the COVID-19 outbreak had left the Australian business sector vulnerable to predatory behaviour by "foreign state-owned enterprises working contrary to our national interest".
Victorian Liberal MP Tim Wilson, who also sits on the intelligence and security committee, said FIRB approval may need to be more broadly interpreted to keep some businesses and assets from being "preyed upon as an easy out" during the COVID-19 outbreak. The current thresholds for referral to the FIRB include $15 million for agricultural land and $60 million for agribusinesses.
"I can see why people are nervy about telco assets and energy assets ... but the bulk of assets which are going to be discounted at the moment are retail businesses, and if someone from China wants to buy a chain of hairdressers or a retailer, then good luck to them," he said.
No! They have power to legislate as to foreign investment quotas! Pull your finger out and start being a leader !!
China takes over the world via stealth due to the economic crisis brought about by the corona virus - no war necessary. Great business sense let's buy everything up while they are on their knees.
ScottMorrisonMP ban any foriegn take overs until the crisis is over, government rebuilds australia and manufacturing industry first! covid19australia auspol
The USA own more than China by far. So does the UK. Just saying.
Chinese takeovers of australian businesses from now into the future need to be stopped. Time for the current government to stand up. This is getting dangerous australia!
Not only foreign takeovers but big companies here swallowing up smaller ones. vultures
No more. Fed Govt needs to stop during pandemic.
Fuming. The bloody CCP got the world into this mess by not shutting down the wet markets after SARS and silencing the doctor who first raised concerns about COVID-19. Instead of being opportunistic, they should be investing all their resources to helping the rest of humanity.
And rightly so. Block any foreign takeover. This crisis has shown Australian manufacturing should be supported.
The answer is simple.
It’s simple how to handle it - don’t let them.
Shame we don't have a functioning Parliament anymore, a change in the law could have been enacted auspol
73 doctors, 20 dentists and nurses have been in lock down at Mascot since 10.30 PM Interstate professions are being taken to quarantine for 14 days in the city. Quarantine in city for 14 days then 14 days at home for 14 days. A month of quarantine for essential services.
These people are coming to take over the world. Now is the time to stand up for what is right. 1st take over, next, communism! KeepAustraliaStrong
Well this is what everyone is talking about. China taking over, especially when businesses are or will bear a lot of losses because coronavirus shutdown. People are saying this is planted.
Just take out land and buildings back and give them to poor people who would run any business infinitely better than any Liberal or foreigner.
They are only playing the game by our rules. The horse has bolted, shooda shut the gate 100 years ago.
sell them all to the chinese , they own us already and can deal with a pandemic .
Just disallow then. Not hard. Act in the national interest for a change.
Lol
Say NO
Block takeovers
Financial strife driven by the Chinese themselves! The same Chinese accusing the US?
No more selling..just buy them back..fck them! Let them suffer the consequences now..
Why do you think they’re going to ask their money back
Basic shit, slam the door ScottMorrisonMP (please)
corruption.internationals will feather the nests of the LNPCrimeFamily to get what they want.this article is propaganda 2 pretend they have a dilemma.Just like water in the MDB - these pricks would sell their mothers for a $, so u can forget they will act in Australias interest
The Governor General needs to call out Morrison for closing down our Federal Parliament and demanding answers as to why in a time of national emergency democracy has been dispensed with and no legislation can be passed.
Let be honest, business likely to get more support from a foreign govt.
Get back to parliament now and do your jobs! We Pay you very well to do so. Protect the future prosperity of the nation please! Block this activity now!
Anyone in the LNP see a bolting horse? No, I didn’t think so.
Let the Australian government own everything and follow the Chinese model.......since we are ordered not to go out and freedom has taken away already.
😘
The Australian Government should seek to nationalise our strategic assets now and manufacturing businesses as they become up for sale- also those in agriculture and food industries.
Plz come together to ban it. If we are to survive and rebound. Plz tighten foreign agent law to ban companies that act on behalf of foreign governments ScottMorrisonMP AlboMP JoshFrydenberg GladysB DanielAndrewsMP
This is what happens when you allow foreign owned companies. The same thing will happen to our milk products after the recent sale of local milk companies. The cattle stations and wheat farms - what a joke
Be like China and other countries lease but no own when this is over. Stop purchases totally for the immediate future.
Agri-businesses and Pastoralists with water rights - Chinese targets.! It was the plan all along, release a virus and conquer the ASEAN Block in the aftermath. Well, I can be forgiven for joining the dots can’t I? Peter_Fox59
Block block blockity BLOCK
Nationalise
Stop all foreign transfers into Aust & ban local subsidiaries from holding stock for the next three years ... recovery will take a couple of years, at least.
myfibonacci Joshy dual citizen Frydenberg as a former CEO of Deutche Bank so which side do ya think he's batting 4 '
The question is what you have?
