Joyce: VDL sale shows impartiality

Yesterday Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison announced giant Tasmanian dairy farming business Van Diemen’s Land Company (VDL) would be sold to Moon Lake Investments - owned by Chinese business man Lu Xianfeng - subject to various conditions.

Mr Morrison said approval of the $280 million sale was consistent with the Foreign Investment Review Board’s recommendation.

Mr Joyce told media today the company was already foreign owned - by the New Plymouth District Council (NPDC) based in New Zealand - and had never been held in Australian hands.

“This transaction was the transaction between one foreign entity to another foreign entity,” he said.

Mr Joyce said his critics incorrectly paraphrased “everything that I am about as a person” as being “parochial, xenophobic, whatever” and would have had “ammunition” to enforce that perception, if he blocked the VDL sale.

But he said the government only blocks “what is right” on foreign investment applications; like the Kidman & Co late last year and the bid for GrainCorp by Archer Daniels Midland in late 2013.

“I will cast my eye very diligently over these issues and work with the Treasurer to make sure we come up with the best outcome and I believe that is happening in this instance,” he said.

“We have the capacity when required to stand up and say no, as we did with ADM.

“I think everybody would acknowledge, especially my good friends in some of the more learned tabloids such as the Australian Financial Review that if we were to say no against this one, I think they would have real ammunition to say that it's parochialism.

“Therefore, I want them to acknowledge there are times we say no and times we say yes.”

Mr Joyce said the VDL sale was supported by local farmers and was only 1 per cent of Australia’s dairy production.

He said it was also the first entity to be covered by new multinational tax arrangements that ensured the Australian people get a “fair and better return or more stringent oversight of what is earned by this entity”.

“So for those reasons and many more I feel a sense of comfort with this,” he said.

“If we had a problem with foreign ownership we should've had it early in the 1800s, because that's when (DVL) was first foreign owned and it's been foreign owned all the way through.

“In fact, this transaction itself is between one foreign entity and another foreign entity, a council in Taranaki in New Zealand and a Chinese dairy company.”

Tasmanian Independent MP Andrew Wilkie has been one of the biggest critics of the government over the sale demanding the PM to intervene and the Treasurer not approve the sale.

Mr Wilkie said he was disappointed by the Treasurer’s decision because the government had an opportunity to “shape the commercial landscape” and ensure VDL could only be bought by an Australian buyer.

“There was at least one Australian buyer in the market and if the government had of made it clear that it had to be bought by Australian interests, I have no doubt other Australian buyers would have thrown their hat in the ring,” he said.

Mr Wilkie said VDL was the largest daily producing asset in the country and an asset of strategic national importance.

“Now when you take a 20,000ha operation, 30,000 cows, heifers and calves on 25 farms and put them under foreign control, you hand over control of supply and price, to foreigners, for a significant portion of the milk supply in this country,” he said.

“I’m happy to feed the Chinese but let’s control the supply and the price as we feed the Chinese and let’s profit from it ourselves.

“This government seems to be moving towards allowing the sale of the Kidman beef cattle empire (and) has just signed off on the sale of VDL the biggest dairy asset in Australia.

“They don’t seem to understand the public mood on this or they don’t respect the public mood.”

Asked if he was being xenophobic, Mr Wilkie told Canberra media “I don’t know that I’ve used the word Chinese in my response to you so far today, if I have, I’ve only used it once or twice”.

“I’ve tried to avoid it, because I don’t think this about the Chinese,” he said.

Liberal Tasmanian Senator Richard Colbeck welcomed the VDL sale approval, saying international investment had “always been a vital component of the success of industry in Australia”.

“There is simply not enough capital in Australia to support the stunning potential of our key growth industries, such as agriculture,” he said.

“It is a fact that without it Australia would not be the prosperous country we are today and without continued encouragement for more investment we will never realise the opportunities ahead of us.

“I am confident that this decision is in the interests of Australians and will result in more jobs for Tasmanians – all current VDL employees will be offered ongoing employment on equal terms.”