia Day, General Peter Cosgrove, the former Defence Force chief, identified the Cronulla riots as a low point in the nation's history. ''Because it was so unusual and unexpected, it reverberated around the world. It was unexpected because Australia's reputation was that of an egalitarian and multi-ethnic society; tolerant, cheerful and relaxed.''

Now the world is watching once again. Not Cronulla, but Australia.

This week India's Government declared that if violent attacks on its citizens continued in Australia, it would officially warn them not to travel here to study. India was relieved to at last receive acknowledgment from Cosgrove and Victoria's police chief, Simon Overland, that some of the attacks have been racially motivated.

A $15 billion education industry is directly threatened, but much more is at stake. The ugly actions of a few Australians, yet again, have tarnished our reputation internationally. And as we prepare to celebrate Australia Day we are forced to ask ourselves: do these rogues manifest a racist Australian underbelly? If so, what can we do about it? And if not, how do we convince the world?

When the Herald went to Cronulla last Australia Day, it was not hard to find a young, flag-tattooed Anglo-Australian willing to proffer a racist rant against ''the Lebs''. Disinhibited by alcohol, one young woman suggested a repeat of the riots would be a good idea. ''Bring it on,'' she said. A young Lebanese-Australian, when asked how comfortable he felt amid such sentiments, preferred to echo the bravado of his blond-haired mates. ''I bash for Australia,'' he said.

It was the drink talking. There was no repeat of the violence of December 11, 2005, when mobs set upon helpless beach visitors of Middle Eastern appearance, or of December 12, when car loads of revenge attackers descended on beachside suburbs.

Amanda Wise is a doctor of sociology and senior research fellow at Macquarie University's Centre for Research on Social Inclusion. She grew up in the Shire and was a teenager there in the early 1980s. ''I can't remember seeing a flag anywhere,'' she recalls.

After the riots, Wise conducted research in the area, including focus group studies of Cronulla locals for the Immigration Department. While she was heartened by the bridge-building work and some messages of tolerance, she also encountered persisting ignorance, fear and outright anti-Muslim racism. ''And there was cynicism, particularly among the men, about turning young Muslims into lifesavers - about what it could hope to achieve.''

Wise fears that the ingredients for the 2005 riots remain. The causes, she stresses, were complex. She addresses them in her contribution to Lines in the Sand: The Cronulla Riots, multiculturalism and national belonging, a collection of essays released last month.

Wise says it was a confluence of events: years of unchecked antisocial behaviour by some Middle Eastern teenagers and young men visiting the beach; a build-up of resentment against the ''Lebs'' and their boisterous beach soccer matches; an assault on two local lifesavers; the stirring of local anger by radio ''shock jocks''; an undercurrent of Islamaphobia, particularly since the September 11 terrorist strikes; a period of anxiety, reactionary nationalism and misplaced flag-waving under the Howard government; and the critical ingredient in the cocktail - alcohol. Lots of it.

Wise worries that while temperatures have cooled, authorities must be vigilant. A stream of government ''interest and money'' that flowed into bridge-building in the first two years, she says, has all but stopped.

Only one of the pioneer Arabic lifesavers remains at the surf clubs. Like other young people, they have moved on to university and careers. But there is no new wave, yet, to replace them.

''It needs constant promotion,'' says Laalaa, 23. She regards her two seasons with the surf clubs as ''one of the greatest experiences of my life''. But there were challenges. Laalaa had pioneered the ''burquini'' - a costume to preserve her modesty. And for this she endured the occasional racist outburst; not from fellow lifesavers but beachgoers affronted by her alien appearance. ''They attacked my clothing, my beliefs. They questioned my ability to save anybody. Some thought I couldn't speak English.''

Laalaa was born in Australia. She graduated in health science and is a health promotions officer at Liverpool Hospital. She still goes to the beach often, and she has no regrets. But she says: ''It does bring you down to some extent. It's important to surround yourself with positive people.''

These include 22-year-old Kim Short, a Cronulla local and lifesaver whom Laalaa met on the Kokoda Track. Until then, Short had known no Muslims. ''It opened our eyes,'' she says. When life was reduced to this challenge, this arduous but common goal, Short says, ''We realised we had all these similarities.''

Wise, in her research, considers the cultural differences. Playing soccer on the beach, for instance, is common in other parts of the world but it became a point of antagonism here.

''Absolutely,'' says Rifi, who has driven much of the bridge-building work through his leadership at the Lakemba Sports Club. Since 2005, he says, Arabic teenagers and young men have become much more sensitive about the rights of others on the beaches. ''And they are making friends. You can see them high-fiving the locals.''

And regardless of the numbers of Arabic lifesavers today, Rifi says the legacy is clear: ''The surf clubs are not the exclusive domain of the blond-haired and blue-eyed.''

Rifi's fellow Kokoda trekker, the Liberal MP and Opposition immigration spokesman Morrison, says: ''Friendship is universal. When people finally get to know one another, all the other stuff falls away.''

Wise agrees. Women volunteers from the Shire who taught Muslims English, through a Smith Family program, had found it a ''life-changing'' education for themselves. And in her focus groups, locals who had expressed hostile views about Muslims tempered their remarks, merely after exposure to more reasoned views.

