FOLLOWING all the Australian Assets, Property, critical Infrastructure that have gone offshore … largely to CHINA (the PRC), how is the proposal that the FIRB be allowed to continue to function, and to merely properly investigate systems, cyber security and data protection?
IT would seem the better alternative … to save what is left of Australia’s National Estate … is to disband, to dissolve the FIRB and subject this body to even more investigation … and even to enforce appropriate penalties ?…
It appears to many that the FIRB together with the FID have betrayed Australia and its Constituents by their very function through formulating mitigations (conditions) allowing the sell-off of our National Estate!
DESPITE the chaos in Hong Kong in August 2019 FIRB Chairman, David Irvine flew there to view the Chinese-owned Chow Tai Fook (CTF) owned by one of Asia’s wealthiest families, the Chengs.
What was his interest? Was it the sway held by this Family in the region?
And the growth of the PRC in Australia despite the FIRB?
–CTF was granted approval to buy Alinta Energy provided it satisfied a number of conditions not disclosed publicly
-then granted approval to buy Loy Yang B, a power generation plant in Victoria
-an investment in Star Entertainment to enter a joint venture to build Queen’s Wharf Casino in Brisbane
The FIRB approved the Alinta sale despite inadequate internal privacy controls and cyber security, and certain conditions were not even close to being met.
-change happened when Roger Brake from the foreign investment division of Treasury was asked to explain the process it went through to approve Alinta
-it is Treasury which is responsible for auditing, monitoring and enforcing conditions of foreign sales, including Alinta to Chow Tai Fook; how it is unclear
*Professor Allan Fels, a former chairman of the ACCC described the FIRB as a black box and said the scrutiny was long overdue.
-that the FIRB was not a regulatory body; it was not independent, politically *
-nor transparent; conditions imposed are generally not released to the public
-nor does the FIRB have the power or resources to enforce or follow up its decisions
The FIRB approved the Alinta sale despite inadequate internal privacy controls and cyber security, and certain conditions were not even close to being met.
AN example of the lack of transparency of the FIRB was when Delta Electricity, lost out on a bid for Loy Yang B to CTF in late 2017!
–a condition of FIRB approval was that Loy Yang could not be more than 47 per cent foreign-owned
–Delta’s consortium was 67 per cent Australian-owned; the balance was owned by US investors
YET CTF was granted approval to buy Loy Yang B, which is 100 per cent Chinese owned
-there was no explanation for the decision or why the rules changed for CTF
-it costs $millions to mount a takeover offer, including paying for due diligence and arranging financing
–Delta Electricity was the only majority Australian bidder for Loy Yang B power station; critical generation infrastructure requiring majority ownership
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE FIRB in the report of Adele Ferguson, ‘A Black Box that Needs an Overhaul: How has the FIRB escaped Scrutiny?’
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SOME COMMENTATORS VIEWS …
-And to be told by this excellent research by Adele, that an Australian firm willing to invest in Australian assets is then undermined and outbid by kowtowing to foreign buyers makes no sense if it was to be seen as a logical and fair – but if it is seen from the nefarious, secret, underhanded perspective it seems to have been, then every Australian must start being alarmed AND alert.
–A lady of Indonesian ancestry (but an Australian citizen) who lived close by told us that the rental house next door to us was owned by her sister back in Indonesia but the title is in her name. That scenario is very common in Australia and not even visible to the FIRB.
It would be interesting to run a report on Australian citizens born in other countries who owned say 10 houses or more.
-Selling off basic industries to overseas owners such as electrical generation and supply is idiotic. We have a government obsessed with national security and passing legislation that threatens free speech and information flow but sell off important entities to overseas owners. Fundamentals such as electricity, water, gas and communications should be considered to be held as essential to our national security
-Another Treasurer Morrison FAILURE. Does it ever end ?
–Critical infrastructure should never be foreign owned. In fact, critical infrastructure shouldnt be private/corporate owned. Successive governments have sold our assets to temporarily boost their budget bottom line. Then its gone.
-Agree, when we sell majority interests in critical infrastructure to abroad, we effectively hand substantial economic control to a foreign entity. Then again, buying Australian economic controls is seems a lot easier as well as cheaper than military invasion.
– It’s a bigger risk to the country than corona virus
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COMMUNITY ACTION ALLIANCE FOR NSW (CAAN): HOUSING INEQUALITY WITH AUSSIES LOCKED OUT! 