FED:Abbott risks foreign investment, Shorten

AAP General News (Australia)
08-14-2011
FED:Abbott risks foreign investment, Shorten

CANBERRA, Aug 14 AAP - The federal government has accused Opposition Leader Tony Abbott
of endangering Australia's foreign investment framework by backing the right of farmers
to deny miners access to their land.

"If you're going to upend the whole way of doing business in Australia here in the
mining sector I wouldn't do it some reckless, risky thought bubble, Assistant Treasurer
Bill Shorten told ABC Television on Sunday.

Mr Shorten was responding to comments Mr Abbott made on Friday, but was reluctant to
repeat when quizzed by reporters in Perth on Saturday.

Mr Abbott agreed farmers had "a right to say no" if they did not want miners to come
onto their land to explore for energy and mineral deposits.

"I'm surprised that he has put such a, to be blunt, sovereign risk in investment in
Australia on the table," Mr Shorten said.

But the opposition leader's stance was backed by another senior coalition figure at the weekend.

Queensland LNP leader Campbell Newman has accused the Bligh government of allowing
coal seam gas projects to grow at breakneck speed to prop up their budget without concern
for farmers and the environment.

He also pledged to ban open cut coal mining in prime agricultural land in the Darling
Downs, west of Brisbane, and the central Queensland's grain growing region, known as the
Golden Triangle.

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