Cobber, everything that is sold can be considered an asset. So selling "all of this countries assets" is what we do with everything. The beauty of the system is that we make more assets to sell ... and we keep selling.

Protectionists (and it sounds like you are one) seem to think that strength lies in owning lots of assets in Australia, buying only or preferably Australian products and preventing foreigners getting their hands onto our assets. As a way to maximise profits, it is doomed. If we can but widgets from Chad or Timbuktu for less that we pay for the Aussie ones, we should do so, forcing the Aussie mob to lift their game or do something else and helping consumers here get products cheaper and so have more to spend on other things.

Land is no different. It is an asset, but it can't be moved overseas. It is here, subject fully to our laws. If an owner sells, he's simply calculated the nett present value of his land as an ongoing farm. If a buyer offers more, he profits by taking more cash than he calculated that he would earn as a farmer. Who loses? If you say he should be prevented from selling to a foreigner (but could sell to a local) why don't you or the government stump up the cash to prevent the sale? The answer is that neither you nor the government value the asset at what the foreigner does.

In other words, you've placed an imagined, emotional value on the land which nobody locally is willing to pay cash for. But the evil foreigner has the cash. Let him buy. If you want it so much, outbid or buy it back. Basic economics.

I am no expert in the subject at hand but it does leave me with an uneasy feeling.
It did raise one question in mind, how do they export fresh milk ?
Does it go by air ? Is it transported in refrigerated ships ?

I find it hard to believe it goes by air. If it does then rising oil
prices will end that trade.

I see two problems with the sales. I can see cheap labour
being brought in even if they are "paid" local wages.
They could have flight costs, bed & board charges in Chinese currency
on their return and who would know whether it was real or just profit
being brought out tax free. The governments in the past have never
cracked down on a wide scale on transfer pricing.
The Chinese have a culture of trying to get away with everything.
See the purchasing of existing houses contrary to the law.

At 11.40 AU / litre it has to be going by air.

$11.40 ! My goodness, no wonder they want Australian farmers out of that market.
Well in a year or two that market will probably collapse.
Then I guess it will switch to powdered milk it being lighter.
Maybe they can freeze it and send by ship.

We will become the bread basket of Asia, but we will be watching on.

Seems to be a lot of Donald Trump type nationalist sentiment going on here.
We shouldn’t sell our land to foreigners, or is it just those damn Chinese, because then no longer would Australians own the land.
The only actual reasons I could discern were that A, other countries don’t do it, B, foreigners get away with buying it cheaply and might then make a big profit, or C, that it is a security concern as we might not know what it going on, on the land.
But wouldn’t our security forces keep check on all strategic territory up north no matter who owned it. If foreign governments were intending to maintain outposts in strategic places on our borders you don’t think that might possess the intelligence to arrange for a friendly Australian to buy that land?

It must be remembered that one doesn’t buy land sovereign, but only fee simple, meaning subject to government powers of taxation, compulsory purchase, police power, and escheat. In times of war the government has the power to temporarily take over any land if national interest or security dictate.

"our independence is somewhat nominal, if foreigners own much of our country". Rubbish! Foreigners can own 100% of our country but not one square inch of the country will be exported overseas - the land stays exactly where it is regardless of ownership. So the govt can resume the land whenever such action is in the public interest and our democracy will still be controlled by the 14 million voting Australians who live here, regardless of who owns the land.
The article does not make a sensible case against foreign ownership of Australian land.