It seems to me a new takeover offer on the way. Have a read...

It seems to me a new takeover offer on the way. Have a read here:
AUSTRALIA’S Consul-General in New York, Nick Minchin, has told American company Archer Daniels Midland to try again in its bid for GrainCorp.
ADM’s $2.6 billion bid for Australia’s largest agribusiness was last year rejected by Joe Hockey on grounds including that it could stymie competition in the grains-handling industry.
“I met with ADM and, frankly, strongly encouraged them to remain interested,” Mr Minchin said in his first interview since he took up his prestigious diplomatic posting three months ago.
“I hoped they would make another attempt because they’re still big investors in that business anyway. I hope they will reconsider.
“I’ll certainly do whatever I can to facilitate that.”
The Treasurer gave approval for ADM to increase its holding by 5 per cent to 25 per cent, but earlier this month GrainCorp chairman Don Taylor said he did not expect a fresh bid from ADM any time soon. A spokesman for Mr Hockey said ADM would need to make a fresh application for foreign investment approval for any revised bid.
Mr Minchin said that when he visited the US Embassy in Canberra he was told he would find in the US that the government’s decision to knock back ADM’s bid “would be talked about and a bone of contention”.
The former finance minister in the Howard government said he did not believe the decision would have a negative effect on other US investment in Australia, and the US was still Australia’s biggest source of foreign investment.
He cited wages, particularly in the resources sector, and the high dollar as the two obstacles to foreign investment in Australia, but said the balance sheet was still “very much in our favour”.
Mr Minchin said the Obama administration’s “pivot to Asia” and trade push through the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations did not mean Australia risked getting swamped by increasing North American trade into and out of Asia.
“It’s in our absolute vital interest to have the US focused on Asia — we’re in a unique position of being a trusted friend and partner of both of them,” he said.
Mr Minchin said Australia and the US were not direct competitors in many areas, but it would be interesting to see the extent to which the US opened up its gas export market and what that would mean for Australian gas exports.
“I expect the demand down the track will be so great that I don’t think that’s going to be an issue at all,” he said.
“Competition is healthy and it will perhaps help contain some of the cost issues we have in Australia with healthy competition.
“I think Asia’s growing demand for food and resources is such that it can accommodate some competition with us from the US.”
Mr Minchin, who resigned from the Senate in 2011 after almost two decades in parliament, described his diplomatic post in New York as a unique position because it was closely interlocked and co-located with Australia’s formal ambassadorial mission to the UN.
Australia’s seat on the UN Security Council had only elevated the nation’s good standing in the US, he said.
“I think the senior echelons of US politics on both sides have long had an interest in and high regard for Australia as a really reliable and strategic partner, and what we’ve been able to achieve with our time on the UN Security Council is to confirm that and consolidate that,” Mr Minchin said. “It’s confirmed in US eyes what a good, reliable, stable partner we are.
“We like to pride ourselves on a can-do approach, and the two Malaysia plane incidents confirm that, too — the way we pulled together and organised a search for the missing airplane and also the way we got cracking on the tragedy in Ukraine.
“It just reaffirmed it’s not just that we’re a good ally, we actually get things done.”
Having been a regular visitor to the US since 1970, when he completed a high school exchange in Cleveland, Ohio, Mr Minchin was appointed to the New York post after the Abbott government dumped the Gillard government’s appointee, former Victorian premier Steve Bracks.
Mr Bracks was set to begin his position in September last year.
“I felt for the team because they thought they were getting Mr Bracks and he didn’t come over, and then there was a hiatus,” said Mr Minchin, who was announced in February.
“There was no bad feeling between us at all, and I certainly don’t think he blamed me.
“He was very gracious and generous, he put out a press release congratulating me warmly on my appointment.
“I’d be very happy to take him out for dinner (if Mr Bracks visits New York).”
With a copy of Mr Hockey’s biography, Hockey: Not Your Average Joe, sitting on his desk, Mr Minchin said the key to selling a budget was to ensure people understood the fiscal problems you were trying to remedy.
“I was finance minister for six years, handled six budgets so I’ve been there, done that,” he said.
“The lesson of WorkChoices, of course for all of us, was the critical importance of people understanding the problem that you’re trying to deal with, so you can never let up on the emphasis on the problems that Australia faces — getting that context right and ensuring that people understand why your solutions are an answer to the problem.”
Mr Minchin said the government needed to address the threat to the budget of Australia’s aging population. “You can never assume that everyone understands that,” he said. “You’ve just got to keep talking about the extent of that problem, and why getting our fiscal house in order now is so important to ensuring my children and their peers are not left with a huge mess, or a tax burden that’s unsustainable.”
He also cautioned against new spending.
“That was always my refrain as finance minister, be very careful about initiating new spending programs which are not clearly and obviously going to be sustainable down the track because you may have to modify them or withdraw them and it’s going to be incredibly difficult.”
As for his own agenda, Mr Minchin said he was trying every day to find different ways to promote Australia and increase the strength of the US relationship.
“It’s why I was very keen to replace the official consulate car with an Australian-made vehicle,” he said, referring to his Australian-made Chevrolet SS.
As industry minister, Mr Minchin said he persuaded the then foreign minister and fellow Adelaidian Alexander Downer to adopt a policy for overseas diplomatic posts of using only Australian-made vehicles where they were available and could be serviced.
“I’m pleased he adopted that policy and it’s still the policy, so I was a little surprised to come here and find that the official car was a big flash BMW,” Mr Minchin said with a laugh, referring to the car of previous consul-general Phillip Scanlon.
“The Chevrolet made in Adelaide is a lovely car — it’s like the Coopers beer I have at home.”