Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

He used to be the editor of a newspaper running the same line, churning it out without any vision, without looking to the future. I think we all realise on the government side that there are national interest principles to improve transparency around how the national interest test is applied and an easy-to-read version of the policy to further improve the transparency of the regime. I think that is important.

Of course there will be concern. As I said when I started these words, of course there is concern. People do not want overseas capital coming in and buying great tracts of Australia. They need to know about that. We need to have a process that allows them to see that. That will occur under this Labor government. It did not occur under governments where the National Party held ministerial positions or the deputy prime ministership. I guess that is why they are getting a bit toey and why they have to try to justify their existence with motions like this one.

The Australian government, like previous governments, is committed to a case-by-case approach to considering foreign investment proposals to maximise investment flows while protecting our core interests. Using the capital in the interests of the nation is what it is about, and we need to make sure that we do that. I was looking only recently in Tasmania at the irrigation schemes coming on board with state and federal money to help enhance our rural sector and to help us go in new directions and find new ways. But, in that sense, it takes opportunities to borrow money. I was looking at what the Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Research had to say. It said that in Tasmania we grow around $1 billion of our current food, fibre and poppies. It says that for the industry to expand it will require financial resources.

Of course it will. There are only two ways that that can occur. That is either by debt into the industry or equity through investment, houses and corporate agriculture. Some of that might be foreign money that comes into the agricultural sector like it comes into the processing sector or the mining industry. So to expand we will need money. We need money to do that. Those points are very good. Those points, when we talk about looking at a case-by-case approach to considering foreign investment proposals, are what it is all about. Investment flows need to be looked at and so does protecting our core interests.

Given the longstanding success of the foreign investment screening regime, we on this side of the House see no reason to change it by placing blanket bans or restrictions on particular types of investment. The government welcomes foreign investment. It has helped build the Australian economy and will continue to enhance the wellbeing of Australians by supporting economic growth and prosperity, as it has done in the honourable member for Riverina’s seat. I do not know who owns some of the production and supply chains within his electorate. It might be interesting for him to tell us. I am sure he is well aware of who they are. That economic growth and prosperity will continue with investment. We need to make sure that we look at it, that the general public can have a good understanding of how it operates and that we have transparency around that so that we do not have hysteria whipped up by the National Party for their own political interests.

Thousands of rural and regional communities around Australia whose economies rely on agriculture and food production benefit greatly by foreign investment. I do not think we would want to see international sources of support for the bush discouraged or threatened. At times we need to have foreign capital to assist our industries to grow. As I said, in Tasmania we are certainly looking for new investment. We just lost McCain’s at a processing plant in the Smithton area. We are looking for the ways in which we will process our food into the future. We need to be sensible about this and go forward in a proper manner. (Time expired)

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