Carol Brown (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I will now go to the Economic References Committee report presented out of sitting, Greenfields, cash cows and regulation of foreign investment in Australia.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the report.

I understand Senator McKim would like to make a contribution.

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] I want to begin this contribution by acknowledging that the last time Australia was totally free of foreign ownership was in 1788. This nation and almost all of the wealth that has been generated in this nation since 1788 have been founded on the forceful dispossession of First Nations people from their lands. Strictly speaking, unless you're a First Nations person in Australia, you are a foreign investor in this country. We should reflect on these facts and these circumstances whenever we are considering this issue.

Foreign investment in Australia largely occurs in the dark.

If the government of the day want to keep quiet about who is investing, from where the investment is coming, what that investment is buying and on what conditions, then that is up to them, because the publication of any decision to approve an investment, the reasons for approving foreign investment and any conditions placed upon the approval of foreign investment are all at the discretion of the Treasurer. This is a lack of transparency that has to be addressed. I might add that the lack of transparency affects potential investors' expectations of what is or isn't acceptable in terms of foreign investment into Australia and it allows the government to make an arrangement with foreign investors that suits the government's political ends rather than the national interest. In a country where there is, shamefully, no independent Commonwealth-level national integrity commission, this creates an environment where corruption can flourish.

I want to go to the case study of the VDL dairy. As the inquiry heard, the sale of the VDL dairy to Moon Lake is a perfect example of a dodgy foreign-investment approval being used for political purposes. In 2016, with great fanfare, the then Treasurer and now Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, approved the sale of VDL to the Chinese company Moon Lake, with the promise of $100 million to be invested and a near-doubling of jobs. There has been nothing but trouble since. Members of the board quit en masse soon after. Farm managers sought indemnity from liability because of substandard operating practices. The Tasmanian government's dairy regulator found most of VDL's farms were in breach of sanitary regulations. Nowhere near the promised $100 million has been invested, and there hasn't been anything like the promised doubling of jobs. Thanks to my friend and colleague Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, we found out that the government didn't even make Moon Lake's promises a condition of the approval. Despite running the joint to the ground on empty promises, Moon Lake was able to find $25,000 to donate to the Tasmanian Liberal Party. This looks suspiciously like the institutionalised bribery that is corporate political donations.

We need to get our house in order here. Given the current downturn in foreign investment, we have an outstanding opportunity to get our house in order, without being accused of targeting any particular investment or group of investors. While the chair's report provides excellent documentation of the problem, the recommendations fall far short of offering comprehensive solutions. We need to stop pussyfooting around. The Greens have made a series of recommendations that get to the heart of the issue. Publish the details of all foreign investment approvals so that we know what the government is up to, what is being approved and what the conditions of those approvals are. Any public undertakings made by a prospective foreign investor should automatically be made a condition of any subsequent approval, to stop investors making empty promises. The public register of foreign investment should include data on the current value, the tenure, the beneficial owner, the country of origin of the beneficial owner, and the use and jurisdiction of all land in which there is a foreign interest, so that we can see the whole picture. We should establish a public register showing the ultimate beneficial owner of companies registered or operating in Australia so that we know exactly which foreign actors are investing and have invested in Australia.

Last but not least, we need to finally and belatedly—long after it was promised—include real estate agents, accountants and lawyers as designated services under the anti-money-laundering laws so that we can stop Australia being the laundromat of the South Pacific by way of foreign companies washing their money through Australian real estate. We should not allow our country to be used, in the way that it is, to launder money. We should not be languishing amongst the extremely small number of countries that have not legislated tranche 2, which includes real estate agents, accountants and lawyers as designated services under the anti-money-laundering laws. We should get serious about our position on anti-money-laundering and counterterrorism laws so that Australia is no longer the laundromat of the South Pacific.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I understand Senator Whish-Wilson also wishes to make a contribution.

Wendy Askew (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is Senator Whish-Wilson on the line? No? Senator Siewert, would you therefore like to seek leave to continue your remarks later?

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes, thank you.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.