Aust. Treasurer 'a rabid protectionist’

Press, 3 November 1983, Page 9

Aust. Treasurer 'a rabid protectionist’

PA Wellington The Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon, on the eve of a trip to Australia, has called the Australian Treasurer, Mr John Stone, “a rabid and inflexible protectionist.” Writing in his regular column in “Management” magazine on the Closer Economic Relations agreement with Australia, Mr Muldoon said he had not expected investment policies to be a major stumbling block to the agreement. “I had reckoned without the attitude of the Australian Treasury,” he wrote. “John Stone, the Australian Treasurer, who I have known for many, many years, and regarded highly as an efficient Treasury officer, proves on his own home ground to be a rabid and inflexible protectionist. “He and his Treasury colleagues do not want foreign investment in Australia, and in using the term ‘foreign’ they include New Zealand.” Mr Muldoon maintains

that if New Zealand were to change its foreign investment poicy to agree with Australia’s it would mean asking either the A.N.Z. bank or Westpac to withdraw from New Zealand, a proposal he calls ludicrous but has not completely ruled out. In his column, Mr Muldoon said he hoped that, “following my discussions with the Australian Prime Minister, we can move before too long to a solution of this problem. “I have made it clear to him that failure to permit New Zealand industry to invest in Australia, in order to facilitate penetration of the Australian market, would strike a blow at the whole C.E.R. concept.” Mr Muldoon will address the confederation of Western Industry in Perth today. In Adelaide tomorrow he will address the Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Mr Muldoon will return to New Zealand on Sunday.