The Morrison Government has been berated for shifty foreign investment in Tasmania

View the Media Release from Peter Whish Wilson

https://greensmps.org.au/articles/morrison-government-condemned-tasmanias-dodgy-foreign-investment-approvals?utm_source=miragenews&utm_medium=miragenews&utm_campaign=news

The Senate Inquiry Report, ‘The Senate Economics References Committee Greenfields, Cash Cows and the Regulations of Foreign Investment in Australia’

Greenfields, cash cows and the regulation of foreign investment in Australia (aph.gov.au)

reveals serious flaws in Australia’s foreign investment approval process, and Australia’s corporate transparency and anti-money laundering regime.

Three outstanding overseas investment approvals were analysed:

-the Musselroe Bay Resort development; part of a money laundering scheme

–Bellamy’s takeover by Mengniu

–Van Diemen’s Land (VDL) Dairy takeover by Moon Lake Investments

Senator Peter Whish Wilson summed up the problems with FIRB approvals:

-at the discretion of the Treasurer

-lack of transparency; allowing a government to extract an arrangement with foreign investors free from public scrutiny to suit its political ends

-the sale of VDL to Moon Lake, a political donor to the Liberal Party over that of a local consortium

Recommendations were made, but we ask why the need for foreign investment when Australia is a wealthy nation? The answer, it would seem, is apparent ….