Easy to contact Aeroplan from Australia. Use Skype, it's a free call. If you have your gold status, should be a short wait time.
Update:
Have contacted all three parties.
Had to buy an international call plan for $10 to contact aeroplan.
Spoke to a rep, and later an aeroplan supervisor.
They are adamant that they do not release the points themselves, it is a financial product (HSBC buys the points) that is released through them but not BY them. They therefore can't do anything about releasing the points, supposedly.
Star Alliance have just told me to contact aeroplan.
HSBC are adamant it is an aeroplan problem.
Both HSBC and Star Alliance acknowledge that I met the criteria.
Does anyone have any input they could offer regarding this? Is this accurate.
Should I persist with HSBC?
Kind of frustrating having to deal because HSBC has incredibly long call times, Star Alliance are virtually uncontactable (and each email from them is signed by a different person) and aeroplan needs an international call plan to contact them (that said their wait time was quite short).
Maybe a word of warning regarding aeroplan and HSBC. Maybe pick another star alliance partner, I dunno.
Also it makes me grateful for Qantas and Virgin. In comparison, they are actually much more contactable and helpful (even if it doesn't seem like it sometimes).