We can be certain that foreign-owned businesses operating here will be run in the interests of their foreign owners. We hope that their interests coincide with Australia's. The present system continues to give us a choice. Democratically elected Australian governments can choose to sell off public assets to foreigners, or they can put restrictions on such sales in favour of local interests. Australian governments can decide to put conditions on the sale of public or private enterprises to foreigners that might not apply to local owners.
Australian governments can also impose conditions on new, direct foreign investment.
Such conditions may or may not be in the public interest. But the right to impose them is an essential precondition of economic and cultural sovereignty. The right to impose local content rules on broadcasters is an important example of this. The agreement is designed to prevent signatory governments discriminating against foreign investment within their borders. With the ending of the Cold War, the Paris-based OECD has joined the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as extensions of the power of the United States.