Morrison, quite frankly, gets annoyed that the Shire is singled out for supposed racism. He says the area has one of the highest rates of volunteerism in Australia. And he stresses that many of the troublemakers in 2005 came from outside the Shire, which he believes is no more likely to produce an outbreak of racial violence today than any other Australian community.

Morrison says he and his ''good friend'' Clare, the Blaxland MP, worry that the riots are constantly regurgitated, and that this only serves the tiny minority of extremists, from the Shire and Bankstown, who ''thrive on conflict''. He insists the decent views of the vast majority have prevailed. ''It was a black day, but we have moved on … I've got to tell you, one of the things that grates us both a bit is there seems to be such a focus on where we started rather than where we are now.''

So where are we now?

The editor of Lines in the Sand is Greg Noble, associate professor with the Centre for Cultural Research at the University of Western Sydney. ''It could happen again,'' he says, ''but is much less likely to, in my opinion.''

Noble says it is ''important to stress the fact that Cronulla is one of the 'whitest' areas of Sydney. The riots occurred there, and not in the most diverse areas, because it is a bastion of monoculturalism which feels itself under threat. So yes, those ingredients remain, although the social context is different and less conducive to violent displays of nationalism that aim at excluding differences. We no longer have, for example, a federal government which has validated the airing of racialised criticisms, and we no longer have a state government which has emphasised a law-and-order stance …

''I think quite a few Australians were shocked by the events, even if they may have agreed with some opinions expressed, and so there is a degree of public awareness which is more cautious about fervent nationalism and its combination with racism.''

At the Cronulla convenience store, the new proprietors have encountered only one racist, a drunk. Qasam recalls: ''He said, 'Is this Cronulla or Lakemba?''' Other customers told off the drunk.

Qasam and his partner, Damouny, have faith in the better nature of most Australians. They are not seeking out the racists in their midst. If they were, however, they might not have to look too hard. As the Herald photographed them on the beach this week, a middle-aged, mild-mannered local approached and asked what we were doing. When told, he volunteered the following: ''I've lived here all my life, and the riots were the best thing that ever happened to Cronulla. The police had stuck their heads in the sand for too long. The ethnic kids were coming down here and making trouble. The Christian Lebanese were OK but the Muslim Lebanese, they'd kick sand in people's faces, harass the girls. No one would do anything because they were scared of being called racist.''

Coles, meanwhile, is defending T-shirts it is selling for Australia Day. ''Aussie born and bred,'' they scream. They are meant to be ''fun and light-hearted''. Some will miss the joke.

Court rules Alan Jones 'racially vilified' Muslim youths

From: AAP - December 22, 2009 9:46PM

BROADCASTER Alan Jones and 2GB radio have been ordered to pay $10,000 in damages after a court ruled he vilified Lebanese Muslims.

Upholding a complaint of "`racial vilification'' against Jones and 2GB, the NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal today said a number of Jones' comments were neither reasonable nor made in good faith.

The tribunal had heard that, presenting his regular talk-back slot over the course of a number of days in April 2005, Mr Jones said Lebanese youths hated Australia and raped, pillaged and plundered the country, undermining its culture.

Jones also identified "car hoons'' as Lebanese youths and said they disrespected the police. He also expressed the view Australia was not a multi-racial but a mono-cultural society and this monoculture was now under threat from "enemies within''.

The tribunal's ruling said: ''...Jones' comments about `Lebanese males in their vast numbers' hating Australia and raping, pillaging, and plundering the country, about `a national security' crisis and about the undermining of Australian culture by `vermin' were reckless hyperbole calculated to agitate and excite his audience ...''

The tribunal also ruled Jones interpreted a speech made by Lebanese-Australian cleric Sheik Faiz Mohammed in Bankstown as an excuse for sexual assaults by Muslim men on non-Muslim women.Sydney-based Lebanese-born Muslim figure Keysar Trad, complained to the tribunal.

He was later invited onto Jones' program for an exchange during which the presenter accused Mr Trad, as a Muslim leader, of doing nothing to stop car hoons or speeches such as the one said to have been made by Sheik Faiz Mohammed.

The tribunal awarded the damages and ordered the presenter make a public apology, although its exact nature was not determined.

"We find that the complaint of racial vilification as against both respondents are substantiated,'' the

ruling said.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Obama to control greedy banks

Mr. Barack Obama,
President of the US,
president@whitehouse.gov

Dear President,

We refer to the report below for your information and wish to congratulate you for taken this drastic action which is long overdue.

The global greedy banking cartel and other financial institutions are there to serve their own interests and must be controlled as to avoid another Great Depression!!

Yours respectfully,

Eddie Hwang
President
Unity Party WA
UnityPartyWA@westnet.com.au
http://unitypartywa.blogspot.com/
www.unitywa.org
Ph/Fax: 61 893681884
Date: 23-Jan-2010.
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Obama plan to limit the size of banks - report
From: AFP - January 21, 2010 4:24PM
US President Barack Obama will tonight propose new limits on the size of US banks after spending billions of tax-payer dollars to bail out "too-big-to-fail'' firms, a senior official says.

