Senator WHISH-WILSON (Tasmania) (15:27): I move: That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Families and Social Services (Senator Ruston) and the Minister for Aged Care and Senior Australians (Senator Colbeck) to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today relating to the administration of the Social Services portfolio. Foreign investment in Australia is a very sensitive, very thorny, very confronting issue for a lot of Australians, especially in my home state of Tasmania. It's one of the key questions I get asked about when I get around the state. I've always supported foreign investment as long as the laws and the regulations around foreign investment are robust and deliver in the national interest. I think it's incumbent on every senator to make sure we have laws and processes in this country that are robust and have community confidence. The questions asked by Senator Patrick demand answers. Yesterday I found out that one of the last Tasmanian companies left, Bellamy's Organic, a company listed on the stock market that's been an international success, has had a takeover offer from a foreign company, a Chinese company called Mengniu. When I found out about this, my first response was one of surprise, because this company, Bellamy's, had a virtual share price crash just over 18 months ago when they found out that the Chinese government hadn't granted them certification to sell their high-value milk based products into China. The share price went from nearly $24 down to $7 or $8. I want to paint a picture for the senators in the chamber here today. I'll let you guys join the dots if you choose to do this. Let's say I'm an investor in this very promising Tasmanian Australian company—I may be a retiree, with a superannuation fund—and I see my share price and the value of my investment fall by two-thirds. Over the next 18 months the company, very patiently, say they're waiting for approval from the Chinese government to sell their products into China. Then you find out that the management of your company has accepted a takeover offer to sell the shares at half the price you paid for them to—and this is the interesting part—a Chinese company that has as its biggest shareholder the Chinese government. This is the same government that won't give your company the accreditation and certification process it needs to sell its products. What would you do and what would you think? Throw into this the fact that this Chinese government owned competitor is its biggest competitor in the market. Your company, Bellamy's, has taken away market share because of what was a very valid scare—the melamine scare in China, where melamine, a poisonous product, was mixed into milk powder. You find out that your company has been in discussions with its biggest competitor, a Chinese government owned competitor, for nearly six months. You'd be forgiven for thinking that the share price of your stock had been suppressed by not getting approval to sell into China and because the same company that is buying your company, which is partly owned by the Chinese government—reports today vary from 18 per cent to 28 per cent—has deliberately manipulated the share price of your company. It has exhibited predatory behaviour towards the stock price then come in and bought your asset at a steal. The questions I would like to ask the CEO of Bellamy's are: Why sell the company now? If you've been waiting patiently to get your accreditation in China, why sell the company when the historic share price tells you that you'd very likely have had a significant revaluation of your share price evaluation had you got that accreditation? Were the CEO and the company not confident that they were ever going to get approved in China? This raises a number of really important questions for our Treasurer to look at. The Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Act 1975 requires that foreign investment is not contrary to the national interest. Our government's foreign investment policy states: The national interest test also recognises the importance of Australia’s market-based system, where companies are responsive to shareholders and where investment and sales decisions are driven by market forces. There are a whole range of questions here that need to be asked in the FIRB process. I have written to the Treasurer today, and I know that other senators in this place, such as Senator Patrick and Senator Lambie, feel very deeply about this issue. I have written to both the Treasurer and our Minister for Foreign Affairs and asked some hard questions about what they did or didn't know about the certification process and what exactly they'll be looking at in terms of the FIRB process. It sets a very bad precedent if we let foreign companies do this to Australian businesses. (Time expired) Question agreed to.