Senator Joyce welcomed the announcement by FIRB (Foreign Investment Review Board) that they had concerns about the merger between the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) and the Singapore Exchange (SGX).To cut to the chase they have basically said no and the Treasurer Mr Swan agrees.
I am a little surprised because FIRB was always the friend who could never say no, but apparently this time they did. If one was cynical one might suggest that the political ramifications of this deal, in that, sections of Sydney would become superfluous to requirements, meant that former purists for the efficient allocation of capital became little old agrarian socialists just for the day.
Isn’t it funny how when your house or job is on the line pragmatism becomes the predominant economic theorem? Isn’t it a shame that when other sectors of Australian agricultural marketing capacity has been bought up and sold overseas, that those who are pragmatic in this decision were the ideological theoretical zealots on other decisions.
Anyhow, I’ve always thought it was ludicrous that it would be in Australia’s national interest to take a cornerstone of the economy and move it to another country and on this occasion so do others. Having two merged exchanges, one in Sydney, one in Singapore, both in approximately the same time zone, both in generally the same region, both speaking the same language, would only have one outcome. That is, where there are two now, very soon there would only be one and that would be in Singapore.