Belly, Chinalco= Chinese govt. As controller of Rio Tinto and Rio's major customer there is a problem. See yabby and spindoc above.

My fear is that Rudd is using the Ozmetals case as a smokescreen and they will ok the Rio bid. "see look how tough we were.."

Bell, you started this thread by saying you agreed that for Fitzgibbon there was no defense but in your last post offered a defense for him to hide behind ie it's all about the opposition. There is no defense.

I'm with Yabby on this (yes, really). Robert Gottleibson is an extremely astute business analyst, and we need to be vigilant about exactly what we let the Chinese (or anyone else, for that matter, but especially China) take over. Australia will be bled dry for its resources, and a few years down the track we will all step back, look at how much in debt Australia is to China, and be asking "what the hell happened?".

As for Fitzgibbon's junkets - public servants of all levels in all jurisdictions are specifically precluded from accepting "freebies" (bribes), and we should be able to hold politicians to a higher standard. It's a pity we can't - on both sides.

Nicky

Yabby is right on this one.China is presently buying up a lot of rural land.With the need for food and bio-fuels land will be like oil.

You don't sell up income earning assets.We Aussies are living in a fool's paradise.It is time to bite the bullet,work harder,reduce debt and stop the inflationary stimulus packages.Eventually will we have hyper-inflation,shortages,high interest rates,high unemployment and an economy in ruin.We all will then be in absolute economic slavery with no hope of escape.

I think Joel Fitzgibbon's multiple failures to disclose and his brazen lying when caught out do indeed constitute a sackable offence.

Rudd is following in Howard's footsteps on this one. They both made a song and dance about accountability when pitching for government, and talked loudly of the high standards they would expect of their ministers. Yet, when breaches have occurred, both have failed to follow through with incisive action and to demand resignations.

In my view, this incident has weakened Rudd's integrity. Howard had none to begin with, so we didn't expect any better, but with Rudd I think we did.

I haven't any evidence, but my gut reaction to Rudd's failure to act is that he's possibly not squeaky clean in this area himself. It looked to me as though he went soft on Fitzgibbon to avoid the risk of his minister in turn spilling the beans on some of his own trips, paid lunches or whatever.

I agree with CJ. There's no such thing as a free lunch. All these corporate freebies are attempts to buy influence and politicians should reject them.

I am sorry .but I am now getting a big grin out of the thread.
Bronwyn even says Rudd is ,well , what she says is not supported by polling.
Yesterdays Australian asked the question, is the government too close to China?
The wording may not be right but its close,56% said no, hardly an ALP paper, hardly biased, but Representative of voters.
18% thats the amount they want to buy, not a controlling interest, fact is we do not own Rio tinto!
Her Majesty the queen of England is a major share holder, maybe owns more than any Australian.
Some of our biggest mining interests can never be sold to China, other foreign owners will not sell to them.

Belly

"I am sorry but I am now getting a big grin out of the thread. Bronwyn even says Rudd is ,well , what she says is not supported by polling. Yesterdays Australian asked the question, is the government too close to China? The wording may not be right but its close,56% said no, hardly an ALP paper, hardly biased, but Representative of voters."

Belly, if you're going to sling off at other posters comments, you need to present some sort of coherent reasoning.

My post referred solely to government accountability. I didn't mention China, so I'm not sure why you're linking my comments with a poll on our relationship with that particular country.

You seem to be implying that government transparency isn't important when the likely economic gain is a large one, as it is with China. That's a slippery slope position that inevitably leads to corruption. It makes no difference to me what country we're dealing with. Government representatives should at all costs avoid bribes, freebies and corporate largess.

And if you find that so amusing, Belly, please try and explain why.