The measures would place sweeping new restrictions on a sector seen as responsible for sparking the largest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

"A couple of months ago the President began discussing with his economic team the need to include in financial reform more specific and stronger provisions to limit the size and scope of financial institutions'' the official said.

The proposals aim "to cut down on excessive risk taking'' among the largest banks, after crises at a handful of the largest firms threatened to choke the flow of cash to the US economy.

''The President will announce a series of measures that address size and scope'' of the institutions the official said.

by efforts to rescue banks that were exposed to massive loses on the sub-prime mortgage market.

The official, who asked not to be named, said the new measures would limit banks' ability to use their own cash to buy such financial instruments, so-called proprietary trading.

"The proposal will include size and complexity limits specifically on proprietary trading,'' the source said.

Facing widespread voter anger over state take-overs of the troubled firms, Mr Obama earlier this month proposed a tax on big banks and warned the banking industry not to block or water down his planned regulatory reforms.

"It is both in the country's interests and ultimately in the financial industry's interest to have updated rules of the road to prevent abuse and excess.''

The new measures will have to be approved by Congress before becoming law.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Help for Haiti

Dear President Obama,

Yes, we will do our best to spread your message globally with the hope that those who can afford to donate will open the pockets without hesitation.

You are to be congratulated for the generous donation of US$100 millions to help the Haitians.

Yours respectfully,
.
Eddie Hwang
President
Unity Party WA
UnityPartyWA@westnet.com.au
http://unitypartywa.blogspot.com/
www.unitywa.org
Ph/Fax: 61 893681884
Date: 15-Jan-2010.
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----- Original Message -----
From: President Barack Obama
To: Eddie Hwang - unitypartywa@westnet.com.au
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 7:00 AM
Subject: Help for Haiti


Eddie --

On Tuesday, a catastrophic earthquake struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The full extent of the damage is still being assessed, but the death toll -- already in the thousands -- is climbing fast.

This is the worst earthquake to hit the area in more than 200 years. Entire communities have been ripped apart and as many as 3 million people have been directly affected, including tens of thousands of American citizens who are in Haiti.

Our neighbors in Haiti are racing to confront the enormous devastation -- and this community can help.

Click here for more information about essential relief efforts and ways you can help today.

Footage is pouring in of homes collapsing, Haitians carrying injured family members, and hospitals being overrun in what was already the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

I have directed my administration to respond with a swift, coordinated, and aggressive effort to save lives. Personnel from the United States and our partners in the international community are on the ground in damaged areas right now, working side by side with the Haitian people. They're providing much-needed food, water, and sanitation supplies, saving lives and helping local communities start to rebuild.

Despite the fact that we are experiencing tough times here at home, I encourage those who can to reach out and help. It's in times like these that we must show the kind of compassion and humanity that has defined the best of our national character for generations.

Click here to find out what you can do:

http://my.democrats.org/Haiti

As this story continues to unfold, I hope you will continue to keep the people of Haiti in your thoughts and prayers, as well as the many Haitian-Americans who have done so much to enrich our country and who are worried about friends and loved ones in this time of need.

Thank you,

President Barack Obama






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This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

Democratic National Committee, 430 S. Capitol St. SE, Washington, DC 20003

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Thursday, January 14, 2010

President Obama and PM Rudd

----- Original Message ----- From: Barack Obama
To: Unity Party WA - Eddie Hwang Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2008 12:50 PM
Subject: Tomorrow
Eddie --
We're just one day away from change. Election Day is tomorrow -- Tuesday, November 4th.
We've asked you to do a lot over the course of this campaign.
Right now, I'm asking you to do one last thing -- vote tomorrow, and make sure everyone you know votes, too.
Watch a short video about how far we've come, and how close we are. Then find or confirm your polling location and make sure your friends and family do the same:

When this campaign began, we weren't given much of a chance by the pollsters or the pundits.
But tomorrow, we can make history.
We've made it this far because supporters like you never stopped believing in your power to bring about real change.
Take the final step now.
Watch the video, find your polling location, and get everyone you know involved on Election Day:
http://my.barackobama.com/nov4
With your vote, and the votes of your friends, family, and neighbors, we won't just win this election -- together, we will change this country and change the world.
Thank you,

Barack



----- Original Message -----
From:
To:
Sent: Friday, July 17, 2009 11:18 AM
Dear Mr. Hwang,
Thank you for your message. On behalf of President Obama, we appreciate hearing from you. The President has promised the most transparent administration in history, and we're committed to listening to and responding to you.

In order to better handle the millions of electronic messages we're receiving and respond more quickly, we've implemented a new contact form on our website:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Please note that this web form has replaced comments@whitehouse.gov. That email address is no longer monitored, so we encourage you to resubmit your message through the link above. Thank you
Sincerely,
The Presidential Correspondence Team

----- Original Message -----
From: Rudd, Kevin (MP)
To: Unity Party WA
Sent: 16 March, 2007 1:17 PM
Subject: RE: Disgraceful security pact
Dear Mr Hwang
Thank you for your email of support and for sending me the report. This year will bring many challenges and I look forward very much to your continued support as we work towards the election of a Federal Labor Government.
Thank you once again for taking the time to drop me a line.
Kind regards,
Kevin Rudd Federal Labor Leader
Member for Griffith

Justice in Queensland?

