re: wpl - this takes the cake! I can't believe this article in...

re: wpl - this takes the cake! I can't believe this article in "The Australian" by Alan Wood.

He seems the "mouthpiece" for the big multinationals that are keen to get our valuable resource companies on the cheap.

I think we need our resources more than we need foreign funds. He seems to be advocating the quick fix solution for 'resource development' but at what cost? Talk about 'selling off the farm'!

Nope - I just can't buy his argument at all.

"We need foreign funds

12feb05

TREASURER Peter Costello's was wrong when he blocked Shell's takeover of Woodside Petroleum in April 2001.

He is right now in deciding to allow Xstrata's bid for WMC to go ahead.
For a nation that has been dependent since its foundation as a British colony on foreign capital to develop its abundant natural resources, we should surely understand the value of foreign investment.

The former secretary to the Federal Treasury, Ted Evans, put the case for openness a few years ago.

"I suggest that Australia's comparative growth performance and resilience to shocks have been worst when currents of economic nationalism were at their peak during the late 1960s and through the 1970s," he said then.

Australia's remarkable economic performance over the past 14 years confirms his message in spades.

Costello won't admit that he was wrong in 2001, but Mark Vaile's intervention in the debate this week, which irritated the Treasurer so much, just confirms it.

Vaile's justification for blocking the Xstrata bid? The decision to block Shell in 2001. Bad policy encourages bad policy.

Mark Vaile's performance has damaged his credibility as an advocate of an open world economy. Still, there's no circus without a clown."