What are the biggest domestic news stories you remember from the last few years?
Apart from all the natural disasters, I think of stories about George Pell, the coverage that led to the Banking Royal Commission, the SAS in Afghanistan and because I am a law nerd, the reporting on former High Court Justice Dyson Heydon.
Many of these stories are the product of investigative journalism. This is not the sort of “journalism” you see in a tabloid rag or a late-night rant on Sky News. It is the type of high-quality journalism that takes time and patience.
According to the United Nations, investigative journalism is:
Chinese-origin businessman wins media defamation case in Australia 2 minutes read
Sydney, Australia, Feb 2 (efe-epa).- A federal court on Tuesday ordered Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) to compensate a Chinese-origin billionaire for defaming and wrongly portraying him as a spy for the Chinese Communist Party.
The public broadcaster had depicted Chau Chak Wing, an Australian citizen, in a 2017 “Four Corners” episode as a Chinese spy who sought to influence Australia’s Chinese policy by paying enormous sums of money to political parties as bribes.
He was also accused of bribing a high-level United Nations official.
Judge Steven Rares said the allegations “struck at the heart of Chau’s good name for his integrity, philanthropy, and constructive contributions to developing a positive relationship between Australia and China.”
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Chinese-Australian billionaire and prolific political donor Chau Chak Wing told the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2016 that $200,000 his company wired to an allegedly corrupt United Nations chief was a donation to âalleviate povertyâ, Parliament has heard.
FBI documents tabled in Federal Parliament on Tuesday afternoon reveal how the US domestic intelligence service used emails and financial records to trace $200,000 sent by Mr Chauâs company, Kingold Investments, to a personal bank account set up by John Ashe, the now deceased former president of the UN General Assembly.
Chau Chak Wing outside the Federal Court in 2018.
Credit:AAP
The tabling of the FBI case file by Liberal MP Tim Wilson with the backing of Labor MP Julian Hill is the second time Australian politicians have used parliamentary privilege to accuse Mr Chau of involvement in a bribery scandal and the Chinese Communist Partyâs overseas influence activities.