Publications

Is Australia's foreign investment regime in the national interest?

Andrew Shearer , Mark Thirlwell

Summary
In a paper written for an IPA conference on Australia's Investment Future, the Institute's Andrew Shearer and Mark Thirlwell take a look at the politics and economics of Australia’s foreign investment regime. They examine the extent to which the regime is adequate to safeguard the national interest in the context of Chinese investment in the Australian resource sector. Their conclusion is that there is no need to panic, either about the influx of Chinese investment, or about the restrictiveness of the current regime when it comes to foreign direct investment, although they do argue that some further liberalisation is warranted.

Their paper is available for download here.

The full list of papers delivered at the IPA conference is available here: http://www.ipa.org.au/sectors/australia%27s-open-investment-future-symposium

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China and the world: public opinion and foreign policy

The Lowy Institute has just released its first China Poll, a wide-ranging survey of Chinese public opinion towards a number of important international policy issues. By what do the Chinese people feel threatened? How do they feel about foreign investment from Australia, Canada and the United States? Which country do the Chinese people regard as the best place to be educated and what do they think of Australia - is it a good place to visit, a country with attractive values or is it suspicious of China?

The 2009 Lowy Institute China Poll asked a broad sample of the Chinese population these questions and others. The Poll was partly funded with the generous assistance of the MacArthur Foundation as part of the Lowy Institute’s MacArthur Foundation Asia Security Project.

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The 2009 Lowy Institute Poll

The fifth annual Lowy Institute Poll surveys Australian public opinion on a broad range of foreign policy issues. New questions this year cover the priority given to action on climate change, public attitudes towards relations with the US and China, foreign investment, asylum seekers, how to deal with Iran and perceptions about nuclear threats.

The Poll also repeated a number of questions asked in previous years, revealing important trends in Australian public opinion over the last five years.

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