John Singleton with Bob HowardRip Van Australia (Stanmore: Cassell Australia, 1977), pp. 98-99, under the heading “Foreign Investment”.

Politicians hate foreign investment. It’s time we started “to buy back the farm” they say. But what with?

It is a simple fact that Australian companies don’t have the capital required to develop our resources on their own. Lang Hancock tried to raise the money locally to develop our iron ore deposits. It was only after he failed to raise the money here that he went overseas.

We have to make up our minds about what we want. If we want a good standard of living, full employment and a healthy economy, then we must allow our industry to develop, rather than do our best to hamstring it at every turn. We have the resources, but we do not have the capital, which includes knowledge. Other countries have the capital, but do not have the resources. We need them as much as they need us and everyone can see it except the good old Australian Government.

But before overseas companies will do it, they need security. Nobody invests billions of dollars just for fun and at unnecessarily high risks. Thugs like Idi Amin are not looked upon as good risks. And Australia today would be rated at least a level or two behind even Uganda by international financiers. At least with Amin a multinational company would know where it stood.