At the Economics Inquiry today, Senator Joyce raised concerns that Overseas Equity Funds are less than transparent in their ownership.

“ASIC confirmed there are problems in achieving true disclosure of ownership.” Senator Joyce said.

“The issue with this is that as these funds start investing in such things as the Australian media industry, we really do not have clear knowledge of where the fundamental ownership lies and what vested interests they may have.

“Accordingly these same equity bodies could circumvent the cross media laws as you potentially have the same underlying interest behind different equity companies who have purchased different sections of the media.

“This is an issue that needs to be tightened up in the ownership of media. Media is one of the fundamental mechanisms for reflecting the views of our democratic process and we must know the details of who is in a position of influence in that market.” Senator Joyce added.