I recently became aware of some appalling facts from www.ausbuy.com.au regarding the foreign takeover of Australia.
Australian Governments over recent years have allowed and sometimes even encouraged, foreign ownership of many of our manufacturers, food processors, iconic brands, wool and beef, to name a few. They’ve allowed an almost “open season” on agricultural land and mineral assets so that many highly significant Australian interests, control and profits are now in foreign hands.
Cheap imports and dumping are killing our manufacturing, processing, labour and skills resources and we are even more dependent on finite mineral exports to “balance” the books. When these inevitably expire, how do our so-called leaders expect to pay back what Australia owes? Note that annual interest alone on our debt as at 2011 was five BILLION DOLLARS ($5,000,000,000). Did you know that the debt has already hit Paul Keating’s magical figure of about 30 per cent of GDP (Gross Domestic Product)? If he was correct, this means our economy is in very poor shape and equal to that of a “banana republic”.
Our leaders have been conned into adopting a “level playing field” in trade, whilst trading partners place restrictions on us and we stupidly allow them to dump subsidised products here, thus squeezing out producers and industries.
What should our leaders do? Some plainly obvious suggestions include: 1. Stop all sale of freehold land to foreign interests, just as most other countries do. 2. Insist any foreign ownership of any productive assets be no more than 49 per cent so as to retain control in Australia. 3. Introduce truth in labelling legislation for all consumer goods and police this stringently.
Aussie consumers must not sit back and say “what can little me do about this”. For the sake of our country and our kids, you need to look at the facts, such as those provided by AUSBUY, and take a stand right now.
I suggest we all need to wake up and: 1. Tell our political representatives to enact legislation to fix the problems immediately. 2. Slow down in supermarkets and take the time to look at labels and buy Australian produced / owned / made goods at every opportunity, and pay a bit more if need be in the knowledge that we are buying sound, safe food and supporting our own kind, not aggressive foreign interests; hint… get the Ausbuy Buying Guide to see clearly which are Aussie and which are foreign products. 3. Encourage Local, State, Federal Governments as well as agencies and businesses to source and buy Australian, even when it costs a bit more. 4. Donate to Ausbuy independent research projects to improve community knowledge about the issues above.
Ian Collett
Tamworth
