John Madigan (Victoria, Democratic Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Earlier today in the pomp and ceremony of the opening of the 44th Parliament I wondered what the people out there would think—the people in the car industry, the component manufacturers in Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat, Broadmeadows and Adelaide and the farmers in the Goulburn Valley, the Murray-Darling Basin and the Riverina. On election night with victory clearly evident Liberal leader Tony Abbott told his supporters that Australia is under new management and open for business. In almost every week since a story has emerged about a key Australian agricultural or manufacturing business either closing down or being targeted for foreign takeover. So when Mr Abbott said that Australia was open for business was he issuing an invitation for cashed up foreign companies and governments to come in and systematically pick and choose what strategic assets they would like to take control of?

I will start with the proposed $3.4 billion takeover of GrainCorp by American company Archer Daniels Midland. I am very much of the opinion that GrainCorp should stay in Australian hands, not least because there is already a high concentration of foreign ownership in the Australian grain market and if ADM takes control of GrainCorp it will mean that the vast majority of the Australian grain market will be in foreign hands. It will be just another example of a foreign company getting its hands on a strategic Australian agricultural business. What other country in the world would allow such a thing to happen?

There has been the usual rhetoric from the Nationals indicating their general opposition to the sell-off of Australian agricultural assets, including GrainCorp. Not long after the 7 September election the Minister for Agriculture, Barnaby Joyce, said that Australians needed to make a big noise if they were opposed to such large-scale foreign ownership, yet since that time we have hardly heard a peep from Minister Joyce. I wrote to Minister Joyce on 1 October requesting a meeting to discuss his position, the National's position and that of the government. I have not received a reply and I am not holding my breath.

Today's Australian article entitled 'Don't just buy the farm, build it' quotes Mr Abbott as saying:

We do need foreign investment. Our mining industry, our motor industry, our agricultural industry wouldn't be as strong as they are without foreign investment, but it does have to be the right investment, not the wrong investment.

Mr Abbott said he understood the concerns about foreign investment because Australia wanted to maintain 'control over our own country' and to use foreign investment to advance the national interest. The much referred to term 'national interest' is something I will come to soon, but another agricultural issue I would like to raise today is the adverse effect that the flood of foreign orange juice concentrate into Australia is having on our country's citrus growers. This is an issue I have personal experience with given that the DLP's federal president Paul Funnell stood as a candidate for the Riverina in the recent election.

Aided and abetted by pathetic labelling laws, successive governments have been crucifying our farmers, their families, food processors and communities in rural, regional and urban Australia on the altar of so-called free trade. The government seems focused on Northern Australia whilst disregarding the plight of the Goulburn Valley, the Riverina, the Murray-Darling Basin, Mildura and northern Victoria. The Murray-Darling Basin and Goulburn Valley fiascos are testament to this, yet nothing seems to have been done.

To be better informed about agricultural issues I spent a considerable part of the last year travelling around Victoria speaking to people on the ground—farmers, food processors, manufacturers and tradespeople, to name a few—to gauge their thoughts and feelings on the array of issues associated with foreign investment and takeovers. The recurring theme across various sectors is that the level of disconnect between the policymakers and the people on the ground is greater than ever before. In late October, as part of my Australian manufacturing and farming program, Senator Nick Xenophon and I held a farming forum in the western Victorian town of Beaufort to provide local farmers with the opportunity to raise any issues they saw as important to the future viability of their industry. A common theme was that both state and federal governments are not doing enough to assist them.

They urgently want clearer labelling laws, a reduction in bureaucratic red tape, the supermarket duopoly of Coles and Woolies addressed, fair trade not free trade and a greater understanding of life on the land by citycentric government departments and bureaucrats. Of most concern was that many people on the day spoke about how their children have left the farm never to return because of the difficulty in making a decent living in a sector where successive governments of all persuasions have favoured multinational companies and supermarket lobbyists rather than local food producers.

I empathise with these people and can only just begin to imagine how frustrated they must be with politicians both state and federal. A fortnight ago I spent some time in Warrnambool speaking to dairy farmers about the proposed buyout of Warrnambool Cheese and Butter by Canadian food giant Saputo. I also conveyed to the WCB chairman Terry Richardson that I would like to see the company remain in Australian hands. Mr Richardson, whilst respecting my position, said that his priorities are with the shareholders. My priorities, however, are with all Australians and future generations of Australians. The vast majority of dairy farmers I have spoken to would much rather see WCB remain an Australian owned company.

