I didn't think!!! I experimented!!!
I haven't confused anything - investment is investment, be it owning shares or land.
The irony of the argument over the Crafar farms is that the Farmers who are complaining about Chinese purchase of NZ land belong to a Co-operative that owns farm land all over the globe.
TOP QUOTE: “The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.”
Hey, kids! Captain Hero here with Getting Laid Tip 213 - The Backrub Buddy!
Find a chick who’s just been dumped and comfort her by massaging her shoulders, and soon, she’ll be massaging your prostate.
http://www.firb.gov.au/content/default.asp
The size of the local oligarchies is more of an issue in the resources sector.
Aw come-on man, I gave you a direct link. You ask valid questions but if you want to be taken seriously, please do a little research.
Ok. The buyers in Australia are Qatar, China, Brazil, Japan, Britain, etc etc. Why they bother puzzles me because Oz is mostly desert and approaching a fresh water crisis. Ironic given the floods they have had but water for farming is becoming scarce.
The Oz commentators are envious that NZ has introduced controls on farmland ownership. A clip from the site I linked to.
"Because the sale of agricultural land in Australia is exempt under Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) regulations, there is rarely much attention given to the overseas purchases of farmland unless the purchase of assets exceeds the $231 million threshold.
This means that there is no central source of data on just who owns what farmland — and what country they represent."
While we are on the subject, NZers own substantial chunks of Uruguayan dairy farm land. Should that be allowed?
Saudi Arabia and Bahrain long-term lease thousands of hectares in Ethiopia to grow food to ship back to the Middle East. Ethiopia. One of the poorest countries in the world. With a population of 80 million and famine. There is a situation where you really have to ask yourself if this is morally right?
China and India are leasing/buying swathes of good agricultural land across Africa and they make no bones about it: they are aiming to feed their own nations in the years to come.
Here is a good article from The Economist on the subject: http://www.economist.com/node/13692889
Don't get me wrong. I'm not comfortable about the Crafar sale and believe there is a serious issue to be discussed. The investment just announced by the NZ Superannuation Fund in NZ Dairy Farms is exactly what we should be doing for ourselves. I'm not convinced by the introduction of new capital argument. There is a lot of money in NZ and we could invest our own capital without depending upon overseas interests.
They can't even agree if they should record it.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nati...-1225899238669
Apparently it's extremely unlikely that fireblight would be dissiminated by the import of fruit from affected countries for direct sale. Infection in Aus is far more likely from the use of imported material used in the industry itself.
You can get some of the extremely valuable NZ developed varieties in Aus because they bought NZ rootstock...
Go soothingly on the grease mud, as there lurks the skid demon
By all means don't take me seriously, that won't concern me in the slightest as all I can do is raise concerns... add me to your ignore list or just skip my posts.
I did have a look to see if some of the now foreign owned farms had had local competition (granted only 3, so yes, I have assumed that the were smooth sales) and there wasn't any in those cases. As your linky highlights, perhaps there is no immediate need because the govt hasn't been tracking the sales as they have land to burn, or taking the sales seriously enough to understand potential future impacts, let alone to search for local investment to prevent an overseas sale. But in our case eyebrows have been raised as to why the local guys didn't get the gig. Oh coz one or two of them are wankers really doesn't cut it if they do right by the land. Short term yes they will have lost a few million, these days that's chump change, but the future considerations could then turn to how they would treat the land, not to what will happen should food suddenly become scarce.
I too have a hard time understanding why China doesn't have enough grass for cows to graze in order to produce food. So I'm there with you when you ask why. A few reasons spring to mind, but none that I can prove and I know you like your proof. One of them is that there is oil in the rock (saw a doco years ago, although expensive to get). One of them is the creation of money for economies (the land never cost us a cent so it's 100% profit). Who prints China's? I doubt they are beholden to the same money source as we are. Who knows what the real reason is, is could be as simple as having assets. But I'd be interested to know if China/US would defend their land.
I didn't think!!! I experimented!!!
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Bookmarks