Backs to financial future

The problem is that Brown does not make the same noises about other foreign investors from other countries - after all, no nation has a perfect human rights record.

Foreign investment is critical to Australia's future.

If we send a signal to the world that we are putting up the shutters, then capital, being footloose, will simply head elsewhere.

Claiming, like Brown, the Liberal Party and some wacky independents, that we need to assess the national interest in deciding whether or not to allow forcing investment is simply a recipe for giving in to vested interests like farmers and other protected species who think they have a right to an income.

If the Greens and the xenophobes in the major parties are allowed to set the rules on foreign investment then Australia can kiss goodbye to the days of sustained economic growth.