Opinion
My old mother always used to say, “A guilty conscience needs no accusing”. The wise saying, which possibly goes back all the way to Socrates, means that the guilty know they are guilty and a nagging conscience eventually shows itself.
Moving on to another topic entirely, ever since the ASIO chief revealed that a former politician was guilty of treasonous conduct, “selling out their country”, for the benefit of another, then-unnamed country, the rumour mills have been buzzing. Well, Mike Burgess has since revealed that big surprise, the hostile country is China.
This leaves unsolved the mystery of who the traitorous former politician might be. It’s a wide field, let’s admit.
Now, this has happened.
Former Labor prime minister Paul Keating says ASIO boss Mike Burgess and other members of the security community have displayed “utter contempt for the so-called stabilisation process” with China and has called for the spy boss to be dismissed.
Something on your mind, Paul?
It’s certainly not the first time that Keating has erupted in pro-China fury. When the AUKUS alliance was signed, Keating was apoplectic.
Funny about that: like more than a few politicians, on both sides of the fence, but mostly Labor, Keating has more than a little vested interest in China. Keating was, for at least thirteen years, on the payroll of the CCP-owned China Development Bank.
They’re getting their money’s worth if nothing else.
Mr Keating slammed the Albanese government’s “anti-China Australian strategic policy” and “mindless pro-American stance”.
“The kabuki show runs thus: Burgess drops the claim, then out of nowhere, the Herald and The Age miraculously appear to solve the mystery – the villain, as it turns out, is China after all,” he said in a statement.
Hardly a mystery. The extent of China’s spying in Australia is galactic, with its tentacles in everything from community associations to universities, and the back pockets of politicians.
Keating apparently wants them to be left alone to get on with it, unmolested.
“When the Albanese government was elected, the first decision it should have taken was to dismiss Burgess, Andrew Shearer and Mike Pezzullo … unbelievably, Burgess and Shearer still remain at the centre of a Labor government’s security apparatus,” he said.
“This says more about the government than it says about them.
The Australian
Actually, Paul, your spittle-flecked outburst says more about you than anyone could have asked.
It might be time to ponder the very phrase you coined: Relevance Deprivation Syndrome.
Go back to counting your ill-gotten yuan, and stop making such a colossal arse of yourself.