(Repeats story published late Friday; no changes to text)
By Byron Kaye
SYDNEY, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Australia must standardise its
foreign investment laws, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on
Friday, as his government faces criticism from opposition
politicians about asset sales to Chinese investors.
Turnbull was speaking to reporters hours after the Foreign
Investment Review Board (FIRB) blocked the A$350 million ($252
million) sale of Australia's largest cattle ranch to Chinese
firms on the grounds of national interest.
That deal was blocked as opposition politicians raised
security concerns about last month's A$506 million deal by the
government of the Northern Territory to lease the Port of Darwin
to Chinese-owned firm Landbridge.
The outcry over foreign investments could cast a pall over
the sale by the government of New South Wales, Australia's
largest state, of its electricity grid in a deal expected to
bring in at least A$8 billion.
Investors are due to submit bids for the first phase of what
is set to be the country's largest privatisation sale on Monday
and only one the four consortia expected to take part doesn't
include foreign firms.
"We do need to be very careful that we're not sending out
mixed messages," said James Laurenceson, deputy director of
University of Technology Sydney's Australian-China Relations
Institute. "We have to be aware in Australia that there is
international competition for Chinese investment."
The FIRB approves asset sales to Chinese investors over
A$252 million, but the Port of Darwin deal was not reviewed by
the regulator because it was a lease.
Turnbull said his government would consult all state
governments to ensure "all foreign acquisitions of the relevant
size (are) subject to the same process".
In an email to Reuters, Treasurer Scott Morrison said the
government was "acutely aware of the sensitivities regarding
foreign investment in strategic national assets and critical
infrastructure" and was working on strengthening regulations.
The Port of Darwin backlash follows similar deals that
escaped political outcry.
In 2014, Australia sold Port of Newcastle, the world's
busiest coal terminal, to state-owned China Merchants Group Ltd
CNMGP.UL and local firm Hastings. A year earlier, it sold the
second busiest container terminal to a consortium partly owned
by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Hastings and the Abu Dhabi investment firm, along with
Chinese, Canadian, Kuwaiti and local interests, are expected to
bid for the New South Wales electricity network sale, people
familiar with the matter have said.
NSW Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian told Reuters in an email
she expects to announce the winning bidder by end-2015.
($1 = 1.3897 Australian dollars)
(Editing by Miral Fahmy)