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The Forum > Article Comments > Welcome foreign buyers > Comments

Welcome foreign buyers : Comments

By David Leyonhjelm, published 9/7/2013

Farm prices are struggling and more buyers are needed. But a Senate committee recommends driving foreign buyers away.

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yep, nothing wrong with FDI.

Lets just make sure we get balance right and promote as much transparency as possible.
Posted by Chris Lewis, Wednesday, 10 July 2013 10:36:22 AM
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I think we need to take a much harder look at who is buying what, for what purposes.

And as we know, many deals are far from transparent.

Look at Sydney Airport which is owned by a monopoly, Macquarie Bank, which makes untold millions from being the only airport in a city of 4 million! And only they can operate a second airport if it ever happens. How transparent was THAT deal?

Cubbie Station was bought by a mainly-Chinese consortium and it now controls a vast amount of the massive water supplies from Queensland down into much of NSW.

Foreign investment- yes, we may well need it.
Foreign control of our precious resources? No thanks!
Posted by Bronte, Wednesday, 10 July 2013 1:58:23 PM
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The ABS figures that Rhian linked to are for share of land area, not share of land value, as is pointed out in the policy paper that is linked to below. There is a big difference between a hectare of prime, well-watered agricultural land and a hectare of rangeland that might feed a few sheep or cattle in a good year. Assuming that there is no big discrepancy, then the share of agricultural land that is foreign owned is still relatively small, but there is no way that Rhian could possibly know what will happen in the future.

The Coalition has an August 2012 policy discussion paper on this issue. It doesn't oppose all foreign investment in agriculture, but calls for scrutiny of such purchases and accepts that there may sometimes be a case for restrictions.

"However, some restrictions may generate economic or social benefits that outweigh potential costs and protect the national interest, including by promoting the long-term stability of sectors critical to the economy."

"Many developed and developing countries adopt restrictions on foreign investment in agricultural land or agricultural businesses on national security grounds."

It is worth looking at their list.

As the paper explains, the Foreign Investment Review Board only has to be notified if the agricultural property that is being purchased is worth more than $244 million unless the purchase is by a foreign government controlled entity (which sometimes might be hard to detect). A foreign buyer could thus progressively buy up, say, all the dairy farms in a district without any oversight. There is no national register of foreign ownership of agricultural land or businesses.

"The creeping cumulative acquisition of agricultural land may be inconsistent with both the national interest and the interests of local communities."

http://www.nationals.org.au/Portals/0/2012/DPaper%20on%20Foreign%20Investment%20in%20Aust%20Agricultural%20Land%20and%20Agribusiness.pdf
Posted by Divergence, Wednesday, 10 July 2013 3:30:44 PM
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Try to get rice into Japan, beef into USA or cars into Brazil ?

Australians ? The stupidist race on earth ?

Time to protect farmers and manufacturers with minimal tariffs.

At present, send farmers etc broke , then sell their depressed
land overseas .

Become tennants in our own land .

Labour and Liberal ? No idea.

Ralph
Posted by Ralph Bennett, Wednesday, 10 July 2013 10:27:36 PM
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It is well over 80 years since futuristic business leaders first suggested improving the water requirements of our inland farming by moving south a small percentage of the huge volumes of northern water going to sea to enable expansion of agriculture in the north and south. The growth of the western states of USA (California etc) was largely due to recognition of the need to build canals to move water to farming regions actually was what initiated that states huge growth in agriculture and industry. It is time our government and agribusiness leaders recognised the cost of such dam & canal infrastructure is small in comparison to the huge economic benefits Australia can gain from expanding reliable food to the world. Lets hope muted suggestions of opening new dams around the country can lead to a surge in growth of needed infrastructure to profitably expand agriculture to a hungry world. Finance for such projects needs to be backed up by expressions of interest and investment from countries needing food. Joint ventures with interested parties should be considered as an option

TBA
Posted by TBA, Monday, 15 July 2013 12:00:25 PM
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