Foreign Investment in Australia

I saw this in the paper this morning:

CHINESE state-owned firms are still eyeing off Australian resources companies for strategic investments.

Western Australian iron ore junior FerrAus announced today it had plans to sell 12 per cent of the company to China Railway Materials (CRM) for about $12.6 million.

we're all aware of the threats to Australian ownership of big business and our assets, but are we looking at the small fish ... often there can be tons of tiny fish which can make for a bigger catch than a single tuna.

macro economic vs micro economic

This article reminded me, that talking to a friend of mine at home (I'm Australian but living in Finland at the moment) recently said that some person had offered to buy his business for a foreign investor. The person was intending the broker the operation to sell to a non Australian person simply for the purposes of them obtaining Australian residency.

Seems to be some sort of loop hole which while intended to facilitate business is giving people a leg in who may not otherwise have a an opportunity.

You see, small business is not only one of the largest employers in Australia, it is also the most sensitive. Owning and working in a small business is quite a stressful thing in itself especially in the current times. People often work long hours and have little opportunity to take leave.

So when someone comes along offering to buy your business so that some foreigner can move in and take it over in exchange for a residency it may just seem too good an opportunity to miss.

There is then nothing to say that the new owner will have any sence of how to operate this business and that it may go broke soon, leaving us with migrant who is now a resident while side stepping the immigration procedures.

nice
Looks to me that the immigration department needs to start looking at the bigger picture.