Ms. Anna Bligh,
Premier of Queensland
ThePremier@premiers.qld.gov.au

Dear Premier,

We refer to the reports below for your information.

Why Aborigines are so discriminated in Queensland?

We wait for your reply soon.

Yours respectfully,

Eddie Hwang
President
Unity Party WA
UnityPartyWA@westnet.com.au
www.unitywa.org
Ph/Fax: 61 893681884
Date: 21-Nov-200.
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Police case on death in custody rejected
Michael McKenna - The Australian - November 21, 2009 12:00AM
QUEENSLAND'S anti-corruption watchdog said yesterday it had rejected a two-year police probe into the mishandling of the investigation of the 2004 death in custody of Palm Island man Mulrunji Doomadgee.

Releasing a report into policing in Queensland's indigenous communities, Crime and Misconduct Commission chairman Robert Needham said his investigators were forced to go back to "ground zero" in the case, after last year receiving a 266-page police report into the tainted investigation.

Mr Needham, who is stepping down from the CMC next month, said he hoped the long-overdue report might be released in the first quarter of next year, although it might still be delayed.

Earlier this week, The Australian revealed the CMC would accuse police of "protecting their own" in the case and recommend disciplinary action against officers involved in the investigation

The report was ordered in 2006 after Deputy State Coroner Christine Clements slammed the death-in-custody investigation as lacking "transparency, objectivity and independence".

Police Ethical Standards Command was asked for a report into the initial investigation, to be reviewed by the CMC.
Mr Needham said yesterday the report was "not going to be complimentary" of police, but he could not yet detail his findings.

"In effect, what we have done is we have gone back to ground zero and gone right to the primary documents, right to every interview that has ever been had with all the relevant officers, to the evidence of the coronial inquiry and gone back to every single thing in great detail," he said.

Mr Needham also took some blame, saying the report should have been out earlier this year.

Mr Needham made the comments as the coronial inquest into Doomadgee's death was yesterday reopened at a directions hearing in Townsville.

The report was ordered in 2006 after Deputy State Coroner Christine Clements slammed the death-in-custody investigation as lacking "transparency, objectivity and independence".
Police Ethical Standards Command was asked for a report into the initial investigation, to be reviewed by the CMC.

Mr Needham said yesterday the report was "not going to be complimentary" of police, but he could not yet detail his findings.

"In effect, what we have done is we have gone back to ground zero and gone right to the primary documents, right to every interview that has ever been had with all the relevant officers, to the evidence of the coronial inquiry and gone back to every single thing in great detail," he said.

Mr Needham also took some blame, saying the report should have been out earlier this year.

Mr Needham made the comments as the coronial inquest into Doomadgee's death was yesterday reopened at a directions hearing in Townsville.

Mr MacSporran should reconsider.


Michael McKenna - The Australian - November 20, 2009 12:00AM
THE Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission report into the police mishandling of the investigation of the 2004 death in custody of Palm Island man Mulrunji Doomadgee may not be finalised for another six months.

As family and friends gathered yesterday on Palm Island, off Townsville, to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Doomadgee's watchhouse death, concerns were raised about the decision of Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Commissioner Alan MacSporran to represent Queensland police at today's reopening of the coronial inquest into the case.

Mr MacSporran, who is charged with overseeing complaints about the CMC -- and who has access to all of its files -- will appear for the Queensland Police Service at the inquest's directions hearing in Townsville.

The lawyer for the Doomadgee family, Andrew Boe, said given the history of the death-in-custody investigation -- condemned in 2006 by Deputy Coroner Christine Clements -- Mr MacSporran should reconsider.

"It is clear that the police interests will continue to pursue their own agenda, whilst all that the family seek is what they have sought for the last five years: transparency, integrity and accountability; and some finality," Mr Boe said.
"I would have thought that to avoid any perceptions of impropriety, he should reconsider taking sides on the field in this inquest after sitting in the umpire's chair generally on matters involving the CMC and police service to date.

"If what he seeks is an involvement in the issues on Palm Island, he might fearlessly discharge his statutory obligations instead."

The Queensland Police Service said it was a matter for Mr MacSporran, who did not return calls yesterday from The Australian. On Wednesday, he denied any conflict of interest, saying: "I have not been asked to investigate any matters in respect of this issue, so I have no conflict."

A CMC spokeswoman said last night the report into the police death-in-custody investigation would be handed to police for comment next month and it may take months to be finalised.

Asked if the report could be made public early next year, the CMC spokeswoman said it was not possible to speculate that it would be finalised by then.

"It usually takes six weeks to respond, but we also have to make allowances for Christmas and New Year, as well as further challenges and legal issues," she said.

The CMC report is expected to recommend disciplinary action against senior officers, who investigated the death in custody, and slam the subsequent police review as an example of police "protecting their own".

