Foreign Investment
Extract from the WEEKLY HOUSE HANSARD Database Date: 10 December 1996 (03:22)
Ms HANSON--"My question is to the Prime Minister. Is the Prime Minister aware that 86 per cent of all foreign investment in this country has been to acquire existing Australian businesses such as Qantas, Peters ice-cream, Nana's and Herbert Adam's, to name a few, and that only one per cent has been used to build something that makes something and employ someone in new manufacturing? Is it true also that we have gone further into debt? In September, that figure was $2.2 billion, which comes from interest on our existing debt and dividends that have to be repatriated overseas as a result of foreign control of our assets. What is the government going to do to promote Australian ownership of our companies and to promote Australian made products from Australian owned companies? Is it true that if every Australian averaged $50 per week buying our products--"
Mr Albanese--"On a point of order: Mr Speaker, I have witnessed you on a number of occasions telling members to get to the question. This question seems to have been going on for about five minutes."
Mr SPEAKER--"There is no point of order. The honourable member for Oxley is getting to the nub of the question."
Ms HANSON--"Yes, I am, and I am appalled by the rudeness of this House during such an important question like this."
Mr SPEAKER--"I want the honourable member for Oxley to focus very clearly on the question."
Ms HANSON--"What is the government going to do to promote Australian ownership of our companies and to promote Australian made products from Australian owned companies? Is it true that, if every Australian averaged $50 per week buying our products, we would save $20 billion a year on foreign debt and perhaps create half a million jobs?"
Mr HOWARD--"I welcome the question from the honourable member for Oxley. It gives me an opportunity to say something about a very important subject. I cannot give her the precise statistics. Whether the 86 per cent is correct or not, I would have to go away and check, but I do know a few things about foreign investment in this country."
"I do know that, if Australia had not taken large amounts of foreign investment in the past, we would now have a lower and not a higher living standard. The economic reality is that, if we as a nation do not generate large volumes of domestic savings, we have choices. We either settle for a lower standard of living or borrow the savings of foreigners in order to sustain a higher standard of living. That is the simple reality."
"By your question, you suggested that there were no benefits from foreign investment. I thought the establishment of a motor manufacturing industry in Australia under the Chifley government provided jobs in manufacturing for people. I can remember, as Treasurer of this country, approving large-scale foreign investment in coal deposits in coalmines in Queensland. I can remember insisting that there be 50 per cent Australian equity and, on occasions having arguments with the then Queensland government as to whether I should insist on that 50 per cent Australian equity."
Mr Crean--"Can you remember cutting the ships bounty?"
Mr SPEAKER--"The member for Hotham."
Mr HOWARD--"I certainly agree very strongly that--"
Mr Crean--"That is more recent."
Mr SPEAKER--"Order!"
Mr HOWARD--"I agree strongly that you have to seek on every possible occasion to attract Australian equity, but the notion that you can close the doors of this country to foreign investment and continue to have a high standard of living and continue to generate jobs is simplistic."
"I think it is easy to go around this country touching sensitive chords about Australian ownership, but the reality of the situation is that, if we do not want large foreign investment in this country, what we have to do is boost our own savings and also lift our productivity. They are the twin goals of the government's economic policy. The people who are standing in the way of achieving those goals are the people who sit immediately opposite me. They are the people who are standing against the generation of higher volumes of savings. They are the people who opposed the workplace relations bill. They are the people who are trying to frustrate the economic goals of this government."
Mr O'Connor--"You hypocrite!"
Mr SPEAKER--"I warn the member for Corio."
Mr HOWARD--"May I say this to the member for Oxley: I look forward to the day when this nation no longer has to rely as heavily as it currently does on the savings of foreigners in order to sustain its high living standard. But you have a simple choice. If you want a high living standard, you must either generate the savings domestically to sustain that living standard or be willing to go overseas and borrow the savings of foreigners. You cannot have it both ways. You cannot simultaneously not borrow from abroad, have our existing high living standard but have a low level of domestic savings. Until the Australian people who simplistically think that closing the door against foreign investment is some kind of panacea realise that, we will continue to have a very uninformed debate."
Mr Price--"Mr Speaker, on a point of order: when the honourable member for Oxley asked her question, she stated that she was `appalled at the rudeness of this House'. That is a reflection on me and, I believe, all other members. Mr Speaker, as you have not drawn the attention of the honourable member for Oxley to that statement, it leaves us guilty of that charge"
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Mr SPEAKER--"I am sure the honourable member for Oxley meant to phrase the words in the widest possible way without personal detriment either to the members of the chamber or indeed to the chair. I remind all members of the conventions of the House."
Ms HANSON--"My question is to the Prime Minister. Is the Prime Minister aware that 86 per cent of all foreign investment in this country has been to acquire existing Australian businesses such as Qantas, Peters ice-cream, Nana's and Herbert Adam's, to name a few, and that only one per cent has been used to build something that makes something and employ someone in new manufacturing? Is it true also that we have gone further into debt? In September, that figure was $2.2 billion, which comes from interest on our existing debt and dividends that have to be repatriated overseas as a result of foreign control of our assets. What is the government going to do to promote Australian ownership of our companies and to promote Australian made products from Australian owned companies? Is it true that if every Australian averaged $50 per week buying our products--"
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