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Comment: From spymaster to foreign-investment czar, Australia’s new FIRB chief walks the line

By James Panichi ( May 24, 2018, 07:41 GMT | Comment) -- Australia’s top foreign investment bureaucrat, David Irvine, is an erudite former diplomat and spymaster whose appointment as head of the Foreign Investment Review Board has ushered in a new era of security-focused decisions on key infrastructure and agricultural land. Irvine will have to walk a fine line between growing fears over the strategic impact of foreign investment — particularly when Chinese companies are involved — and concerns that a muscular policy could scare away sought-after capital.When David Irvine was appointed to head Australia’s foreign investment regulator in 2017, the government left no doubt that the former spymaster’s CV was ticking important boxes at a time of institutional upheaval....

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