[NB: Although this deal is for mining, the points under debate are relevant to similar deals for food production]
The Australian | June 29, 2011
James Massola
SHENHUA Watermark Coal's $213 million purchase of 43 farming properties in NSW was approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board, Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten says.
As concern mounts over the majority-Chinese government owned firm's plan to mine coal in the Liverpool Plains area of northern NSW, Mr Shorten said a national interest test had been applied to the purchases by the FIRB.
However a decision on whether the farming land could be mined by the Chinese company was a matter for the NSW state government.
The Australian revealed on Monday that Shenhua has over the past two years purchased 43 farming properties in the area near Gunnedah, 500km northwest of Sydney.
The NSW government has reacted by calling for a federal review of the rules governing the foreign buyouts of prime agricultural land.
But Mr Shorten hit back today, arguing state governments granted mining licences and made decisions about land use while the federal government's role, through the FIRB, was to apply a national interest test.
“Does it support our national economy, does it improve our trading position, are there implications on jobs?” he asked on ABC radio.
“Where it is a government entity from overseas there is no $230 million threshold before the government takes an interest, it's from zero dollars, so Shenhua would have briefed the Foreign Investment Review Board before deals were done.”
“The Foreign Investment Review Board examines all direct investment by foreign government entities.”
Mr Shorten rejected suggestions that Australia's food security could be under threat as a result of foreign buyouts of Australian farms.
He said more than 90 per cent of food consumed in Australian was home-grown.
Mr Shorten said he and Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig were working on a national food security plan that would examine how much farm land was owned by foreigners.
The buy-up of prime agricultural land by Shenhua has sparked a furious political debate, with Liberal senator Bill Heffernan and independent Nick Xenophon among those railing against the development.
A former member of the review, Chris Miles, has called for a rethink on the trigger points for review board involvement on foreign purchases of rural land, which currently kicks in at $231 million.
Mr Shorten said a proposal from independent Senator Nick Xenophon for the threshold trigger to be reduced to $5 million, as in New Zealand, would be considered.
The Australian | June 29, 2011
Call from NSW government to halt foreign land grab for mining
Siobhain Ryan
NSW will demand Julia Gillard review foreign buyouts of farms as pressure grows on her government to stop the rapid encroachment of mining into prime rural land.
The state's Primary Industries Minister, Katrina Hodgkinson, said Premier Barry O'Farrell planned to write to the Prime Minister urging a rethink of the current level of control by foreigners over farmland.
"The NSW government believes the current level of foreign purchases of agricultural land should be reviewed," Ms Hodgkinson said.
The announcement came as independent Tony Windsor warned he would invoke his deal with Ms Gillard, which sustains her minority government, to force Labor to protect "sensitive" farmland from mining and coal-seam gas projects.
Mr Windsor told The Australian he would introduce a private member's bill into parliament during the August sitting to push the government to declare certain areas - including floodplains at the heart of his New England electorate - off-limits to the controversial developments.
"There's a collision point coming between the farm sector and the mining sector on these sensitive lands," Mr Windsor said.
The Australian reported this week that Chinese government-controlled Shenhua Watermark had spent $213 million buying up 43 farms near Gunnedah. Its plans to mine for coal around the Liverpool Plains near the NSW township, subject to state government approval, are the latest to divide the community, which also faces coal and gas exploration projects from BHP Billiton and Santos.
Mr Windsor said his biggest worries over these projects arose from their potential impacts on the surface water and groundwater beyond the mine and exploration sites. "I think there's more concern about the impact of the activity on the floodplain than the impact of a Chinaman on it," he said.
As a trade-off for his support in helping Ms Gillard to power, Mr Windsor last year secured four pages of promises, including one to set up a parliamentary committee inquiry "to examine the issues of mining and gas extraction in sensitive farmland such as the Liverpool Plains and the Darling Downs".
"It's only two sentences, but it's something I'm deadly serious about," he said. Mr Windsor will push further than the original agreement, calling for the commonwealth to intervene this year in state-based approval processes to ensure mining and coal-seam gas projects do not threaten water resources on a number of productive floodplains, including Queensland's Darling Downs.
Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig and Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten have commissioned studies from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation to find out just how much farmland is owned by foreigners.
Last night, Ms Gillard's spokesman said the Prime Minister would "deliver on her agreement with Mr Windsor".
She would reply to Mr O'Farrell's call for a review of the level of foreign ownership of farmland only once she had received his letter.
