The OZ Minerals sale to the People’s Republic of China is a great disappointment and shows that the Treasurer, Mr Swan, does not have the capacity to stand up on behalf of Australia to the pressures that were placed on him, said Senator Barnaby Joyce, the Leader of the Nationals in the Senate.

“Treasurer Swan’s approval of the sale of OZ Minerals to the Chinese Government means the wealth that is in the ground at Century Zinc mine is now the wealth of the Chinese people,” he said. “Our role is as an employee to drive a truck to cart their wealth out of our nation. This does not auger well for the future and is a precursor to further losses of our long-term strategic assets to the governments of foreign nations. This is the divestment of the Australian people from the historical primary source of their wealth.

“With Century Zinc the Chinese people now also own Golden Grove, Rosebery, Avebury and Dugald River mining operations. The driving force behind this approval was that OZ Minerals, by their own actions, had got themselves into too much debt and thus had compromised their own destiny. Apparently to save their money our nation has to compromise its own sovereign wealth in key strategic assets. It is a peculiar path that the foolish actions by one company are a good enough reason to divest Australia of key strategic assets that now become the long-term benefaction of another nation and its people.

“There is also a very sobering message in there for Australia itself with its manic acquisition of massive debt. There is the foreshadowed increase in our nation’s credit card limit beyond $200 billion which should be seen in a basket with the underwriting of the sub prefecture debt of the states of approximately $150 billion. What sort of surplus do we need just to pay the interest bill? Does the Rudd Government have any plan to get out of this debt or will the provider of the debt pull all the strings and hold sway over our nation’s future in a manner both explicit and implicit.”