Peter Whish-Wilson: Abbott should fix Australia’s FIRB rules first before any China deal

Greens spokesperson for Trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson makes the following comments on Tony Abbott’s reported willingness to throw away our foreign investment rules to sweeten the deal over trade with China.

Senator Whish Wilson said, “In the rush to secure a trade deal in China, Tony Abbott should not unilaterally unwind our foreign investment protocols. He should be acting to strengthen them.

“The Senate Inquiry into Foreign Investment and the National Interest chaired by the Liberal’s Senator Bill Heffernan recommended that there should be an independent and wide-ranging review of Australia’s foreign investment regulatory framework.

“Tony Abbott is promising China that their government-owned enterprises can buy up major assets in Australia. This goes against the concerns highlighted in the Senate Inquiry.

“Australia needs to reserve the right to refuse foreign government investment in our country for a range of strategic and public policy reasons.

“The Liberal government is only interested in securing a headline in the press and a good deal for their corporate mates and not what it is the best interests of the community.

“Australian business lobbyists have called for the Trojan-horse Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions to be included in any China trade deal.

“This would be a calamitous threat to Australia’s parliamentary sovereignty by giving the right for foreign governments, through state-owned enterprises, to sue our own government for making laws that impact their profits.

“Let’s hope the government are smart enough to back away from including ISDS provisions, as they did in the Japan deal,” Senator Whish-Wilson concluded.
Greens spokesperson for Trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson