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@springyzone wrote:
@martinw-48 wrote:
Forgein farm owners still have to pay council ratesBut there are a lot of things they don't have to do.
They don't have to hire workers from the general community if they don't want to. And many don't, some of them bring in their own workers.
They don't have to sell their produce to the local community either.
And this is our biggest area of danger. I agree with everything chameleon said. We should be monitoring overseas ownership because their loyalty is to their own, it's not to this country.
If overseas interests buy up a lot of our best land, there is absolutely no guarantee we will get to see any of the produce, even in times of hardship or shortage.
You might like to read up about the great hunger, Irish history,1840s-1850s. Greatest humanitarian crisis of the 19th century.Most people have heard about the potato crop failure but it wasn't that which alone caused the famine. There was plenty of other food, just that those whose home crops had failed couldn't afford it. And why couldn't they afford it? Because landlords (many of them absentee) could get a better price for food products in England and elsewhere so they exported it. There was an increase in exports in some of the areas that were most affected by the famine and unlike during the earlier famine (1790s I think) the government did not close the ports, which back in the 1790s had helped the food prices to fall.
I don't trust our political parties, any of them, because they have this vision of a level playing field and they don't seem to have any interest in protecting our food supplies, our land or our resources.
I've already witnessed what is happening with baby formula. Has any government moved in to make the private export/posting of baby formula a crime? No. They should step in but they won't.
Funny you should mention baby formula springy. The Chinese investor who has purchased the vineyard I lease for grazing has already purchased a controlling interest in one of Australias best known milk companies and brands. It is one of the big private labels sold in the major supermarkets. ( Coles and Woolies ). He is still selling fresh milk in Australia, but he purchased the company so that he could sell ALL of the baby formula back to China. That company no longer sells any infant formula in Australia.
One of the problems with Australian farms and companies being sold to Chinese investors is that Australians are locked out of purchasing our own home grown products. As mentioned in the last post, the Chinese investor has already walked away from selling wine from his new vineyard in the Australian market. ( he basically closed the vineyard to Australian consumers the day he purchased the place. ) The whole lot is going to be exported in bulk for Chinese consumption. Just like the Potato famine you mentioned. Australians are becoming serfs in our own country.
SpoilerMaybe the Chinese investor would like to purchase a prime lamb producing farm, a few Km. up the road from his vineyard....
It's not just foreign companies that will exploit. A lot of companies have a focus on the dollar first, second and third without regard to any other factors such as environment.
But I don't trust foreign companies to do right by us. We're selling ourselves too cheap. ......Absolutely !!!
"Eat the greedy and the world would be a better place but everyone gets upset when I want to eat the greedy people"
martinw, I don't know if you realise it, but you have a most exquisite way of expression that can be quite unique ... 
It's good they could not change that special sense of humour you have Martin xxx
