06-July-2011
Portfolio Media Releases
Under the Gillard Government Australia now has a very real sovereign risk problem, with international investors switching off due to a host of unresolved issues and bad decisions headlined by a carbon tax.
“Evidence on the ground confirms that international investors are taking an increasingly dim view of Australia as an investment destination as Labor undermines our comparative advantages,” Shadow Minister for Finance Andrew Robb said.
“I have been advised that one of the world’s top four investment houses, with trillions-of-dollars under management, has stopped investing in Australia instead looking to more stable jurisdictions.
“Equally disturbing are reports from China that Chinese investors were increasingly ‘switching off’ in relation to Australia and instead turning to opportunities in the likes of Siberia, Mongolia and Africa,” Mr Robb said.
There is a long list of things that have for the first time put Australia and sovereign risk in the same sentence in a range of areas. These include:
- carbon tax,
- mining tax,
- dumped plan to nationalise 40 per cent of the mining industry,
- re-nationalisation of telecommunications,
- snap ban on live cattle exports,
- reneging on deals under the PBS,
- Murray Darling Basin mismanagement,
- breakdown in foreign relations,
- Changing the goal posts on the Australia Network tender,
- ban on uranium sales to India,
- mandatory internet filter,
- tacit support for Wild Rivers laws,
- failure to deliver an energy white paper,
- health and hospital reform uncertainty,
- mandatory limits on pokies,
- increasing regulatory burden,
- failure to deliver tax reform - and the list goes on.
“On top of all this we have a prime minister in Julia Gillard who lacks authority and considered out of her depth. Everywhere I go across the country there is a real ‘crisis-of-confidence,” Mr Robb said.
“Labor’s desperate formal coalition with the Greens is compounding the problems. Bob Brown is a walking sovereign risk, as demonstrated by his determination to shut down the coal industry and attacks on foreign investors.
“The Gillard government has already done untold damage to Australia’s reputation which will take years to rebuild. We have now reached the point where the only way we can get Australia back on track is to change the government,” Mr Robb said.