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The entire list of North Melbourne players assembled yesterday to apologise for their offensive video.
Two senior Roos admit: we made the degrading video
By SAMANTHA LANE
NORTH Melbourne will today
fine a handful of players who
have admitted to making and
circulating a violent video that
degraded women.
Former club captain Adam
Simpson and teammate Daniel
Pratt confessed last night that
they were the two most senior
players involved in making the
short film that was posted on
YouTube and revealed yesterday
by The Age.
‘‘We were the most experi-
enced players and we have to
accept it. It was shocking,’’
Simpson told The Age last night
before appearing on The Footy
Show to repeat the remarks.
‘‘I understand fully the rami-
fications . . . I feel embarrassed
and shocked,’’ he said. ‘‘I just
wanted to accept my role in it
Minister’s new China link
Fitzgibbon took poll cash
from regime-backed firm
EXCLUSIVE
By RICHARD BAKER,
PHILIP DORLING
and NICK McKENZIE
THE Chinese Government had a
substantial stake in the com-
pany used by businesswoman
Helen Liu to help fund Defence
Minister Joel Fitzgibbon’s 1998
re-election campaign.
A company called Ausboc Pty
Ltd was the second-biggest
shareholder in Ms Liu’s property
development firm, Wincopy,
which in 1998 donated $20,000
to Mr Fitzgibbon’s NSW Hunter
electorate campaign fund.
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CONFRONTING DOCUMENTARY OF THE
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and put it to bed . . . and I cop
my fair whack, which I deserve.
And the same with Daniel.’’
North was in damage control
yesterday over the four-minute
film The Adventures of Little
Boris, which featuring a
condom-clad rubber chicken
performing sex acts on a real
chicken carcass. It called two
media conferences, including
one attended by the whole team.
The film was created by a
small number of players, viewed
by the entire team, and put
online by a young player.
It drew resounding condem-
nation from the AFL, with its
manager of football operations,
Adrian Anderson, saying the
movie was ‘‘offensive to women
and indeed to all members of the
community’’.
North chief executive Eugene
Arocca and chief of football
Documents show the ulti-
mate holding company for
Ausboc was the Bank of China,
which at that time was wholly
owned and directed by the
Chinese Government in Beijing.
Several Sydney-based
executives of Bank of China
were directors of Ausboc, which
was de-registered in 2007.
One of the bank’s executives,
Tian Ye Wang, was also a direc-
tor of Ms Liu’s Wincopy. Ms Liu
was the biggest shareholder in
Wincopy.
Federal court records reveal
Wincopy conducted its Sydney
property business largely on the
back of loans worth at least
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Donald McDonald were last
night meeting to decide the
punishment, which will have to
be approved by the AFL.
Those who helped make the
film are likely to be fined $5000,
the maximum allowed for a first
offence under the AFL Players’
Association’s code of conduct.
As part of North’s response,
the players will also make a
donation of at least $10,000,
most likely to the Victorian Cen-
tres Against Sexual Assault and
Domestic Violence Victoria.
Pratt told The Footy Show:
‘‘We’ve offended some females,
and maybe some other people
as well, I’m not sure, but it’s
pretty disappointing to be part
of that.’’
The logo of the club’s major
sponsor, Mazda, was shown in
an opening scene of the film,
although at the two news
$14 million from Bank of China.
The Bank of China has a his-
tory of political controversy
abroad. In 1997, it was was emb-
roiled in a row in the US over an
alleged effort by the Chinese
Government to influence dom-
estic American politics during
the 1996 presidential and con-
gressional election campaign.
A US Senate committee later
cited evidence that the Chinese
Government had sought to
influence US political processes
through largely covert contribu-
tions to the Democratic Party.
These claims were denied by
Chinese authorities.
The US security analysis
website GlobalSecurity.org says
that the Chinese military intelli-
gence service has used commer-
cial entities, including the Bank
of China, to provide cover for its
operatives.
The latest revelations will
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THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2009
The video and two of its makers, Adam Simpson (top) and Daniel Pratt.
conferences there were none of
the usual backdrops featuring
sponsors’ names.
Mazda did not return calls,
but both Simpson and North
president James Brayshaw
indicated last night that rela-
tions were being tested.
‘‘We’ve damaged the brand,’’
Simpson said. Brayshaw said:
Joel Fitzgibbon and Helen Liu
add to the controversy swirling
around the minister over his
16-year relationship with Ms
Liu. The storm blew up after
revelations in The Age that
Defence Department officials
conducted a covert inquiry into
the pair’s friendship out of
concern the Chinese-born
businesswoman’s Communist
Party contacts in Beijing posed a
security risk.
Mr Fitzgibbon last month
was rebuked by Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd after he failed to
ODD SPOT
A helicopter rescue team was scrambled in Elmstein, Germany,
28.8%
after a woman called emergency services, reporting tortured
screams she had heard in a forest. When armed police and
rescuers arrived and surrounded a car in a clearing, they found
the ‘‘victim’’ — a man roaring with laughter at his book.
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‘‘We would be devastated if any-
thing happened to that great
relationship (with Mazda).’’
Coach Dean Laidley and his
assistants were also absent from
the news conference because,
Arocca said, it was strictly a
‘‘player-related matter’’.