Just get PeterDutton_MP to meet with them face to face, shake their hands, give them a hug. All sorted
China’s end game is becoming clear. Fucking bat soup man.
87% of the world's financial assets is owned by 20% of the world. The elite and banks are going to snatch everything up foreign or domestic. I'm afraid it won't be stopped because of the political influence the elite have.
Well well who couldn't have seen this coming!
But weren't we in surplus with a rock solid economy?
Trouble is, our greedy short sighted CEOs and State Premiers are not that smart to see the butt rape that comes after selling out. Not saying COVID19 was a planned event, but I sorta am saying that. But mark my lambs China will exploit it like baby formula.
Cant believe that article about Greenland shipping/stealing 90 tonnes of aussies medical equipment to china!
Wow! Hypocrisy much.
Make us sick, buy our businesses, steal our jerbs!
I bet there is
Umm... you could just say it’s not in our National interest and say no?
Maybe, just maybe, the government could subsidise/bail them out. I know they aren't giant multinationals but...just sayin.
Simple, just don’t let them.
drkerrynphelps Ban them
If you close down Parliament, how do you expect to deal with all these issues. Parliament MUST be recalled and meet regularly to represent the interests of all Australians!
drkerrynphelps They’re all going to turn up wearing the hazmat suits and masks their CCP outposts transported back to the mothership in January and February. Because BorderForce leaks equally in both directions
FREEZE ALL TAKEOVERS NOW. NEW LAW NO FOREIGN ENTITY CAN OWN MORE THAN 49% of any Australian rural or resources land. Better still can only have a 25 year max lease interest. DO IT NOW.
drkerrynphelps Gee, I dunno ... um ... ban it! Like, permanently! And roll back foreign land and property ownership while they're at it.
drkerrynphelps Clearly the most important concern right now!
Recall parliament and get it sorted!
Just NO! Bloody well NO!!!
Just don't let them!
There will be no take over
Ban all of them not that hard and the really important ones let the taxpayers buy them out .bout time we started reclaiming our manufacturing sector and land
RonniSalt No problem, just continue doing what we've done for the past 20-30 years. No issues at all.
At least they have their priorities right!
rday_day Time to get off the Chinese teat and just ban their invvestments in our country, its businness & our land. In business you dont do work with somebody you can't trust.
Fuck China
IMO, takeovers of any business should be considered tactfully. We need the government to invest at home to avoid bankruptcies or tax will be difficult to generate. The state should not own everything; this ruins a good society that doesn’t allow for healthy competition.
Our corrupted politicians won't listen. Vote for change.
No selling to foreign interests in this time of crisis.
China gave us WuhanCoronaVirus we should seize all assets owned by the Chinese as repayment for giving us ChineseWuhanVirus COVID2019 auspol JoshFrydenberg one sale to China after this you to be out of a job
Well I never Bit late now. Ask the cattle and dairy farmers.
RonniSalt At least SirLesPatterson is 'sitting on the CHEESE BOARD'.
The West Corporate world & all industries have created a monster beast in Chinese Gov. Appalling human rights record. Not the best custodians for taking care of the world. Money talking period!!!
Money talks lol.
This explains why we should avoid Chinese investment:
Most people dont realise all this Chinese Funny money is from QE, printing money and then into USD and then out on a shopping spree around the world buying stragic food asstes, look at what they buy, all assets already working, shameful those Australians selling us off.
RonniSalt Perhaps IF Parliament was sitting they could Legislate something. You know, like doing their job!
17thCard More xenophobic yellow peril China bashing from the . Stop it. Just stop it.
This COViD has been a methodical biological weapon released by China for this very purpose. Also to go and invest in every US owned company -- get majority share in it and then keep manufacturing in China. We are all pawns in the bigger game here. Wakeup Aus
It won't matter who is prime minister when everything is owned by China. The tail will wag the dog!!
There will always be economic chaos when the Liberal Party is in government. All they know is how to destroy the joint.
Another downside of globalisation., unfortunately.
denniallen Hey, look on the bright side at least they have better health care.
denniallen Oh, it's not a concern for him at all. I'm sure Jenny and the kids will be set up nicely in the new regime.
It is called nationalisation, remember Indonesia, we must follow suit
there is a away to deal with foreign takeovers...under these extreme, unprecedented circumstances just annul them ie make the investments legally null and void, that's all! payback auspol ausbiz
How about the government fucking bail it out. Then they are owned by the people. Not to be sold.
