CASHED-UP foreign investors are making a play for local farm land, with a Griffith irrigator confirming he has had several overseas offers for one of his properties.
Local farmer John Ward is adamant he won’t sell land to overseas companies, despite having an urgent need to access funds through the sale of his 1890-hectare farm.
The offers come amid widespread concern continued foreign investment could affect food availability for Australian consumers, distort the value of agricultural land and diminish the long-term sustainability of farming.
Mr Ward was concerned the investors would not keep the land viable for farming, saying they asked more questions about a gravel resource on the property than about the land’s potential for grazing and cropping.
“They were very interested in -this region – the agent I spoke to in Sydney said she had a phenomenal list of interested parties, mainly in Hong Kong,” Mr Ward said.
“I believe it is wrong to allow other countries to buy land if there will be no benefit for the nation.
“There is nothing that would make me sell my land into foreign ownership. I made that quite clear.”
Existing legislation prevents the federal government interfering in foreign land purchases unless the sale is worth more than $231 million.
Former Liberal senator Bill Heffernan is the chairman of the Rural and Transport Committee, which is currently conducting an inquiry into foreign investment.
He told The Area News research had predicted China would have a population of between 1.8 and 2 billion by 2070, but would only have the ability to feed half its population without relying on another country’s agricultural resources. In preparation for what may lay ahead, Chinese companies had turned to countries like Australia to buy land to allow them to grow food for one billion hungry mouths.
“We should be selling our produce to foreign countries rather than giving them the means to produce it,” Mr Heffernan said.
“With no regulations excluding productive access to overseas companies, we need to be aware of what the end result could be.
“We need to model what’s happening now and extend that modelling 50 years to see where we will end up in 50 years’ time – and then decide whether we want to go there.
“Our politicians are only interested in what’s happening in the newspapers now and how they’re going to win the next election – they should be focusing on where the country is headed.”
The former senator called for better transparency in the ownership of agricultural land, saying any foreign purchasers with an ASIC identity could claim to be an Australian company.
Independent senator Nick Xenophon will introduce a bill to Parliament in the coming weeks with the aim of giving the government power to step in if a sale is not considered in the national interest.
Email a friend