Though only a handful of
players had direct involvement
Chinese vowed to
teach Fortescue a
lesson, court told
Report BUSINESSDAY 1
declare that Ms Liu had paid for
trips to China in 2002 and 2005.
As Mr Fitzgibbon holds talks
with senior US Defence officials
in Washington this week, further
details have emerged about Ms
Liu’s financial ties to Chinese
Government-owned entities
and officials and their interest in
Mr Fitzgibbon.
Chinese business sources
told The Age that at least two of
the Bank of China and Ausboc
executives, Fugen Chen and
Steven Chiu, worked closely
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in making the video, the club
considers the entire team cul-
pable. ‘‘I think that the full stop
to this will be when we put out
a final, considered written
statement,’’ Arocca said.
‘‘We’re going to make a
decision, as the club leaders, on
what that response will be. If the
AFL then doesn’t believe that
that’s been appropriate, they’ve
got the power to take further
action.’’
The players admitted they
gathered to view the film during
pre-season training, but not one
of them considered the footage
offensive enough to object.
After Arocca held an initial
news conference, the players
insisted they should take
some of the heat and front the
media. Simpson, sitting along-
side club captain Brent Harvey,
was visibly distraught about ‘‘a
with Chinese diplomats in Syd-
ney and Canberra during the
1990s.
The Chinese business
sources alleged Mr Chen, Mr
Chiu and China’s former deputy
consul-general, Zhang Haifeng,
had spoken to senior Labor
Party figures about Mr Fitzgib-
bon’s burgeoning political
career in late 1997.
It is claimed the Chinese
officials urged he be given more
substantial responsibilities.
A spokesman for Mr Fitzgib-
bon said the minister was not
aware of a meeting between
Bank of China executives,
Chinese diplomats and Labor
figures during which his career
was discussed. But he could not
rule out that the Chinese
executives and diplomats may
have attended ALP functions in
Sydney’s Chinatown in 1997.
Ausboc and Wincopy were
INDEX
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Escort
claims as
union
PICTURE: SEBASTIAN COSTANZO implodes
By PAUL AUSTIN
and BEN DOHERTY
ONE of Victoria’s most powerful
union leaders has been accused
prank gone wrong’’, but had no of using his union credit card to
valid explanation. pay for escort services — adding
‘‘I’m married, I have three to a growing row threatening to
children, so’s Brent,’’ he said. embroil both the Brumby and
‘‘Obviously people have taken Rudd Labor governments.
offence (in) relation to the abuse Jeff Jackson, a senior official
of women. I can assure you that of the Health Services Union
wasn’t the intention. Looking at and a leading member of Prem-
it now you think, how wasn’t it? I ier John Brumby’s Right faction,
just don’t know why, being the has been accused by a union
oldest player, I didn’t just knock rival of credit card abuses
it on the head straight away. But between 2003 and 2004.
it just didn’t register.’’ He later The allegations come a day
said his wife was ‘‘devastated’’. after federal Labor MP Craig
The club has invited Phil Thomson, a former official of
Cleary, a prominent campaigner the same union, also faced
on violence against women, to allegations of union credit card
speak to the players. rorts — including using the
same Sydney escort service.
Peter Hanlon SPORT 3 Both men have strongly
theage.com.au denied the claims, which have
Is a fine for the North Melbourne come to light against the back-
players responsible for the chicken ground of bitter power struggles
video adequate? Vote online. in the Health Services Union.
Last night the tensions
boiled over when violence erup-
ted at a meeting of the union’s
Victorian branch No. 1 at Dallas
Brooks Hall in East Melbourne.
Police were called to the
meeting after punches were
thrown between members of
rival factions.
The meeting was called by
Mr Jackson, the branch sec-
retary, and his supporters to dis-
cuss the crisis in the union.
incorporated in Australia in Union state president
1993 — the year when Mr
Fitzgibbon first met Ms Liu after
Pauline Fegan, a fierce rival of
Mr Jackson who has levelled the
she paid for him and his father,
then federal Labor MP Eric
allegations against him, failed in
a Federal Court bid to have the
Fitzgibbon, to travel to China.
The 1993 trip to China was
meeting stopped.
At one stage, a supporter of
paid for by another of Ms Liu’s Mr Jackson, who stormed the
property development com- stage to take the microphone
panies, Diamond Hill Inter- from Ms Fegan, was dragged
national. Diamond Hill had away by security staff.
borrowed at least $4.25 million Delegates on the floor were
from the Bank of China. pushed to the ground in the
Like Wincopy, Diamond Hill fracas, and security staff rushed
also funded Mr Fitzgibbon’s to remove people from the hall.
election campaigns by donating Earlier yesterday, Ms Fegan
$20,000 in 1995. cited documents showing a
Mr Fitzgibbon has denied Health Services Union credit
having a commercial link to Ms card was used four times in four
Liu or any of her companies. He months to pay a Sydney com-
has refused three times to pany listed on the internet as
answer questions about the payee for clients of an escort
whether his wife, children or agency. ‘‘This is a union credit
other members of his family card that was issued to Jeff Jack-
have received cash or company son,’’ Ms Fegan said. ‘‘On the
shares from Ms Liu. Continued PAGE 2
ISSN 0312-6307
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