Qantas will cut 5000 jobs, freeze wages of all staff, and sell or defer buying more than 50 aircraft in a bid to cut A$2 billion in costs. The airline said the roles to be lost include 1500 management…
Qantas is poised to receive some form of government assistance, but will it act in the national interest?
griffs0000/Flickr
The Federal Government appears ready to “throw a lifeline” to Qantas, which has been seeking a government-backed debt guarantee and a lifting of the 49% foreign ownership limit in the Qantas Sale Act…
South Africa wants to tackle development challenges on its own terms.
Julien Behal/PA
Over the past few months, South Africa’s government has cancelled foreign investment treaties with Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg, Switzerland, Spain and the Netherlands. The reasoning behind this tells…
It’s encouraging to see the UK government is finally taking China seriously as a business partner, with David Cameron this week following the parade of ministers who have made the trek to Beijing. There…
Treasurer Joe Hockey has flagged competition issues after rejecting the ADM takeover of GrainCorp, but he failed to say how he would fix the GrainCorp monopoly.
Alan Porritt/AAP
When Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey quashed the acquisition of GrainCorp by Archer Daniels Midland on national interest grounds, his stated reasons were based on competition. Despite it being five years…
Treasurer Joe Hockey has blocked the A$3.4 billion bid by US giant Archer Daniel Midlands for GrainCorp.
AAP
Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey has rejected the proposed takeover of GrainCorp by US grain handling giant Archer Daniels Midland, arguing the takeover would not be in the public interest. Mr Hockey said…
Joe Hockey has a big decision to make by December 17.
jcburns/Flickr
The Coalition government is split over the controversial bid for GrainCorp by American commodities trading giant Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). Treasurer Joe Hockey has found himself torn between upholding…
Close to 90% of Australia’s farmland remains locally owned.
Flickr: Cha222
Why do we clamour to keep foreign-owned car makers here, paying them billions of dollars to stay, while being wary of foreign investment in farms? Around 0.1% of foreign investment last year was in agriculture…
It’s far from grim in Nissan’s north.
Owen Humphreys/PA
John Van Reenen, London School of Economics and Political Science
The proportion of UK-quoted shares owned by overseas investors passed the 50% mark for the first time last week. Predictably there was much wringing of hands about the decline of British business and short-termism…
Both the Labor and Liberals see infrastructure as a crucial economic driver; but Chinese investment in this area has been politicised.
AAP
Tony Abbott wants to be known as the infrastructure prime minister. He could be remembered for building roads and scrapping high-speed rail. But the role of Chinese finance and technical expertise in infrastructure…
The Australian Coalition arrangement is set apart from coalitions elsewhere by its ongoing nature, even in opposition, and the fact that the parties go into elections with a common election platform.
AAP
Much has been made of the ‘unusual’ nature of the minority Labor government over the past three years and there has been a sense that Australia is better off without it; that we need a return to the stability…
Foreign companies are interested in Australian farm land – but are our rules as protective as those in other countries?
Flickr/Andy
“We often get criticised for trying to be protective. I actually look around the world and I see many, many countries being equally protective of their own core assets.” - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, third…
Perhaps talking about investment could lead Australia to a brighter farming future.
Michael Lloyd
Large parts of Australian agriculture are economically and financially unsustainable. Returns are inadequate and unbalanced; assets are depleted; risks are needlessly high. To date, governments have largely…
Dividend washing enables some domestic investors to essentially gain a dividend “twice”.
Image sourced from www.shutterstock.com
Kevin Davis, Australian Centre for Financial Studies
There is currently considerable interest in the practice of “dividend washing”. This refers to the practice of investors being able to trade shares cum-dividend for a period after the ex-dividend date…
Greece: not just riots and unemployment.
flikr/Imagaday
The IMF has conceded that mistakes were made in the way the first Greek bailout in May 2010 was handled. Its report suggests the need to refine the fund’s lending policies to accommodate for conditions…
A river at Cubbie Station, southwest Queensland, in 2004.
AAP/Supplied
Until the recent bid from a Chinese-Japanese consortium Shandong RuYi for megafarm Cubbie Station, it appeared the property would limp along under locally-based administration. But then the opportunity…
Sensible Australian farmers don’t object when foreign investors want to buy their problematic assets.
AAP Image/Cubbie Group
Controversy surrounding the recent sale of Cubbie Station in Queensland near the New South Wales border to (mainly) Chinese interests is not unexpected. Fears about foreign ownership in Australia are long-standing…
Tony Abbott finds himself caught between competing interests on his foreign investment policy.
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
Foreign investment, like any other policy, is a complex juggling act. A balance between welcoming foreign investment – without which Australia cannot survive – and protecting Australian interests in not…
If China opens up its capital account, there will be significant ramifications for Australia.
epSos.de
In previous articles on The Conversation, I have noted that our economic relationship with China stands on only one leg. In contrast to two-way trade – merchandise trade topped $120 billlion in the year…
Tony Abbott has taken aim at Chinese investment that comes with government connections, arguing that such investment is not in Australia’s national interest.
AAP
Opposition leader Tony Abbott made headlines recently when during a visit to China, he declared that “it would rarely be in Australia’s national interest to allow a foreign government or its agencies to…