Mr Richardson made a telling point during our brief meeting. If a Canadian company like Saputo identified such vast potential within WCB, why don't Australian investors recognise this same potential? Do we give more encouragement to foreign investors and foreign superannuation funds than we afford Australian investors and superannuation funds to invest in Australia's future? Why don't Australian superannuation funds look at investing in these world-class agricultural companies?

In the last 24 hours Treasurer Hockey approved Saputo's $450 million takeover offer with no conditions attached. Similarly, the Foreign Investment Review Board gave Saputo's offer the go-ahead—also with no conditions attached. Mr Hockey reiterated that Australia is open for business and that we welcome foreign investment when it is not contrary to the national interest. But who defines what the national interest is? What about the farmers' interests? What about their ability to pay off their mortgages? What about their ability to compete on an increasingly uneven playing field with inferior overseas imports?

Triggered by the WCB takeover bid, almost 300 dairy farmers attended a forum in Warrnambool last night to talk about what they want their future industry to look like. The meeting largely focused on the role of cooperatives in the global dairy industry which, if run successfully, would put the balance of power back into the farmers' hands. For far too long this has not been the case. Twenty-five years ago there was little farm debt, while today there is unprecedented national farm debt with no respite in sight.

Then we go to the issue of free trade agreements and the transpacific partnership. I do not think it would be right for me to finish my few words this evening without making mention of so-called free trade and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. Our farmers, our manufacturers, our car component manufacturers are being crucified, and yet time after time after time we are told about how we are signing up to another free trade agreement. The fact of the matter is the rest of the world is getting tied up in free trade agreements too—they are between every man and his dog—and so in the end there will be nobody who has not got a free trade agreement with somebody or other, and then where are we? If you look, on balance Australia has not benefited from free trade agreements. We have rust belts throughout this country. Rural and regional Australia have been decimated. And as much as we have figures touted, time and time again, that our agricultural exports and our commodities are increasing, the fact is that on the ground our farmers and our manufacturers are in crisis.

Two weeks ago the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade held a public briefing on the TPPA. Invitations were extended to journalists—possibly in order to remove aspects of concern festering due to the lack of information about this agreement. However, if this was the reason for the public briefing, it certainly was not successful. DFAT rescinded its invitation to a number of journalists and left the vast majority of these people more concerned than they originally were. And there is good reason to be concerned. Leaked documents indicate the US is interested in promoting investor stake dispute settlement provisions, which will potentially make it more common for multinationals to sue our government when it is acting in the public interest. A foreign government suing the Australian government for protecting the interests of Australians—what has it come to? Time after time after time bureaucrats sign us up to agreements and nobody in this place or the other place has any idea what those agreements are about or what the hell is going on. And we wonder why people in the community are sick to death of it.

Critics will say I am a protectionist and I am antiforeign investment, but I would describe myself as unashamedly pro-Australian in that what is in the national interest is in the interest of Australians first and foremost. Why is it that we consistently think of ourselves as being incapable of competing on the world stage? New Zealand comes to mind: it has a fraction of the population that we have, yet we look to New Zealand for investment. New Zealand companies pick off asset after asset after asset in this country, yet with a fraction of the population that we have.

While I am opposed to large-scale foreign ownership of our companies, our resources and our wealth-producing assets, I do agree there is a place for foreign investment but that it should always be measured against the national interest. This is the key point: how do we define what is in the national interest, and how do we decide if the selling off of our assets, our land and our wealth-producing assets is in the nation's interests when taking into account that many Australians are affected, either directly or indirectly, by decisions made in this and the other place.

We as a parliament need to have a mature, non-partisan discussion that includes all of the relevant stakeholders—it needs to be held in the very near future; not six months, not 12 months, but now—about the selling off of our key strategic agricultural assets, our minerals and our wealth-producing companies. Instead of focusing on the short-term cash grab, the short-term gain and the long-term pain that quite often foreign takeovers bring, more focus and discussion needs to be had about the long-term effects on Australia as a whole. Australia is at the tipping point; our manufacturers, our farmers and our food producers are at crisis point. One only has to speak to the people on the ground to realise this. The pomp and ceremony of today is fine, but the crushing reality that people face in the real world is more important.