The Wingecarribee Shire Council (Photo: Cam Ford)
The Wingecarribee Shire Council has asked the state and federal governments to apply greater scrutiny to the acquisition of Australian land by foreign governments by setting up a registry of foreign land ownership.
The council also plans to garner support from other regions at the Local Government Association conference in Nowra later this month.
Wingecarribee councillor Juliet Arkwright, who also sits on the state executive of the Liberal Party, says she is not opposed to all foreign ownership but when state-owned companies buy Australian land, it undermines the nation's independence.
Cr Arkwright says the Southern Highlands is an attractive investment for foreign governments.
"It's increasingly obvious that we represent a very strategic part of the country in between Sydney and Canberra," she said.
"Agriculturally our land is very fertile and in many ways our Southern Highlands sits on a whopping great load of coal, so yes we are vulnerable."
The Foreign Investment Review Board only steps in if the investment is valued at more than $211 million.
"There's nothing to stop sovereign funds from purchasing agricultural properties anywhere and you can buy an awful lot of properties, individual properties with individual title for $211 million," Cr Arkwright said.
"So that's the purpose of it, get the information so we know what we're looking at."
The state Member for Goulburn, Pru Goward, says establishing a registry is a Commonwealth responsibility.
Ms Goward says the Premier asked the Prime Minister in June to consider improving the scrutiny of foreign land acquisition but the Federal Government ducked the issue.
"The Commonwealth has not accepted the challenge and clearly does not recognise the issue of concern to New South Wales communities but the Premier certainly took the matter up with his Commonwealth counterparts," she said.