The long-overdue report was ordered in 2006 after Ms Clements, in her coronial findings, castigated the police death-in-custody investigation as lacking "transparency, objectivity and independence".

Doomadgee was arrested on Palm Island on November 19, 2004, for disorderly conduct. He had sworn at a police liaison officer in a back street.

Less than an hour later, he was dead in a cell.

An autopsy revealed Doomadgee had four broken ribs and his liver had been cleaved in two. He had bled to death. Doctors said in evidence it would have been "most painful".

A week later, Palm Islanders were told his death had been caused by an accident when he and arresting officer Sergeant Chris Hurley scuffled and fell on the police station floor.

Five years on, Doomadgee death investigators facing discipline
Michael McKenna and Tony Koch - The Australian - November 19, 2009 12:00AM
SENIOR officers who investigated the 2004 death in custody of Palm Island man Mulrunji Doomadgee are expected to face disciplinary action following a damning Crime and Misconduct Commission report that accuses Queensland police of "protecting their own".

On the fifth anniversary of Doomadgee's watchhouse death, which sparked riots in the Aboriginal community off Townsville, the yet-to-be finalised CMC report has condemned police handling of the initial investigation and rejected the findings of an internal police review into their handling of the case.

The long-overdue report was ordered in 2006 after Deputy State Coroner Christine Clements slammed the death-in-custody investigation as lacking "transparency, objectivity and independence".

Police handed a 266-page report to the CMC last year recommending only "managerial guidance" of the four police investigators - two of whom were friends of Palm Island senior sergeant Chris Hurley, who was charged and acquitted in 2007 of Doomadgee's manslaughter.

In an explosive revelation, Parliamentary Crime and Misconduct Commissioner Alan MacSporran confirmed yesterday he had accepted a brief to represent the Queensland Police Service at the second coronial inquest into Doomadgee's death, to be held in February.
Mr MacSporran will appear for the QPS at tomorrow's inquest directions hearings in Townsville.

Neither he nor the parliamentary crime and misconduct committee have initiated any action in response to the repeated public complaints about delays in investigating Doomadgee's death.

Mr MacSporran yesterday denied any conflict of interest in representing the QPS. "I have not been asked to investigate any matters in respect of this issue, so I have no conflict," he said.

Indigenous leaders and lawyers have accused the CMC and police of double standards over the five-year wait, with rioters jailed within months of the violence, and officers who stared down the mob given bravery awards last year.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service chief executive Shane Duffy said Queensland's indigenous community had waited too long for the investigation to be finalised. "Why the delay if there is nothing to hide and nothing to fear?" Mr Duffy asked.

During the first inquest, Ms Clements was told the Townsville Regional Crime Co-ordinator Warren Webber had appointed two of Sergeant Hurley's friends - Palm Island detective Darren Robinson and Townsville-based detective Raymond Kitching - to investigate Doomadgee's death.

The detectives were picked up at the Palm Island airport by Sergeant Hurley, and then shared a meal and beers with the officer at his home on the night of Doomadgee's death, on November 19.

The inquest was told that the officers had failed to secure the scene where the injury that claimed Doomadgee's life occurred, and that the officers were involved in off-the-record discussions with Sergeant Hurley during their six-day investigation.

Another internal investigation into the case - specifically dealing with the $102,955 ex-gratia payment Sergeant Hurley received for property lost in the riots that followed Doomadgee's death, and an insurance claim he lodged for property valued at a third of that amount - is ongoing.

Silence and delay over cell death shame far north
Two- speed justice exists in Queensland
COMMENT: Tony Koch - The Australian - November 19, 2009 12:00AM
ANYONE who doubts that two- speed justice exists in Queensland need only consider the much delayed Crime and Misconduct Commission investigation into the death in custody of Palm Island man Mulrunji Doomadgee.

On October 30, 2006, former Beattie government minister Merri Rose met her former press secretary in the Brisbane City mall and asked him to deliver a threat to premier Peter Beattie that certain allegedly embarrassing information would be made public if she was not given a plum job.

The message was relayed, the Crime and Misconduct Commission chairman, Bob Needham, was informed the same day and an investigation began. On November 9, 2006, Rose was charged with extortion -- to which she pleaded guilty and was jailed.

So it took the CMC -- the state's anti-corruption watchdog organisation -- 10 days to receive the complaint, complete the investigation and lay charges.

Compare that response with the case of Doomadgee, who was arrested on Palm Island on November 19, 2004, for disorderly conduct. He had sworn at a police liaison officer in a back street. Less than an hour later, he was dead in a cell, having sustained horrific injuries including four broken ribs and with his liver cleaved in two.

The appallingly inadequate investigation by police into the death in custody spoke volumes about the Queensland Police Service's lack of professionalism. It was so demonstrably woeful that the CMC undertook an inquiry into the investigation. But five years have elapsed since the death of the Aboriginal man and that inquiry has not been finalised.

The revelation that the parliamentary officer with the statutory responsibility to oversee CMC investigations and refer any official complaints he receives to that committee is to leave his position and act for the Queensland Police Service at the second inquest into Mulrunji's death is another incredible event in this sad saga.

Alan MacSporran SC yesterday said he had not received any formal complaint about the time taken for the CMC investigation so had not seen any need to take any action.

