The timing looks suspicious. Australia may well have been looking at how to deal with sovereign wealth funds before this month’s $14bn dawn raid by the Chinese state-owned mining company, Chinalco, on shares in Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian mining group. But the six principles set out by Canberra for subjecting state-controlled investors to greater scrutiny are as much a result of its desire to protect strategic assets as they are a model of corporate governance.

The proposed screening programme will look at whether a sovereign fund investing in an Australian company operates at arm’s length from its government. Financing and governance arrangements will be examined too.