Trade Centre Hits Another Hurdle

Daryl Maquire: Some Serious Questions

The MP for Wagga Wagga, Daryl Maguire, has been at the core of the Chinese Trade Centre proposal. He has boasted that he has spent ten years working on the project.
The persistence and the energy he has brought to the scheme and the fawning subservience that he has shown to the Chinese imperialists and their money has earned him a secure place in the ranks of the traitor class.
Questions around Mr. Maguire now gather and deserve to be answered by him. In raising matters of public interest, Australia First Party performs its duty to the citizens of Riverina.

The Chinese Con Man

The notorious Chinese con man, ‘Jimmy Foo’, lurks in the corner of Mr. Maguire’s past.
It is a matter of record that Foo stayed illegally in Australia in the period 1994 – 2003 after avoiding an arrest warrant in Singapore. While his ‘nationality’ is actually uncertain, his ability to deceive his victims and move in influential circles is just a given.
While in Australia, Foo socialised with top politicians. Foo met then Prime Minister, John Howard, the Employment Minister, Tony Abbott, the NSW Premier, Bob Carr, former Prime Minister Bob Hawke and former Labor leader Kim Beazley, All were photographed rubbing shoulders with Foo.  Foo was also introduced to former immigration minister Philip Ruddock through the efforts of a Lebanese businessman Karim Kisrwani - a friend of Ruddock and a central figure in the so-named cash-for-visas affair of 2003-4.
Foo made it part of his ‘angle’ to donate to the Liberal Party. Donations to the Liberal Party also came from another wayward criminal connected to Foo through another businessman. See:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/13/1071125685412.html
Of course, a lot of smoke has drifted around the facts and while it appears sure that Mr. Ruddock committed no offences in dealing out visas to a few shady persons, it is equally true that the Liberal Party kept the cash benefits.
Foo came unstuck after a report in the Dubbo Daily Liberal about a falling-out with a former close associate, Gary Knight, who was the public relations chief for Pioneer Spirit Development. Pioneer was Foo's brainchild - a $50 million, five-star resort in Dubbo, set on 28 hectares, which was to combine a 189- room hotel with 120 condominium-style villas to be sold off the plan.  See:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/22/1058853078543.html
Pioneer Spirit Development also donated to the Labor Party, obviously covering both bases.
Since that time, Mr. Knight has distanced himself from Foo.
Ultimately, Foo ended up back in Singapore where he was imprisoned for a large fraud. The businessman was imprisoned for six and a half years over a property scam that cheated a friend out of more than 1.7 million Singapore dollars ($A1.3 million).
Yet, the spirit of Foo is with us still.

Gary Knight - What Sort Of A Knight ?

Mr. Gary Knight these days fronts for Australian Rural Expo (ARE)
See: http://www.ausruralexpo.com/index.php/about/our-team
Mr. Knight is also a migration agent and is a strident advocate of utilising the supposed business acumen of Asia (and China in particular) to ‘revitalise’ rural Australia. He has suggested the watering down of visa rules and regulations to get such businessmen into the country.
Interestingly, the brand ‘rural expo’ sounds just a little like the permanent expo that is supposedly the Chinese Trade Centre. That is an oddity too.
The notion of grand projects operated by Chinese businesspeople, with local pollies in support seems part of a pattern.
Knight explained back in 2003 that despite Foo's dealings with the Immigration Department over his proposals to bring migrant workers to Dubbo, he received "no favours from the minister”. But that was then in Dubbo and the new gold mine is Wagga Wagga and the Riverina.
But we should remember that in the Dubbo affair, many local councilors were friendly to Foo. And the notion of an investment link to China dies hard. Indeed, the Mayor of Dubbo in 2012 made reference to Chinese business penetration of his city as a positive thing.
In Wagga Wagga today, from the Mayor Mr. Rod Kendall, to Mr. Maguire and Federal MP Mr. McCormack, the cry is on to steam-roller over every interest and the people to get the Centre. They also have a Premier on heat to see it all through.
It is understood from a reliable business source in Tumut that Gary Knight has also been active in the Waui Corporation’s drive to secure the Trade Centre. However, Mr. Knight does not hide his interest in this project either. There is too much money to be made.

Questions For Maquire

The Chinese Trade Centre proposal is hardly the Dubbo circus of Mr. Foo even if the style is the same. It is a serious grab at economic power over our Riverina region.
Yet where credibility is a key thing, there are some questions that need answering by Mr. Maguire.
1. Have you met with Jimmy Foo?
2. If you agree that you have met Mr. Foo, would you stipulate the discussions?
3. If you agree that you have met Mr. Foo what did he counsel over the current proposal?
4. Have you been involved in giving references to Chinese business persons in order that they receive visas?
5. What is your relationship with Mr. Gary Knight?
We must also note that Mr. Maquire has done little for the electorate of Wagga in his extended term as Member. He may beg to disagree and now point to his grand project. If he goes down in history as a trailblazer for Chinese imperialism, a footnote in someone’s (sic) school textbook a half century hence, then he would have done much – for the wrong side.