They are weasel words as there has been trenchant criticism in all media, but particularly The Australian, for more than two years about the delays.

The failure to gain closure on Doomadgee's death is attributable to the complete absence of political leadership -- particularly that of former police minister (and former Aboriginal affairs minister) Judy Spence, who had ministerial responsibility for most of the period since the death.

She applauded the quick justice meted out to the Palm Islanders who rioted a week after Doomadgee's death and burned police buildings. But she went missing when it came to standing up for Aboriginal people when it was clear to all that police had acted inappropriately time and again.

The long-awaited CMC investigation has open to it only two possible findings with regard to the police investigation into the violent death in custody of Doomadgee.

They are that the police were involved in a shameless cover-up, or that these senior officers were grossly inefficient.

Your call, Mr Needham.

Palm Island death in custody case to be re-examined
Joel Gibson Indigenous Affairs Reporter - June 17, 2009
AS ONE high-profile inquest into an Aboriginal death in custody finished, another began and a third was reopened yesterday, prompting fears of a trend.

Queensland's Court of Appeal ordered a new coroner be appointed to re-examine the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee in the Palm Island watchhouse in 2004, raising the prospect that a previous finding implicating a senior police officer could be overturned.

Doomadgee's death led to rioting on Palm Island when an autopsy showed he had suffered four broken ribs and a ruptured liver after being arrested for public nuisance.

The deputy state coroner Christine Clements found Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley responsible in 2006, but he was acquitted of manslaughter and assault in the criminal trial that followed and has since fought to have the coronial finding overturned.

He had a win late last year when the District Court ordered the inquest reopened.

Doomadgee's family and the Palm Island Aboriginal Council then went to the Court of Appeal, which found yesterday that even though the District Court ruling was flawed, the inquest should still be reopened.

The Doomadgee family's lawyer, Andrew Boe, welcomed the outcome, saying they were hopeful a transparent and precise examination of the evidence would settle the matter.

But Sam Watson, an Aboriginal activist, told the ABC the family would now have to endure the entire process again because police were "trying to rewrite history".

Meanwhile, an inquest began in Katherine into the apparent suicide of an Arnhem Land man, 22, whose death was blamed on the Northern Territory intervention.

The man escaped police custody and was found dead with a gun last August after being arrested for consorting with his 15-year-old girlfriend.

Glen Dooley, the principal legal officer of the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency, said at the time that the intervention had criminalised consensual relationships.

"Cases are now seen as being the same as those involving pedophiles and sexual predators," he said.

However, the Northern Territory Coroner, Greg Cavanagh, said yesterday that the inquest would not become a de facto royal commission into the success of the intervention.

The inquest continues as indigenous communities digest the recommendations of a West Australian coroner last week that criminal charges be considered over the death of a man named Ward, a Warburton elder who died of heat exhaustion in the back of a prison van.

Professor Larissa Behrendt, from the University of Technology, Sydney, said the geographical spread of the inquests offered little reassurance that criminal justice systems had improved around Australia.

"We still see deaths in custody now that were similar to cases that were investigated by the royal commission," she said.

The 1989 royal commission on Aboriginal deaths in custody found that the high number of indigenous deaths occurred because "too many Aboriginal people are in custody too often".

Latest figures suggest indigenous people are now 13 times more likely to be in custody than non-indigenous people

Swiss bank declaration

Mr. Pascal Couchepin,
President of Switzerland,
information@pd.admin.ch

Dear President Couchepin,

We refer to the report below for your information.

Would you like to comment, please?

We look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours respectfully,

Eddie Hwang
President
Unity Party WA
UnityPartyWA@westnet.com.au
www.unitywa.org
Ph/Fax: 61 893681884
Date: 29-Nov-2009.
Environmental Friendly - Save the trees - Use Email.
Can you afford to give Telstra/Bigpond a try?

----- Original Message -----
From: Ch
To: Eddie Hwang - UnityPartyWA@westnet.com.au
Sent: Sunday, November 29, 2009 9:38 AM
Subject: Swiss bank declaration


The banking laws in Switzerland encourage black money to flow to their banks. This makes them an accomplice to a crime as no one can trace any stolen money. The Swiss have been doing that for years and highlighting this disdainful act of banking has produce results.

One wonders how much money has flown into the Swiss Treasury when no one claims from a dormant account.
Indian money stashed in the Swiss Bank has become a focal point of debate, especially after the Leader of Opposition and the Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate L K Advani raised the issue on Sunday. If elected, the BJP has vowed to bring the black money back home. Though the Congress dismissed the idea, the Swiss bank issue is slowly becoming a hot election issue.

It is no secret that black money has been flowing out of the country into Swiss banks and other tax havens worldwide for years now. While there is no official estimate to quote yet, LK Advani, the prime ministerial candidate of BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, recently said it might be in the range of Rs 25,000 crore to Rs 75,000 crore. R Vaidyanathan, professor of finance at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and a regular columnist for DNA, feels the real figure is many times that number.

