julia selling up australia??, page-4

I have noticed that you have not blamed the Labor government for it.

Australia has been an open book for foreign investments for years, especially during the terms of conservative governments. It seems to me Australians will bend backwards to do anything to attract business, regardless of its national security ramifications. We see it happens everyday here, conservative supporters criticizing governments for standing in the way of business.

The Whitlam Labor government set up a Foreign Investment Register but that was discontinued when the Liberals came back in office.

I have no issues with selling foods to China. The idea of opening up northern Australia for food production is a good one, and it is not a new idea as it had been sounded out before, but what is important, in my view, is for major Australian ownership of the food production infrastructure (land, irrigation, etc) in conjunction with Chinese capital investments if that is what is needed to start the ball rolling. The foods produced should not earmarked solely for exports, our internal consumption needs have to be met first.

The federal government does have the power to put conditions on such types of foreign investments, I believe.