Oh for heavens sake. Our government will probably be advertising a 2 for 1 sale
Stop ALL take-over transactions for 6 months would be an idea. Govt give tax holiday to genuine harship cases, so they can mothball their Company - not to those Companies who pay NO tax already. JoshFrydenberg AlboMP JEChalmers
No Chinese take overs allowed. Tell PRC to get lost. Australian's can't own anything in China.
What do we do if there are no local acquirers? Let a viable large business fail? Agree we need to increase restrictions, but government will need to step up to fill the void by taking equity stakes. Otherwise we’ll lose by winning the argument.
Say no to china ChinaLiedPeopleDied
Fake news
Well thats why the created the virus in the first place right?
Scott really, how hard could it be, just do your job, has not happened yet.
BelindaJones68 Simple call parliament,then pass a emergency law that outlaws companies been sold that are in the Nation interest. If need for funds to buy such firms,use the future & superannuation funds
How about, for once in their existence, THEY JUST SAY NO!
Tell any foreign interests that they'll have to apply through Centrelink online. Three months in & they'll just give up.
Say no would be a idea
Germany has introduced laws to block foreign companies to take over iconic firms during crises as they learnt from the GFC US & Chinese companies took advantage of the situation. The more things change the more they stay the same.
Let Australians buy them back
If the revelation that Chinese billionaires were exporting medical supplies from Australia wasn’t enough, here is further evidence of the threat they pose to Australian sovereignty and the well-being of the Australia community and economy.
BridgetOFlynn The foreign investment review board need urgent review. What principal's & guidelines do they base their decisions on? Is the national interest at the centre of all their decision making? 🤔
Australia simply cannot survive without China's money. Let China takeover Australia as a nation, then all Aussies will have toilet rolls and get rich.
BelindaJones68 Can we have a emergency vote?
margo694
Easy suspend hostile takeovers on the stock exchange make it only after Government approval by committee . Let the Committee sit in December 2021.
Is this really a thing, they never worried before. Relatively easy to stop if they need to.
Blind Freddie could see that this will be the end result of all this. As soon as they call in the money!!
Time for Lambing Flat II!
BelindaJones68 It's easy. ban ALL foreign takeovers for xxx period.
No, just no.
Funny how US investments in Australia makes up 10x the Chinese but watch out “in particular” for Chinese take over.
Any foreign investors swooping on Australia now, are no different than the mongrels who cleaned out supermarket and chemist shelves to price gouge fellow Aussies in difficult times. Should be a law against it. No sales considered until after this corona virus crisis.
BelindaJones68 If we had a parliament we could legislate it away. 🤔
BelindaJones68 This is the LNP disaster that has been coming for a long time. They sold us out in every way. Stupid, stupid people.
Okie, from now on throw everything made in China in your home , even take off all your clothes. That's easy. Australia made everything. Will it happen?
Chinese scum
News in 2021- ByteDance bought Apple Inc.
BelindaJones68 But they just gave the majority Chinese owned VirginAustralia $159million of our money? A company that has 1.1billion in cash reserves. We are all so confused. auspol
And here come the racist, conspiracy theorists!!!
Here is one way to play it ... NO MORE FOREIGN TAKEOVERS !!!
Put a freeze on sales.
And the chicken comes home to roost.
Mrs_Norm51
Easy. SIMPLE.
World order is gonna change
Adopt the NZ model. No foreign ownership of residential property and no controlling interest in any company
It's obviously escaped the Govs notice but that horse has already bolted! China probably owns more of Australia than we do, at least on the productive side. They even allowed the 99 year lease of the Strategic Port of Darwin to Chinese interests to proceed! auspol auspol2020
The government better put a blanket ban on the sale of any and all Australian businesses and assets to China for the next 24 months. Anything less will be completely unacceptable and traitorous.
Viola1500 Growing concern? Oh really? Who woulda thunk it? Thanks to corrupt politicians the Chinese have been taking over farms, businesses, real estate etc, long before they were ever in financial strife.
Do what John Howard did, like the other liberals, sell it to them. fuckliberals
And here we are just as we expected 😡
Please sto[ all the overseas investors from doing anything while this is going on and then afterwards clamp down particularly on China. Work more with India
If I can quote the PM from a few days ago 'stop it, stop it now'. Government must immediately suspend all proposed and pending foreign takeovers and acquisitions.
It’s not that hard really just knock back every application and site reason!!
Just say no, every time.
That was probably their long term plan.
Easy. A five year freeze on all foreign takeovers of Australian businesses and properties. Allow foreign investment only where it means a NEW productive business employing mostly Australians and paying realistic taxes.
