Aust. trade-freezing formula

Press, 23 June 1984, Page 8

Aust. trade-freezing formula

PA Auckland The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, believes he has found a forumla to avoid restrictions on Tasman investment after the decision on July 14.

He had reached agreement on “a personal basis” in talks in Sydney yesterday with the Australian Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Bowen. The formula would “get rid of the Australian Treasury and the Foreign Investiment Review Board and all those bureaucrats," Sir Robert said. Tasman investment would be treated the same as investment within either country. “We won’t do it overnight. It has got to be phased in,

with maybe a few exceptions and safeguards,” said Sir Robert. “You cannot have this opening up (of trade) without permitting an investor, a manufacturer or whatever, setting up a company in Australia to promote his goods on that side.” Sir Robert said he could not resist a dig at the Australian Treasury Secretary, Mr John Stone, whom he blamed for having held up investments such as a proposed Australian branch of the National Bank of New Zealand.

“It comes back to a question of theory,” he said.

“If you want to stop it, give it to a top-level bureaucrat. If you want to

make it go, give it to a toplevel politician. “Down below the top, the Public Service is very, very good.

“But you get a top-level bureaucrat . . . over there and he will act as though he is a maker of policy.”