At around $1.4 trillion (over Rs 70 lakh crore), it is way over India’s gross domestic product of Rs 43 lakh crore for 2007-08, Vaidyanathan, who was on Tuesday named the head of a taskforce by Advani for preparing a strategic document to get back the national wealth, told DNA. Excerpts:

Which are the various tax havens where the ill-gotten wealth of Indian businessmen and politicians is stored?
There are presumably more than 70 tax havens in the world. Indian wealth could be more in Switzerland and various British/ US islands.

How much Indian money do you think would be locked away in Swiss banks? What is the basis for the estimate you make?
I make this estimate on the basis of a report titled “Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2002–2006, Global Financial Integrity,” written by Dev Kar and Devon-Cartwright Smith. It was a project sponsored by the Ford Foundation and the final report was released sometime back in December 2008.

Financial flows in the context of this report include proceeds from both illicit activities such as corruption (bribery and embezzlement of national wealth), criminal activity, and the proceeds of licit business that become illicit when transported across borders in contravention of applicable laws and regulatory frameworks (most commonly in order to evade payment of taxes).

In 2006, the most recent year of the Global Financial Integrity (GFI) study, developing countries lost an estimated $858.6 billion to $1.06 trillion in illicit financial outflows. Even at the lower end of the range of estimates, the volume of illicit financial flows coming out of developing countries increased at a compound rate of 18.2% over the five-year period analysed for the study.

How much of this was siphoned out of India?

On an average, for the five-year period of this study, Asia accounts for approximately 50% of overall illicit financial flows from all developing countries. This report shows that the average amount moved from India annually during 2002-06 is $27.3 billion. This means, during the five-year period, the amount taken away is $27.3 billion x 5 = $136.5 billion.

It is not that all these amounts went to Swiss banks; it has gone to different tax and secret shelters. The share of Swiss banks in this dirty money is a third of the global aggregate; some $45 billion out of the 136.5 billion stashed away from India would have been hoarded in these years in Swiss banks. This appears in page 30 of the report mentioned above.

The important point is that this is only for five years. More amounts were stashed away during the Nehruvian socialist regime. So the loot for 55 years would be several times the amount. In fact, in those days, the Indian rupee commanded a better value per US dollar, so fewer rupees could get a dollar. Hence the estimation that Indian money stashed away may be of the order of $1.4 trillion.

How did the money get out?

There are several methods/ reasons — under-invoicing/ over-invoicing of exports and imports and getting the balance stored abroad; kickbacks from major defence/ civilian contracts; in the olden days, smuggling of gold and illegal money; transactions done abroad and not reported here; hawala funds; funds earned by artists/ entertainment industry/ sports people and stashed away abroad, etc. When you want to indulge in adharma, hundred ways are open.

Do you feel international terrorist organisations use the tax-haven route to send across money to finance their nefarious activities?
Even our national security advisor, M K Narayanan, has spoken about it in Berlin.

You recently wrote, “Under pressure from federal authorities, Swiss bank UBS is closing the hidden offshore accounts of its well-heeled American clients, potentially allowing their secrets to spill into the open.”

Do you feel the government of India should also demand all the Indian black money in Swiss banks back?
Of course, India should and must act. We are not a banana republic.

How can the government go about doing this?
By putting it on the global agenda. Put it in G20. Put it in IMF. Put it in Egmont Group. Also take a lead among all developing countries. Support US/ German/ French efforts.

Do you feel Swiss authorities and other tax havens will cooperate with us on this issue if we take the initiative?
It is not our pressure but that of the US, which will make them cooperate. When a family is in deep financial crisis, it tries to look at the small amount saved under the sugar jar by grandma. In the same way, developed economies are desperate for every dollar.

Even if we do not act due to their efforts, the list of crooks may be out. Then, we will be in a dangerous social situation since the who’s who of India will be there. Instead, we should get the list and get the funds and decide on the steps to sterilise it and the punishment to be given out, etc. Otherwise the world will laugh at us. We will be worse than a Nigeria (Sani Abacha) or Phillipines (Markose).

Do you feel the government will do this, given that a lot of the black money belongs to politicians?
Public pressure will make them do it. Plus, the evolving global situation against tax havens also might act in our favour. The money belongs to the poor farmers and unorganised workers.

Do you see businessmen applying pressure on the government to thwart any attempt to get back this money?
The world situation is such that Indian businessmen will want to bring it back now, given the attractive returns in India. The entire proprietary notes route to invest in the stock market was conceived for that.

You wrote in one of your columns that the German foreign intelligence agency BND got the names of 1,400 clients of the Liechtenstein-based LTG Bank who were suspected tax evaders. Of the 1,400, only 600 were supposed to be Germans. Do you think the rest would include Indians? Has the Indian government approached the German government for the list?

Indian names will be there. Our tax evaders and crooks are like Maha Vishnu, present in all continents and all tax havens, in the sea, on the earth, in the air. But our government has been lukewarm in its response to this issue. It should have immediately dispatched senior officials and the finance minister to get the names.
SAY NO TO RACISM



Mr. Jason Kenney,
Minister for Immigration

Canada.
pm@pm.gc.ca

Dear Minister,

We refer to the report below for your information.

Would you like to comment, please?

