Seven people have been diagnosed with hepatitis A after eating frozen imported pomegranate purchased at Coles supermarkets, prompting NSW Health to warn anyone who bought the product to throw it out immediately. Australian-grown pomegranate – both fresh and frozen – has not been implicated. Dr Vicky Sheppeard, director of communicable diseases at NSW Health, said…
Category: Exports / Imports
Chinese-backed property developer Boyuan plans to develop new town near west Sydney planned airport Badgerys Creek
ASX-listed Chinese-backed property developer Boyuan Holdings has teamed with Westfield shopping centre owner Scentre Group and the Western Sydney University to create a major new town in western Sydney near the planned airport at Badgerys Creek. Boyuan’s other projects include a resort in Pokolbin in the NSW Hunter Valley and residential and commercial projects in…
China push to buy 45 year old Liddell coal plant
The Chinese conglomerate that controls Australia’s largest cotton farm has approached Malcolm Turnbull’s office to express interest in buying the Liddell coal-power plant in the NSW Hunter Valley. UPDATED: Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce have both used the Coalition partyroom meeting to urge Malcolm Turnbull to do more to keep the Liddell coal power station…
Chinese lining up for Australian agriculture businesses: HSBC
HSBC says asset hungry Chinese businesses are lining up to invest in Australian agriculture because of food production quality and tariff reductions under the free trade agreement between the two countries. The global banking giant is expanding its operations in Australia to play a much bigger role in the sector and to strengthen its connection to…
Strategic issues at play in Chinese Port of Newcastle deal
China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative has attracted global suspicion as a potential means by which the country may gain strategic control of trade links. It is in that context that last week’s report by Andrew White in The Australian, noting the transfer of ownership of 50 per cent of the Port of Newcastle from…
Indonesian Mangoes set to be imported into Australia
Indonesia looks set to begin exporting mangoes to Australia for the first time, after a trade deal was advanced between the two nations in Melbourne last week. According to Indonesian media, the first trays of Indonesian mangoes are due to arrive in October, putting them in direct competition with the Australian harvest. While plenty of…
China an ‘extreme’ threat to Australia: ASIO
China is listed as an “extreme” threat on a secret country-by-country counter-intelligence index compiled by Australia’s domestic spy agency. ASIO’s Deputy Director-General Counter-Espionage and Interference Peter Vickery told parliament today the level of espionage and foreign interference in Australia was now worse than at the height of the Cold War. “We do have examples, current…
Red alert: Warning as China eyes SA’s Flinders Port deal
A CHINESE corporation Landbridge that sparked a global diplomatic incident expressed interest in securing a stake in SA’s Flinders Ports, which controls a crucial Port Adelaide site near where the $50 billion future submarines will be built. The Advertiser can reveal retiring Trade and Investment Minister Martin Hamilton-Smith and SA Government bureaucrats met senior managers…
Labor plans joint ventures with China in Australia’s north
Labor could enter jointly funded infrastructure ventures with the Chinese government in Australia’s north under Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative, all as part of an escalated embrace of Asia, should it win the next election. Shadow treasurer Chris Bowen will today propose coordinating the $5 billion Northern Australia Infrastructure Fund with the Belt and Road…
The true price of accepting Chinese cash – China’s debt-trap diplomacy snares our Asian neighbours
It wasn’t long ago that local entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka’s remote Hambantota district were running “white elephant” tours of the sleepy town’s Chinese-funded, multi-billion-dollar attractions. They would start at the international airport dubbed the “emptiest airport in the world” and move on to the port with no ships, and finally the cricket stadium. In symbolism…
Rise of imported seafood as commercial fishermen squeezed out
THE Central Coast has a wealth of wonderful waterways. And latest catch data shows local fish stocks are on par with a decade ago but most of the seafood on offer is imported. Amid the rush for seafood ahead of Good Friday, a traditional meat-free day, the Express Advocate can reveal the majority of fish…
China rejects Murray Goulburn milk, formula
Beleaguered dairy processor Murray Goulburn is blaming administrative errors for the rejection of shipments of its milk and infant formula in China last year, dismissing suggestions it was being punished for bypassing Chinese bidders in favour of a $1.3 billion takeover offer by Canadian giant Saputo. Murray Goulburn confirmed the incidents, which saw as much…