The economists tell us there is an under-lying deficit in our economy because we need investment from abroad to expand our economy. This would be totally un-necessary if Australia invested in Australia. The potential superannuation funds that can be invested plus the huge income from the Carbon Tax probably increases Australia's worth by billions, even trillions. Why are we sending this money out of the country. The Future Fund and all, other Government Investment in addition to a large proportion of the countries savings should be forced to remain in Australia not float off to world Stock Exchanges. We all know that in the long run Land and Bricks are the safest investments, not foreign currencies.
We whinge and whine when China buys our inheritance but we don't seem to hear anything about what Australia is buying overseas. Buy Australian or invest Australian is a joke when it comes to Big Business. Governments exist to pander to Big Business on the spurious argument that they create employment, growth and riches.
We complain about foreign investment but do we ask ourselves why they are investing in Australia? Primarily it is due to Australia’s stability economically, socially and politically. Investors know, that dissimilar to many countries we are unlikely to nationalise anything, confiscate anything or change our constitution on a whim. Foreign investors want certainty and Australia provides that. We have virtually no government debt, unlike Greece and Italy, we have little private debt relative to our average incomes, unlike Ireland and Britain, and unlike America we are not constantly increasing our national debit at an unsustainable rate with their aversion to raise taxes or cutting expenditure and a need for continuous warfare.
Regardless of the political climate foreign investors want certainty and a future and Australia has that in spades. Overseas investors through private equity and superannuation funds want a long-term blue-chip investments. They see us as a potential food bowl for Asia, they see what we can do for a growing China and a wealthier Asia, countries who are no longer living on rice or subsistence farming. The Asian Tiger as we keep referring to it, is not. It is an Asian Elephant ready to consume huge amounts of our agricultural produce.
Australia on the other hand seems to have more of an interest in Shares and Bonds and playing the Stock Exchanges of the world. Maybe this stems from our need to gamble. We risk everything on overseas markets, the world financial crisis proved that, our investors got stung by people playing with our money through roulette wheels of junk deals, don't let me out when it comes to fake money, cyber-cash, Bitcoin etc. If you can't hold it then don't hold it. We don’t seem to be satisfied with pokies gobbling up our money so we are silly enough to let stock markets gobble it up too.
Our CEO’s, like those in other developed western nations are more intent on a quick buck, a healthy bottom line, an undeserved bonus even when losing investors money for them. Asia on the other hand, particularly China, wants long-term investments that may only grow half as much but will earn twice as much over many years. True that it is still only 10% of our arable land, we still have a lot left, but as the world recovers, as Asia grows they will want more and more of it. Asia wants certainty, they want stability and good prospects for growth. They see it in Australia. I don’t think we have to fear the Yellow Peril invading us, ever. We will need to wake up soon to the Yellow Peril taking us over economically.
As Bob Katter put it ‘why do we need foreign companies to fuck us when we can do it so well ourselves’.
