Chinese want to buy Renmark airport
According to a recent media release from the Renmark/Paringa council which circulated through ABC local news, the Council has been approached by an Australian, Chinese and Asian group with an intent to buy the airport.
Sino Australian Clean Energy Co. has put a proposal before the Council whereby this company is proposing to buy the Renmark airport. Their intention is to upgrade it to an international airport and use it as a hub to air freight local produce and seafood (YREN is 300km from Adelaide, the nearest ocean) direct to off shore markets, likely mostly China.
Interestingly a number of local fruit growers were kept in the loop by Council as to this proposal, bar one small detail, that is the sale of the airport.
Their other intention is to base a 400 student capacity international flying school at Renmark.
Personally I fail to see any merit in these proposals but I do see a number of worrying outcomes.
None of the presently grown produce or likely future local horticultural produce has a particularly short shelf life, urgency of delivery is not really relevant. Produce from the SA Riverland is only a few hours by truck to Adelaide airport, and trucks are good for local employment. Furthermore it would seem likely that if this were to go ahead it would follow that there will be increased market opportunities and with it $$$ incentives to local growers. This would only further increase lobbying pressure upon governments to release more water from the struggling Murray river system for horticultural interests. All this at a time when we are struggling to restore the natural health of the Murray through the much needed increased water flows it requires to function in a healthy state.
I suspect a Chinese company and their government don't much recognise that the health of our major river system is at all important as they go about developing food security for their growing and increasingly affluent population.
It would seem to me that if this were to develop and the region geared up to supply produce direct to China then there would be considerable interest from Chinese groups in wishing to buy out local growers. This has already started to happen around this region.
My understanding is that when a Chinese entity purchases an overseas land asset that after 3 years the ownership (lease) of that asset reverts back to the Chinese State, I might be wrong on this though.
As for an international flying school, this worries me too.
Parafield airport has been shrinking in activity year by year and now appears perilously close to being unviable. The loss of a capital city GA airport would be a major blow to GA and particularly South Australian GA.
The setup of a large international flying school away from what should be the prime location, Parafield, will only serve to further weaken its viability.
Unless there is an active plan to re-establish a close to the city GA airport this plan is just plain dangerous.
I wonder how many of this 400 strong flying school student base might find themselves working for minimal wages on local farms perhaps owned or influenced by Chinese interests.
I certainly hope we have enough collective intellectual acumen to resist all this and stay very much in control of our food production and not head down a path of further decimating our fragile ecosystem in an unsustainable but seemingly lucrative pursuit to feed a global population that hell is bent on increasing.