Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Concerns about foreign ownership of agribusiness and rural land in Australia are growing. There are good reasons to be concerned about Australian buyers being potentially priced out of the market by foreign competitors, the loss of control of our rural landscapes and potential threats to our nation's future food security. There has been significant foreign ownership of Australian land since European settlement and some say that the amount of land in foreign ownership has not changed significantly over the last century.

We do not have a lot of facts and figures about foreign ownership of land. A motion moved by the shadow minister for agriculture and passed by the House of Representatives during its last sittings should help to put some of the facts before the people to enable a proper debate on what is an appropriate level of foreign ownership of our land. Of course, as overseas buyers cannot take the land away with them, sales to and from overseas owners occur regularly. Often foreign buyers purchase land as a part of a major investment in this country, creating jobs and opportunities for Australians. Many overseas buyers have also been innovative and have helped to bring new farm practices, new techniques and new industries to Australia. Foreign investment is not evil in itself, and it has brought real benefits to this nation and helped it to grow.

On 22 September 2009, the federal Labor government substantially increased the thresholds above which Foreign Investment Review Board approval was required for an overseas sale. Now, agricultural land and agribusiness investments do not have to pass through the FIRB unless they are valued above a figure around $235 million. Under the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement, the threshold for US investments is $1,004 million. All these amounts are indexed. It is obvious from these figures that most rural properties can be purchased without any FIRB consideration.

However, there are some classes of assets, such as media, banking and residential real estate, where foreign investment comes under special scrutiny and where foreign investment proposals must be reviewed against the national interest on a case-by-case basis. Foreign investors are prohibited from acquiring established dwellings for investment purposes, even if they are temporary residents in Australia. It is very much easier for a foreigner to buy a huge cattle station or a large agribusiness in Australia than to buy a suburban home. That is ridiculous. The Nationals believe there ought to be lower thresholds for FIRB approval on the sale of farmland to foreign investors.

Over recent times there has been particular concern about foreign purchases of Australian agribusiness. Since the election of the federal Labor government, reported foreign investment in Australian agribusiness has averaged $2.7 billion a year—a tenfold increase. On 15 November last year the Herald-Sun said that the level of Australian agribusiness sold overseas in the last two years amounted to over $9 billion. Large portions of almost all agribusiness sectors, including food processing, are now foreign owned and not one of those purchases has been refused by the FIRB. In the grain industry, Australia's biggest agribusiness, ABB, has been bought by Viterra, a Canadian company. The AWB, with its big Landmark rural products business, was sold to Agrium in Canada, who subsequently sold off the grain trading division to the US company Cargill. Cargill has links with GrainCorp, the dominate east coast grain handler and marketer. In the sugar industry, CRI is now owned by the Singaporean company Wilmar. Maryborough Sugar has a Thai investor called Mitr Phol, who has bought interests that were previously owned by New Zealanders. At the present time, a range of companies—Bunge from USA, China's COFCO and Mackay Sugar, who are being backed in their deal by the French-American company Louis Dreyfus—are circling Tully Sugar. Already, 60 per cent of Queensland's milling capacity is foreign owned and more mills are under threat.

In the dairy industry, Dairy Farmers—established in 1900 in Australia, one of our oldest companies—has been bought by Kirin in Japan, who also have National Foods. Pauls has gone to Parmalat in Italy and Bonlac has gone to New Zealand. In the beef industry, companies like Marubeni and Nippon, and Rockdale, owned by Mitsubishi, have been significant purchasers or investors in Australia. Now JB Swift own Tasman and AMH. AACO, which owns 1.1 per cent of the Australian continent, is now 20 per cent owned by a consortium from UAE and Malaysia. Timbercorp sold 8,096 hectares and 90,000 megalitres of water entitlements to OLAM in Singapore. The Queensland government has just sold its entire timber resources to Hancock in the United States.

It is not just these sorts of companies alone. Foreign interests have just bought 45 per cent of Australia's almond industry. Fruit and vegetables are extensively dominated by foreign companies, as is most of our food-processing sector. The chemical companies and the fertiliser companies are largely foreign owned. Buyers even extend to Murray-Darling Basin water licences. Summit Global Management of the USA owns $20 million of Murray-Darling Basin water and Guinness Peat from Britain another $35 million. The reality is that these purchases are continuing at an enormous rate.

I believe that the wholesale sell-off of Australian agribusiness poses a greater threat to the future of Australian agriculture and our nation's food security than even the sale of land. Decisions about what crops will be grown in Australia, what prices will be paid to Australian farmers and what factories will remain open in Australia are now overwhelmingly being taken in boardrooms in other parts of the world. When Cargill or Viterra make decisions about what grain they will buy or sell, will they give priority to the needs of Australian farmers or will they look after the needs of the people in their own country? If Australian cane farmers need help in a tough market, will the Thais or the Chinese or the Singaporeans be willing to help? When Cargill gets AWB's grain business, they also get access to Australia's best grain markets. But will they be lost then to Australia? Our quality premiums and our reputation cannot be guaranteed when they are owned by a foreign company that has no particular interest in Australia's national interest. Of course, we already know that Australia's quality wheat and our reputation will be blended off to return profits not to Australians but to their new USA owners.

Australians underrate the importance and value of our agribusiness. Others know it is often the world's best and they are prepared to pay for it. I am very disappointed that the federal Labor government and the Foreign Investment Review Board have stood by while so much of Australian agribusiness has fallen into foreign hands. Even where some sectors of an industry remain Australian owned, local companies find it very difficult to be competitive with giant overseas based multinational corporations. The FIRB has let Australian agriculture down. If the Ebro Foods takeover of 100 per cent of Sunrice is acceptable, that means a Spanish company will get control of 100 per cent of Australia's rice-growing industry. If this purchase of 100 per cent of an Australian industry is acceptable to the FIRB, when will they ever intervene?

While it will be very difficult to reverse these takeovers, Australia must be more vigilant in protecting the national interest and ensuring that key decisions about our land use and our food security are made in Australia by Australians. Australians must more highly value the strategic importance of ensuring that our food supplies are secure for the future. China and other countries are buying our land not just for the commercial investment but also to make sure that their food supplies are secure. Why wouldn't Australia want to make sure we control our own destiny and keep the ownership of these key companies, as much as we possibly can, under Australian control and Australian management?