This week we’ve heard how our Trade Minister, Craig Emerson, has been desperately running around trying to sell the Australian farm to the Chinese Government.  According to the Australian Financial Review, Mr Emerson has been negotiating with the Chinese Commerce Minister, Chen Deming, “policy changes needed to facilitate large scale investment by Chinese agricultural interests in undeveloped land in northern Australia.”

Some of the investments that the Chinese government is reportedly seeking to make include up to 30,000 hectares of land in the Ord irrigation project.

While the Australian government has been bending over backwards to help other nation’s invest in our farmland, Australia’s oldest Agricultural company, AACo, has not had the same assistance, despite also bidding to buy the same land at the Ord.

We need foreign investment in all parts of our economy but it should be the option that comes after we’ve done everything within our power to make sure that the domestic capital of Australia is developing Australian farms first.

Australian capital can invest in the Ord and should be given that opportunity. As the CEO of AACo, David Farley, told ABC this week:

Australia’s more than capable of developing this asset itself. We have the skills base, we’ve got the intellect and more importantly we’ve got the capital base within the country, within our pension and our superannuation plans, to take this project on and deliver it to market.

Former Labor Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, has also been overseas and he has, as part of his income stream, been helping to sell the Australian farm by advising the Chinese company, Zhongfu.

What we are seeing with this is basically mechanisms for another nation to get their footprint on another’s land, and good luck to them. It’s a very smart thing for them to do and it secures their food future.

But if it is in their interest to have a footprint in our nation, then surely it’s in our interest to have one in our own.

The Nationals are leading the effort to make sure we have a proper foreign investment review test. We learnt in Senate estimates this week that the Foreign Investment Review Board has never said no to a foreign investment in Australian agriculture. As I have said before, the current approach is like having the Venus de Milo as wicket keeper for Australia, “looks great but catches nothing.”

We must reduce the threshold for foreign investment approval in agricultural land to well below the current $244 million trigger, and we must have the capacity to actually put our national interest first and say no from time to time.

The Nationals will always put Australia’s interests first when it comes to making decisions about who owns our most crucial economic resource of food producing land.

King regards,

Senator Barnaby Joyce
Leader of The Nationals in the Senate

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