Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan yesterday faced calls to resign immediately over allegations that he and Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd abused their power and misled parliament.
But Swan hit back, dismissing them as a “smear campaign” by the opposition, while Rudd said he had asked police to investigate whether someone concocted a fake e-mail purporting to show misuse of their positions.
As the government’s political crisis snowballed, opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull called for Swan to quit over his alleged role in trying to secure a government loan for a car dealer friend of Rudd.
“Mr Swan has offered no explanation for any of this and today should tender his resignation,” Turnbull said in a statement as the allegations snowballed into a potentially catastrophic political scandal for the government.
“He has misled the parliament and used the enormous influence of the commonwealth government to seek to secure an advantage for a mate and benefactor of the prime minister,” he said.
Turnbull had on Friday called on Rudd and Swan to either explain their roles in helping car dealer John Grant seek a loan and to justify their denials of wrongdoing to parliament, or resign.
Rudd told parliament this month that neither he nor his office had lobbied the treasury on behalf of Grant, a former neighbor of the prime minister who also provided a van for use by Rudd’s campaign.
Swan told parliament his office had simply passed on representations on behalf of Grant but said he did not know the outcome of the correspondence and denied trying to influence any decision.
But a senior treasury official told a parliamentary committee on Friday he thought he had received an e-mail from Rudd’s office asking him to look into funding for Grant, but could not be sure.
The Daily Telegraph yesterday published an e-mail allegedly showing Rudd’s office tried to secure a taxpayer-funded loan to Grant from the US$1.6 billion OzCar vehicle financing scheme.
Rudd said his government had asked police to investigate whether someone impersonating a public servant had composed a “fake” e-mail to smear him.
CRITICAL MOVE: TSMC’s plan to invest another US$100 billion in US chipmaking would boost Taiwan’s competitive edge in the global market, the premier said The government would ensure that the most advanced chipmaking technology stays in Taiwan while assisting Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in investing overseas, the Presidential Office said yesterday. The statement follows a joint announcement by the world’s largest contract chipmaker and US President Donald Trump on Monday that TSMC would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next four years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US, which would include construction of three new chip fabrication plants, two advanced packaging facilities, and a research and development center. The government knew about the deal in advance and would assist, Presidential
‘DANGEROUS GAME’: Legislative Yuan budget cuts have already become a point of discussion for Democrats and Republicans in Washington, Elbridge Colby said Taiwan’s fall to China “would be a disaster for American interests” and Taipei must raise defense spending to deter Beijing, US President Donald Trump’s pick to lead Pentagon policy, Elbridge Colby, said on Tuesday during his US Senate confirmation hearing. The nominee for US undersecretary of defense for policy told the Armed Services Committee that Washington needs to motivate Taiwan to avoid a conflict with China and that he is “profoundly disturbed” about its perceived reluctance to raise defense spending closer to 10 percent of GDP. Colby, a China hawk who also served in the Pentagon in Trump’s first team,
SEPARATE: The MAC rebutted Beijing’s claim that Taiwan is China’s province, asserting that UN Resolution 2758 neither mentions Taiwan nor grants the PRC authority over it The “status quo” of democratic Taiwan and autocratic China not belonging to each other has long been recognized by the international community, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday in its rebuttal of Beijing’s claim that Taiwan can only be represented in the UN as “Taiwan, Province of China.” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) yesterday at a news conference of the third session at the 14th National People’s Congress said that Taiwan can only be referred to as “Taiwan, Province of China” at the UN. Taiwan is an inseparable part of Chinese territory, which is not only history but
INVESTMENT WATCH: The US activity would not affect the firm’s investment in Taiwan, where 11 production lines would likely be completed this year, C.C. Wei said Investments by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) in the US should not be a cause for concern, but rather seen as the moment that the company and Taiwan stepped into the global spotlight, President William Lai (賴清德) told a news conference at the Presidential Office in Taipei yesterday alongside TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家). Wei and US President Donald Trump in Washington on Monday announced plans to invest US$100 billion in the US to build three advanced foundries, two packaging plants, and a research and development center, after Trump threatened to slap tariffs on chips made
RSS