Maybe they have something on him? Caught with a live boy or dead girl? Or perhaps they're just greasing his palms more than he can resist, or maybe a bit of both.

I don't think he's interested in Australia. What's he hiding? Why all the secrecy?

Worryingly, there's a long history of Aussie politicians cosying-up with the CCP, so although i wouldn't discount a honey-trap with Andrews as part of the mix (due to the extremist nature of his cosying), i'd guess it to be mainly a combination of ideology, money & old-fashioned flattery.

The ideology stems from the rise of economic rationalism in Australia in the late 80s. Under the direction of Paul Keating (treasurer then PM), economic rationalism became the sovereign thinking on ... everything. Under Keating's predecessor, Bob Hawke, Australia was poised to become a leader in reducing reliance on fossil fuels but Keating's thinking was (i'm paraphrasing):

Why on earth would be do that? We've got a lot of fossil fuel resources & our main industry (mining) is fossil fuel intensive - why do we need to be ahead of the curve on this issue? We'd only be negating our economic strength? It doesn't make economic sense.

As a result all Hawke's plans were shutdown - along with the sliding-doors moment where Australia could have gotten out ahead of the world by becoming a hub of renewable energy tech (a space now dominated by China, ironically). It also shut-down thoughts about developing any new industries, such as computers/computer chips (taken up by Taiwan) coz why would you spend all that money on R&D, infrastructure when you can just keep digging up minerals & oil?

This is the fatal flaw of economic rationalism - it's too myopic - it's only short to medium term. Its adherents are also utterly convinced that it is right - on everything - coz it's rational - which is very dangerous.

The same thinking was used when Australia outsourced its economy to China. Why spend money on manufacturing anything in Australia when we can get it all done in China at a cheaper price?

Initially, it seemed like great idea, to politicians & corporations (the public has always been against itbut it happened mostly out of sight) - Wow, look at all that extra money we're raking in! Any questions about the ethics of handing over our economic independence to a totalitarian regime were swept under the carpet. Ethics was considered an outdated concept that some old philosophers talked about (now outright new-normal banned in Australia - philosophy degrees were made prohibitively expensive - with zero jobs for graduates) - everything was made secondary to economic rationalism. Besides, what's best for the economy is best for everyone - that's all the ethics we need to think about.

Over time, this thinking became institutionalized, in both parties - multiplied by an active, long-term strategy by the CCP to slowly gain economic control over countries such as Australia. It was a perfect storm. Leaving us where we are today - hopelessly dependent on China - with no easy road back. Here again, economic rationalism will tell you there's nothing you can do about it. The disruption to the economy that will result from trying to wean ourselves off China is too great - better to just accept it & carry on. The fact that the fat-cats in Australia all keep getting fatter from this thinking only further entrenches it. It's kinda like what Dan says about the money-printing - the only solution they can come up with to the problems caused by money-printing is to : print more money.

Hence the conga-line of suck-holes from Australia heading off to kow-tow to the CCP ...