From the AFR:
The Woomera missile testing range deep in the SA desert is one of Australia’s highest security locations.
So it seems strange that China State Grid Corporation, the company that was just blocked from buying NSW power firm Ausgrid, was a few years ago allowed to become the biggest shareholder in ElectraNet, the high voltage power transmission grid that supplies Woomera.
…The filings suggest that ElectraNet lines run on or close to the territory of Woomera itself, which could require servicing by ElectraNet staff.
That raises an obvious question: If China State Grid can supply Woomera, why has Treasurer Scott Morrison just blocked it on national security grounds from buying NSW government-owned Ausgrid, a power network whose main business is in Sydney residential suburbs?
Actually, it raises three very different questions:
- Why was a Chinese SOE allowed to power Woomera?
- Why do we have such chaotic foreign investment regime that random decisions are a weekly occurrence?
- What is Turnbull going to do about it and why us he silent on the issue?
