Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to the failure of the Prime Minister and his ministers to provide any comprehensive explanation for their numerous free trips to China at the expense of Beijing AustChina. I note that the Prime Minister has said, ‘I’m not really across what he does,’ of the activities of its Chief Executive Officer, Mr Ian Tang. I note that the Australian government is being pressured by the Chinese government to make decisions to allow Chinese government controlled companies to acquire a larger and larger share of Australia’s natural resources. What steps has the Prime Minister taken to satisfy himself and the House that Beijing AustChina, given its range of activities, has no connections with the Chinese government or any of its associated entities?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The first part of the honourable member’s question we have answered. On the second part of the honourable member’s question, which concerns how individual applications for foreign investment in Australia are to be treated: they will be treated by the normal Foreign Investment Review Board processes, which would involve, of course, judgements to be made in the national interest. In the case of foreign government owned entities, judgements will be made against the new guidelines which were released by this government in recent times. The reason for doing that is that we have a growth of sovereign wealth funds. National interest needs to be defined. It has been in our guidelines. The previous government failed to do that.