We take a look at Alan Jones Opinion Piece on the impact of the increasing Chinese ownership of Australia!
CAAN enquires could Australian Superannuation and companies have been blocked from investing in large agricultural properties, commercial properties, infrastructure, services etc. …. by the FIRB?
CAAN notes the vertical integration by Chinese companies and developers!
AND how perhaps China – could put an embargo onto all fuel coming into Australia …
Alan Jones: We’re infected with the virus of increasing Chinese ownership of everything Australian
What happens when all our productive assets are owned by Chinese interests?
We wind up exposed and unable to look after ourselves, as the coronavirus crisis shows, writes Alan Jones.
Alan Jones, The Daily Telegraph
March 10, 2020
‘With women fighting in shopping aisles over toilet paper, it is surely obvious that the hysteria around the coronavirus may be more damaging than the virus itself.
It is not only in relation to climate change that we seem to be capable of alarmism.’
‘Of course, it is disturbing, damaging and threatening to health, especially among the elderly. …
Nonetheless, as we face economic difficulties here because of our “dependence” on China, there is another virus that is taking charge, and it is the virus of increasing Chinese ownership of everything Australian that is worthwhile.
When we find, with businesses we often do not think about, like lobster and abalone fishing, that those businesses have ground to a halt because 90 per cent of their trade involves exports to China, it gives cause to think.
Anticipating the weight of this concern about our dependence on China, I wrote on Friday and posted on my Facebook page the following:
“Can I just make one more point on this coronavirus. We’ve seen unnecessary panic-buying — people bunkering down like they’re preparing for a hurricane or an atomic bomb.
“Suddenly supermarket shelves are bare.
“There’s a shortage of supply.
“I’m told 40 per cent of our toilet paper comes from China.
“Our retailers and manufacturers are struggling because much of their stock and equipment is Chinese-made.
“No one has any stock — it’s all quarantined in China.
“So let me just say this.
“Has there has ever been a stronger argument for why Australia shouldn’t continue allowing foreign ownership?
“What happens when all our farms and assets are foreign-owned?
“And all of our canned foods?
“And our toiletries?
“All our fuel and gas?
“Our water supplies?
“What happens when a real crisis unfolds and we can’t access food and supplies because they are all locked up in China?
“We’re going to be in big, big trouble.
“And this is exactly why this Foreign Investment Review Board should be under the microscope.‘
-2018 11,000 applications before the FIRB worth more than $168B; approved all but five
“If that trend continues, we’ll end up owning nothing. That isn’t alarmist. That is reality.”
‘The response demonstrates the emergence of this new “virus”.
Australians are waking up to what all this means.
Bill wrote: “Is this what we have to show for seven years of Conservative governments?
Our best dairy and beef farms sold to the Chinese?”
Melissa: “Is it the Foreign Investment Review Board, or the Foreign Investment Approval Board?”
Roy: “The only politician that has been talking about this in Canberra is Pauline Hanson.
And every time she brings it up she’s accused of being a racist.”
Matthew: “This is happening everywhere, the milk industry, the wine industry, our juices and avocados, our electricity networks, our telecommunications! Will we end up owning anything?”
–AJ’s Facebook entry seen by 1.8 million people
-with more than 4000 comments
‘The reaction demonstrates that a real problem for government lies behind this coronavirus issue.
Our dependence on China is sending business to the wall.’
With:
-progressive cherrypicking by China of the best of Australia
-Canberra does not seem to understand the difference between ownership and investment
AJ asks why not invest $3 Trillion super funds in Australian assets?
He lists …
–3 Kimberley cattle stations comprising 1.4 million hectares and running 45,000 cattle; sold to a Chinese billionaire for $70 million
–five out of six Tasmanian cherry orchards were sold to Chinese buyers back in 2016
–Van Diemen’s Land Company, Australia’s oldest and largest dairy farming outfit — 25 dairy farms, 19,000 hectares, 29,000 dairy cattle — sold to a Chinese buyer
-Two Qantas planes every week ship dairy products out of Tasmania to China
‘It used to be from our paddock to their plateand we made the money from the value-added.
Now China own the paddock.
