I find it very difficult to understand why Tamworth Regional Council (TRC) has suddenly become so interested in China, and Everich in particular. 

It seems surprising that such a huge company is so interested in a small country town such as ours. 

I know that mining would be a big part of any general interest but is Everich a mining company? 

The TRC seems to have become star-struck by something which it has failed to adequately explain. 

A 5-star hotel as a training centre for students? They’d have to be very well-to-do students! What a laughable suggestion! 

I refer to my letter of September 21 in which I asked why this trip was made and who paid for it? 

As there has been no response from council, the answers must be open to conjecture. 

The whole thing seems very suspicious to me. 

I would urge council to come clean and tell the ratepayers what lies behind the visit and their particular interest in Everich. 

Is Everich privately owned or state owned, for example? 

It is very easy to blind individuals with the promise of investment coming the town’s way, but at what cost to us all? 

Will we become beholden to a company such as Everich? 

It’s bad enough having reduced grocery shopping options without the whole town being bought up by a Chinese investor. 

As I have said before, let’s concentrate on some Australian investment, not go skipping off overseas because the big boys are promising something that sounds too good to be true; it always is too good to be true. 

Disclosure, caution, and action in the national interest are what I demand of our council.

Frankly, I hope that we do not “engage with these opportunities” and that the companies really do “just find somewhere else to go”.

Given this, on Tuesday, I sent an email to the mayor and the general manager of TRC.

This is what I said in that email: 

“I believe from recent articles in the local press that you and other TRC councillors have recently been on a trip to China. Additionally, in today’s (October 14, 2014) paper, your are reported as having ‘toured the firm’s (Everich’s) Shenzhen headquarters’.

“I have some questions for you, the answers to which I believe are in the public interest:

1. What was the purpose of this trip?

2. Who went on it?

3. Who paid for it?

4. If the trip was funded by the ratepayer, who approved such expenditure and why?

5. If the trip was not funded by council, who did pay for it?

6. If it was paid for by the councillors, were there any inducements from Everich or any other Chinese companies or individuals paid to councillors?

7. If the trip was paid for by Everich or any other Chinese company or individuals, have the relevant councillors disclosed this perquisite in official council records?

“I look forward to your reply.”

And to readers I say – I do look  forward to their reply.