Subjects: Fosters'; bid.
JOURNALIST:
Do your have any concerns at the possible takeover of Fosters or any response to Kim Beazley saying that because the Australian dollar is so low Australian assets are bargain basement now?
PRIME MINISTER:
He';ll take advantage of anything to sort of talk the Australian economy down. I think it';s appalling he that he does that. He ought up his mind, he ought to at least have a position on foreign investment. He didn';t have the guts to declare a position on Shell/Woode guts to declare a position on Shell/Woodside. We still don';t know what his attitude is on that. As far as I';m concerned if there';s a foreign investment application on Fosters that will be dealt with in the normal way. But I tell you what it does demonstrate - it does demonstrate that all those scare stories that some people put into the market a few weeks ago that if the Treasurer were to knock back the Shell application, foreign investment in Australia would dry up. It rather gives the lie to that. So, we';ll deal with Fosters and Heineken, if there is one in the normal way.
[Ends]