They get the product cheaply and, with a burgeoning middle-class in China, they whack up the price on the Chinese domestic marketand the profit that should be ours goes to Chinese interests.‘
Further … including these former Australian properties:
-476,000 hectare cattle station Carlton Hill in the Kimberly region in WA
-the nearby 2000 hectare Ivanhoe Station; both former historic Durack properties; now Chinese-owned; approved by the FIRB
–Wootton Farm near Scone 3500 hectares with 1100 head Wagyu cattle sold in 2016 to Chinese interests
-Chinese dairy giant received ACCC approval for brands including: Dairy Farmers, Big M Milk, Farmers Union Iced Coffee, Pura, Pura Classic flavoured milk, Vitasoy, Vitasoy Soy and Coconut milk, Daily Juice, the Juice Brothers, Berri, Yoplait yoghurt
-in 2016 Mengniu bought Victoria’s infant formula milk manufacturer Burra Foods
-China now owns 77% of our dairy processing
-currently Japanese Lion own this dairy processing seeking to sell to Mengniu
–Lion buy some billion litres of milk from more than 550 dairy farmers every year; and crush 75,000 tonnes of fruit from Australian orchards
-Mengniu were involved in 2008 in a tainted milk powder scandal that poisoned 300,000 children in China
-in 2019 Mengniu bought Bellamy’s Organi;, an Australian organic infant formula and baby food producer
-Bellamy’s were formally Tasmanian Pure Foods
-acquired by Mengniu Dairy of China
AJ asks: Why is it that we have foreign interests who want our assets, but Australian superannuation funds don’t?
CAAN: Could Australian Superannuation Funds have been blocked? Because as revealed in Adele Ferguson’s report, ‘A black box that needs an overhaul: how has FIRB escaped scrutiny?’
It would appear a precedent has been set, and perhaps there have been many more with a series of businesses, lawyers and corporate advisers who have dealt with the FIRB believe it needs to be overhauled.
‘Rich lister and energy baron Trevor St Baker has experienced firsthand FIRB’s processes and lack of transparency.
A business he was involved in, Delta Electricity, lost out on a bid for Loy Yang B to CTF in late 2017.
St Baker told The Age and Herald he was still unsure why his bid failed.
He said Delta Electricity was told that a condition of FIRB approval was that Loy Yang couldn’t be more than 47 per cent foreign-owned. Delta’s consortium was 67 per cent Australian-owned and the rest was owned by US investors.
Then FIRB announced that CTF had been granted approval to buy Loy Yang B, which is 100 per cent Chinese owned.
St Baker said he was never given an explanation for the decision or why the rules changed for CTF.‘
In July 2017, the Chinese developer Country Garden purchased 353 hectares on the outskirts of Melbourne where it plans to build more than 4000 project homes.
-Country Garden is China’s third-largest developer.
CAAN: This is about ‘Vertical integration’, Mr Jones! China owns what was formerly Australian land
-markets house and land packages to China
-imports Chinese building materials on Chinese-owned planes and ships
-imports Chinese Visa workers: professionals, trades and labour
OCTOBER 2015 Chinese energy and infrastructure group Landbridge secured its 99 year lease on the Darwin Port; the gateway to Australia for $506M
-in 2013, Cubbie Station was sold to a consortium that was majority owned by the Chinese textile company Shandong Ruyi.
-foreign interests, including Chinese, own most of the sugar mills in north Queensland
CAAN: And Australian business closed down its manufacturing and went offshore to China; cutting jobs for Australians; for cheaper products and we now have a landfill problem! Apart from the current inability to now import goods from China!
At CAAN we question the need for ‘foreign investment’ when this was a Nation that used to make ‘everything’ … to a high standard, and we were self-sufficient. Why not export our quality goods to foreign buyers?
AND this from a CAAN Contributor:
‘One day we are going to wake up to find that a foreign power, perhaps China – has put an embargo onto all fuel coming into Australia.
And then in the midst of THIS CRISIS, all our power will be turned off because China owns all the power lines – there will be an invasion, as all our subs will be taken out of action with drones controlled from both the Airports and Port facilities owned by China, the drones could have been shipped into the Port of Darwin at this moment!!
And we will find out the so-called Chinese students, Visa holders, Chinese workers on all the Chinese owned properties including Cattle Stations, Dairy Farms, Rice Farms and Vineyards throughout Australia, are actually part of the incoming Chinese forces ….. and which other Country will think it’s worth their while to save us? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha – not a hope in hell.
Why is it that WE can see this play out – see our own weaknesses – but our Liberal Government who is actually PAID to do this – doesn’t?’
AJ: ‘No wonder they call it the Foreign Investment Approval Board.
None of this is alarmist or racist.
It is reality.
And I suspect that the Australian voter is very uncomfortable with this reality.‘
Listen to the Alan Jones Breakfast Program on 2GB weekdays from 5.30am-9am
SOURCE FOR THE FULL ARTICLE: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/alan-jones-were-infected-with-the-virus-of-increasing-chinese-ownership-of-everything-australian/news-story/3a955767a44b63ff2e2637195b10a920
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