Former PM Lobbies For China In Ord

[icyfroth]

Former prime minister Bob Hawke lobbied Colin Barnett to allow a Chinese company to buy a large package of land in the Ord River.

 The push for ownership comes as Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce signalled his concerns over any sale, saying the company should have been up-front about its intentions when it signed an original deal to lease the property.

 Kimberley Agricultural Investment, owned by Chinese company Shanghai Zhongfu, has told the State Government "on an informal basis" that it wants freehold ownership of the 6000ha Knox Plain area, a major tranche of stage 2 of the Ord River scheme, the ambitious plan to turn the north of Australia into a regional food bowl.

Mr Hawke has long acted as a lobbyist for KAI, as well as other Chinese companies.

Shanghai Zhongfu says it is looking at a long-term plan to list KAI on the Hong Kong or Australian stock exchanges in a bid to raise funds to grow sugar for ethanol production.

Entire Article Here

Yeah just sell everything off, hey,Mr Hawke, now you've gutted manufacturing might as well go for broke.

Raising sugar for ethanol production is not exactly food production is it? More like money production for the shareholders.

[icyfroth]

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@***super_nova*** wrote:

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@icyfroth wrote:

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@myoclon1cjerk wrote:
The biggest foreign land holders in Australia are the Americans and the Brits.Funny how this subject only comes up when it involves the Chinese etc.

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Yes that is odd, isn't it?

So why isn't anyone worrying about how much of our land is in foreign ownership? And why do we keep endorsing our governments to run these clearance sales by giving them our vote, turn and turn about?

This is what we should be protesting about, holding marches about, never mind placards with F*ck Tony Abbott.

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I do not know where you were in the 1960s but there were many protest against foreign ownership of our land and mining rights and military installation, but the protesters were branded "left".

The thing is that in Australia we need the foreign investment, we do not have the money to develop these resources.  Cubby station was up for sale for many many years; Australians had every chance to buy it.  Only when nobody bought it, permission was given to sell it to foreign company.

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Of course we need foreign investment. We can take their money and give them a good return for it. That doesn't mean we have to sell everything off, lock stock and barrell, returns going overseas, not staying in Aus.

[gleee58]

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@***super_nova*** wrote:

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@icyfroth wrote:

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@myoclon1cjerk wrote:
The biggest foreign land holders in Australia are the Americans and the Brits.Funny how this subject only comes up when it involves the Chinese etc.

---

Yes that is odd, isn't it?

So why isn't anyone worrying about how much of our land is in foreign ownership? And why do we keep endorsing our governments to run these clearance sales by giving them our vote, turn and turn about?

This is what we should be protesting about, holding marches about, never mind placards with F*ck Tony Abbott.

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I do not know where you were in the 1960s but there were many protest against foreign ownership of our land and mining rights and military installation, but the protesters were branded "left".

The thing is that in Australia we need the foreign investment, we do not have the money to develop these resources.  Cubby station was up for sale for many many years; Australians had every chance to buy it.  Only when nobody bought it, permission was given to sell it to foreign company.

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I can't see any need to sell the land to OS investors when it could be leased to them instead.