The nation's largest and oldest dairy has been left without a senior corporate management presence in its home state of Tasmania, with the departure of two key employees.
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The Examiner understands Van Diemen's Land Company (VDL) operations manager Hugo Avery and business development manager Ben Davis are no longer with the business.
Chinese-owned Moon Lake Investments' purchase of VDL in 2015 was approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board.
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When he purchased VDL, Moon Lake owner Xianfeng Lu undertook to invest an additional $100 million into the business, as well as create roughly 100 new jobs.
But Tasmanian Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson said just a fraction of that money had been invested and the company no longer had a board in the state.
"So far we know that [VDL has] only spent around $10 million of that undertaking," he said. "It's totally unacceptable."
"Every Tasmanian would expect that when a foreign company comes in and buys an iconic asset like [VDL] ... that if they make undertakings at the time that they would reinvest back in the business [and] employ another 100 locals ... they would actually do what they said and that the Treasurer and the government would hold them to [their] promise."
Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the government expected all investors, both foreign and domestically-owned, to "comply with Australia's laws and maintain high standards of conduct at all times", including by "complying with any conditions imposed by the [federal] government".
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State Primary Industries Minister Guy Barnett said the departure of Mr Avery and Mr Davis was a matter for VDL but added that the government "would hope the relevant management roles can be filled quickly".
Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association president Marcus McShane said he didn't expect the latest developments at VDL would have an impact on the broader dairy industry in the state.
VDL was contacted for comment.
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