COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
SPEECH BY
The Rt Hon. J. G. GORTON, M. P.
ON
MOVES TO PREVENT OVERSEAS TAKEOVER OF
NORTHERN TERRITORY URANIUM DEPOSITS
Ministerial Statement
[ From the ' Parliamentary Debates', 17 September 19701
Mr GORTON ( Higgins-Prime Minister)-
by leave-On 16th September 1969
1 made a statement in this House concerning
the Government's policy on overseas
investment in Australia. In the course of
that statement I said:
In the past the Government has acted to preserve
Australian ownership and control of enterprises
which for special reasons of national interest
or importance could not be permitted to pass
into foreign hands.
And I went on to say:
We reserve the right to do all in our power to
prevent particular takeovers when, in the circumstances
of the case, we would consider it to be
bad in the national interest.
There has recently been a discovery of
uranium deposits by a company called
Queensland Mines Ltd, in the Northern
Territory at Nabarlek. The estimates made
by the Chairman of the Company are that
the ore body is so large, and the grade of
ore so rich that it would be possible to
supply the free world's requirements of
uranium at a price considerably be-low that
now ruling.
The Government does not know that
this claim is accurate and it in no way
vouches for its accuracy. But it has been
made by Mr E. Hudson, the Managing
Director of Queensland Mines Ltd. Should
the claim be accurate then there could be
a clear temptation to overseas interests to
22917170 gain control of the Australian companies
which at present own these assets. Queensland
Mines Ltd is one company concerned
and the other is Kathleen Investments
( Australia) Ltd which owns 50 per cent of
the shares in Queensland Mines. It is
therefore clear that control of Kathleen
Investments would in fact lead to control
of Queensland Mines Ltd. It is a matter of
record that in recent days there has been a
heavy -turnover in the shares of both companies,
and although there is no indication
that this heavy turnover is as a result of
overseas ' buying, nevertheless the Government
would not wish a situation to arise
where it could be discovered that control
of these companies had passed out of Australian
hands. The deposits held by the
companies were discovered by Australians,
and exploration work was financed with
Australian capital. The deposits can be
exploited by Australian personnel using
Australian technical knowledge and knowhow
and can be sold on the world market
by Australia.
The Government feels that if Australia
is to reap the full benefit of these discoveries,
full control of this development exploration
should remain in the hands of Australian
companies for the benefit of
Australian shareholders and Australia
generally. We have therefore decided that it
would not be in the national interest for
control of these uranium deposits to pass
into other than Australian hands. We
intend . to guard against control of either of
these companies being gained -through purchases
of shares by overseas investors.
Both companies are incorporated in the
Australian Capital Territory. We therefore
intend to legislate in order:
to limit to 15 per cent of the issued
share capital the total number of
shares able to be held in either company
by persons not ordinarily resident
in Australia or by foreign corporations.
Foreign corporations will
be defined in general similarly to the
definition in the Companies ( Life
Insurance Holding Companies)
Ordinance 1968.
to limit the number of shares held
in either company by any one person
not ordinarily resident in Australia
or held by any one foreign corporation, -to not more than 5 per
cent of the issued share capital.
This means that a total of 15 per cent of
the issued share capital can be held abroad
but that no one holder can hold more than
5 per cent of the issued share capital in
either companyto require any nominee holding, in
total, shares in excess of 5 per cent
of the issued capital in either company
to disclose the beneficial
ownership of those shares.
This action is not to be interpreted as anything
other than an attempt to preserve in
Australian hands and under Australian management
assets which have been discovered
by purely Australian endeavours and which
may be of very significant benefit to Australia.
It is an instance of -the working out
of that policy announced on 16 September
last year, which I reiterated at the beginning
of this statement.
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