We look forward to hearing from you in due course.



Yours respectfully,



Eddie Hwang
President
Unity Party WA
UnityPartyWA@westnet.com.au
www.unitywa.org
Ph/Fax: 61 893681884
Date: 23-Dec-2009.
Environmental Friendly - Save the trees - Use Email.
Can you afford to give Telstra/Bigpond a try?




Asian community unites over attacks on anglers
The trial garnered a huge amount of attention from Asians
Peter Edwards Staff Reporter - Published On Mon Dec 28 2009
It was dark on the pier at Mossington Park in Georgina Township when the drunken strangers approached.

Ruohang Liu and his friend Charles Hogan thought the men were joking when they demanded to see their fishing licences.

"He said that he's Canadian and he's doing his Canadian duty and wanted to see my fishing licence," says Liu, 24, now a senior analyst for a GTA investment firm.

Seconds later, before they had a chance to show the strangers their fishing permits, the two longtime friends were pushed into the water.

For Liu, who cannot swim, being shoved into the dark waters of Lake Simcoe shortly after 2 a.m. on Sept. 16, 2007, was a terrifying experience.

But the night would get far worse.

Moments after he was pulled from the lake by his friends, Liu's friend Shayne Berwick, 26, lay near death in a coma with brain damage after the Honda Civic Liu had been driving away from Mossington Park hit a tree while being pursued by locals in pickup trucks.

Trevor Middleton, 23, of Sutton, was convicted Dec. 15 in a Newmarket court of four counts of aggravated assault and two counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

Middleton had been charged with trying to run Liu's Honda off the road, not for the dunking of Liu and Hogan.

The incident on the Mossington Park Bridge is an extreme example of attacks and harassment that have been inflicted scores of times in the past few years on Asian fishermen in the Greater Toronto Area. It has become so common that the attacks have nicknames by some Georgina Township locals: "nip-tipping" and "nipper-tipping."

What's unique about the attack on Liu and Hogan – apart from the near-fatal and crippling injury to Berwick – is the huge attention it has garnered from Asian community leaders, activists and media members.

"It's totally a turning point," Susan Eng, vice-president, advocacy for the Canadian Association of Retired Persons and former chair of the Toronto Police Services Board. "Even the existence of this trial is a major step forward."

For many of Asian background in the GTA, the night is a reminder of generations of similar abuse.

"It has been going on for some time," Eng says. "It's not like it's a recent phenomenon ... Our parents just said that was the price that you had to pay."

At key points during Middleton's trial, there were nine Asian journalists and a few more community activists attending.

Eng says many Asian fishermen drive to Lake Simcoe at night because they have day jobs. They're often professional community members, who are used to being treated with respect, not derision. The consequences of being shoved into the water, even if there aren't serious physical injuries, can't be minimized, she says.

"Being pushed in the water and being soaking wet and having to tell your kids why your cellphone doesn't work any more is a huge humiliation," Eng says. "It's something that reverberates for generations."

The community has been able to focus on the fishermen attacks because it now has well-informed Chinese language media, activists and lawyers, who developed some cohesion through the battle for Chinese head tax redress, Eng says.

That fight brought an apology in 2006 from Prime Minister Stephen Harper and financial redress for the punitive head tax imposed on Chinese-Canadian immigrants between 1885 and 1923.

"For those of us early Canadians born in the community who watched our parents be treated with barely disguised hostility ... this is not a shock so much as it is a bad nightmare that has just come to life," Eng says of the attacks on fishermen.

Increased community reporting has led to investigations on some 30 attacks on Asian fishermen and harassment of fishermen throughout the province between late 2007 and January 2009, when a fisherman was confronted during an ice-fishing tournament.

Court heard some of the men at the Mossington Park pier drank more than two dozen bottles of beer before Liu and Hogan were attacked. Eng says the argument that locals are environmentalists protecting their fish from poaching and overfishing is laughable.

For his part, Middleton said two witnesses from his group who thought they saw him push someone into the water that night must have been lying or mistaken. He swore he was up by his mother's pickup truck, searching for a lost cellphone charger, when the attacks took place.

Middleton said he hadn't even heard the term "nip-tipping" until it was in the mainstream media two years ago.

Recreational fisherman Bradley Lee was one of the Asian community activists who attended Middleton's trial on a daily basis. Lee, a fourth-generation Canadian, said it has stung to hear Asian Canadians routinely treated by locals as outsiders who don't respect fishing regulations.

In an interview, York Regional Police Chief Armand La Barge said: "The Asian fishermen/women were being unfairly characterized by some of the local residents as not being licenced, littering, exceeding their limit or catching certain fish out of season."


La Barge says his force takes hate crimes extremely seriously, and notes it has set up a hotline for Asian fishermen wishing to report incidents, staffed by officers who can speak Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean and Vietnamese.

La Barge said his force has also used undercover male and female Asian officers to fish alongside others in Lake Simcoe in the late evening and early morning hours, to aid victims and arrest attackers.

Eng says it's a victory that the early morning attack made it to trial, so that it could be dealt with in the light of day. "In the light of day, it looks pretty awful," Eng says.