‘Dangerous’ deals

MEMBER for Murray Helen Dalton has labelled China’s deal to purchase several Australian dairy brands as “dangerous”.

Her comments come after Chinese dairy company Mengniu announced it will pay Japanese beverage giant Kirin $600 million for the Lion Dairy and Drinks portfolio.

The Lion brands include Dairy Farmers, Masters and Pura milk; Dare and Farmers Union iced coffee; Big M, Dairy Farmers and Pura Classic flavoured milk; Vitasoy soy milk and coconut milk; juice brands Daily Juice, The Juice Brothers and Berri; and Yoplait yogurt.

“This is just one example of a long sequence of sales of important Australian assets to overseas investors,” Ms Dalton told The Guardian.

“The government is also approving the sale of one of Australia’s largest baby formula manufacturers to a Chinese company.

“This trend is dangerous. All of these decisions about foreign investors are done in secrecy without proper review processes.”

Ms Dalton said the Australian government was not standing by it’s reputation to protect Australian borders.

“In the last 30 years the Coalition has successfully portrayed themselves as strong at protecting our borders and putting Australian interest above foreign investment,” she said.

“But that’s not what is happening. Current rules actually favour foreign multinationals over Australian families.

“They should be protecting our farms, our land, our jobs and our way of life – but instead they are selling us off one by one.”

Mengniu currently buys milk from dairy processors in New Zealand and Europe, and said it would step up its purchases from Australian suppliers once acquisition was approved by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Mengniu said it was expecting to obtain approval from the regulators in the first half of 2020.