I have no doubt that if China comes out of this epidemic first, they will take full advantage of the situation world wide There should be a Moratorium put in place now, to prevent any takeovers of struggling Australian enterprises by China and look to our Pacific neighbours
No more Chinese ownership ffs
It ain’t hard to pass a law to pause or nationalise the businesses. Oh but wait, you need Parliament sitting to pass laws... What’s next from ScottyFomMarketing auspol
NaziMurdochs sounding the alarm😂😂 WhiteSupremacists fascists buy up other countries companies, buy citizenship, steal elections in other peeps countries, but seem quite nationalistic when the cheap knock-off shoe is on the other foot😂😂 RacistRupert
Should be a 3 yr ban on any Chinese investment in this country!! farkem
They should make it law/legislation no sale of land,farm,multinationals to CHI,JAP,US,UK,EU (anybody) based business person or entity that is oversea based . Needs to have 💯 of business and pay taxes here in Aus and employ Aussies .
bradsle
The FIRB has been a complete failure
Any foreign investors swooping on Australia now, are no different than the mongrels who cleaned out supermarket shelves to price you've us later. No sales until covid crisis is gone.
Second anti-Chinese article today, what do you want? Is your press owned by Donald Trump? Are you provoking a race war or would you prefer everyone is united and fight against COVID19 and recover the economy asap racism RacismIsAVirus ScottMorrisonMP AnnastaciaMP GladysB
They couldn’t even wait for us to bury our dead.
Ask the Australian public what they think of foreign investment, of selling our country to the highest bidder. It scares me.
Does Joshie know what to do or shall I ask my 23 URL old daughter / law/ economics guru to give him some advice
It would seem like a bad move to let any foreign ownership increase at this time - cmon govt. Even in the medium term this would be a disaster. It might be a short term capital injection but and the generations to come will pay dearly in so many ways.
That is the goal of the fetish quarantine
Say NO .. BAN IT for at least 12 mths. ...Tell them to ... GO AWAY!
It’s the two Ns: no nationalise
Do not let foreign money come in from China and buy up your country as we have allowed in places like Toronto and Vancouver here in 🇨🇦
With the door shut, we will play the survival game… would there be any winner?
Do the Liberals need to initiate socialist policies? Temper the free market? Move towards the centre? Their neo-liberal ideology is a failure.
Simple just BLOCK all Chinese attempts to buying stressed Australian businesses. What's hard about that?
Here we go
There's concern in the public too
You mean capitalism? The thing LNP worships because their rich buddies benefit from it? Good luck expecting them to do anything but the bidding of the rich.
Just tell them all to fuck off. Pretty simple decision ScottMorrisonMP JoshFrydenberg
Another CrimeMinister fuck up on the horizon.
To late thanks to politicians and greedy Manufacturing.
Well it's not like we haven't been warning the Government about foreign buy ups of our assets for years... auspol ScottMorrisonMP JoshFrydenberg PaulineHansonOz AlboMP
ClimateHiJinx The FIRB has a lot to answer for.
Well it's been a boon for Australians' health with the Chinese owned ones exporting all our PPE back to China
It's what the pricks have wanted to do since Day 1!
Well keep helping the wealthy ppl be wealthier and fining those most vulnerable workers at the bottom of the society who are struggling to keep their jobs for a living. Bottom workers in massage shop should NOT be fined! I can find dozens of much richer people also breach rule
yet another new wrinkle for the hawks cc chinahand
predatory foreign takeover Our beers makers are both owned by Japanese China would take over pigs n cattle ranches to free up land n get rid off animal waste
Sell coal to them.
How dumb is everyone? Virus from China spreads across world, governments panic and close everything, China miraculously recovers and buys collapsed industrials across the world. Wake up and smell the coffee.
Block them all. Let the businesses collapse and claim them back as crown assets. Keep the Chinese out at all costs !!! JoshFrydenberg ScottMorrisonMP
Is it feasible to ban all foreign investment for ownership and decision making until this is all over? Would that be sensible?
Literally...'but the bulk of assets which are going to be discounted at the moment are retail businesses, and if someone from China wants to buy a chain of hairdressers or a retailer, then good luck to them.” “Foreign buyers of distressed assets aren't necessarily bad buyers.'
Almost like this was the intent.
Here’s an idea FIRB just say no.
Just ban anyone trying this.
Ban it. Pass a law against foreign ownership that occurs after today. US, Chinese, Japanese, anybody. They can invest for a return, but no decision making.
Oh FFS seriously SMH two anti-Chinese stories in one day? Are you really itching for people to be beaten and hurt?