The recent Pasconomic appeal of Glenn Stevens to business that it needs to lift its confidence and invest more gets the treatment it deserves today from Incitec Pivot CEO James Fazzino:
Incitec Pivot chief executive James Fazzino has slammed the nation’s lack of an energy policy as “a train wreck” and says companies are shunning local growth projects because Australia is not an attractive place to invest.
…Mr Fazzino says that Incitec, which is Australia’s largest fertiliser supplier and a big producer of mining explosives, is building its $US850 million ammonia plant in Louisiana rather than in Australia as a “strategic response” to high costs at home.
Last month RBA governor Glenn Stevens lamented the lack of corporate “animal spirits” holding the economy back, saying he has done what he can to encourage companies to build factories and hire workers by keeping the cash rate at a record low of 2.5 per cent.
…“The Reserve Bank governor is asking why people aren’t investing, and the answer, in part, is that Australia is just not an attractive place to invest,” Mr Fazzino said.
The United States in contrast has an energy policy to encourage value-added manufacturing where Australia has no policy at all, he said, praising the state of Louisiana’s prompt approval process.
“The state of Louisiana is open for business. They continue to ring us every month and ask, ‘What else can we do’ because they are about employing people in Louisiana,” he says.
Hear, hear! Gas prices, regulatory burdens and high dollar are sending Incitec, quite rightly, to the US. It’s not confidence, it’s competitiveness, or lack thereof.
