Australian Greens leader Bob Brown has launched a scathing attack on the human rights record of the Singapore government as he flagged his party's opposition to a merger of the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) and the Singapore Exchange.
Earlier the coalition demanded the government show why the merger was in the national interest. Senator Brown said the merger proposal was a subjugation of the ASX by a company 25 per cent owned by the Singapore government.
"We should tell them nothing doing," he told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.
The Greens would not facilitate or support "this takeover" unless it could be shown to be in the nation's interest.
"The government here and those advocating it will have a big job to show that," Senator Brown said.
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Senator Brown used the hanging execution of Australian citizen Nguyen Tuong Van in 2005 and repression of opposition figures in Singapore to emphasise the island nation's "appalling" human rights record.
"This is a state that tramples all over freedom of speech, democracy, the rights of oppositions, the ability for public discourse," he said.
"It is a classic rule by the oligarchs of Singapore." Senator Brown warned the ASX would "wither on the vine" if the merged exchange was majority-controlled by Singapore interests.
The Greens believe the ASX is a very important part of Australia's free-enterprise system, Senator Brown said.
"We don't see an advantage for this nation in having that stock exchange controlled from Singapore," he said.
Independent MP Bob Katter has already flagged his opposition to the merger, describing it as "lunacy on a grand scale".
He expects other crossbenchers in the lower house to support his motion in parliament in the hope of blocking the takeover.
