ABC | Thursday, 5 July 2012
Think tank for register of foreign ownership
NSW Farmers President Fiona Simson is happy the federal government is considering a national register of agricultural land held by foreign investors.
"Currently, the ABARES data only occurs every two years so we're acting after the investment has occurred."
Despite studies by government agencies showing the vast majority of land is Australian owned, there are still concerns about sovereign wealth funds and large overseas corporations buying Australian land and Australian businesses.
Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury says 99 percent of agricultural businesses continue to be entirely Australian owned.
"Around 89 percent of all agricultural land in Australia is entirely Australian owned.
"Some of that 11 percent of land that isn't entirely owned is also partly Australian owned."
Mr Bradbury says the introduction of a national register of foreign investment in Australia agricultural land would allay concerns by some that the ABARES data isn't accurate.
Foreign investment has been an essential part of Australian business for decades, but something is changing and the names are different.
It's now China and India that are spending billions of dollars on mining and food manufacturing.
Australia seen as the answer to global food riots
Foreign governments dealing with food riots in recent years see Australia as the place to secure their own food supplies.
However, many people claim we Australia is exporting its mineral wealth and threatening its own food security.
President of NSW Farmers Fiona Simson doesn't believe the community and farmers are opposed to foreign investment as long as it's adding to their community, industry and economy.
"We need to be sure about the rigour of the tests that is applied to actually make sure that happens."
"We also need to have some realtime information about what is happening so that we can act in time to assess this and make some decisions about this before this occurs."
According to a report produced by the Greens in 2011, ABARES figures that show more than 80 per cent of mining companies are foreign owned are of concern.
"It shows a huge amount of Australia's wealth flowing directly overseas when these companies are extracting minerals that belong to communities."
India in Australia
India has current investments in Australia worth US$10 billion.
Last year there were new approvals totalling US$11 billion.
High Commissioner to India Mr Biren Nanda says the investment is predominantly by Indian corporations in the resources sector.
Among these is the Adani group which has acquired coal assets in Queensland. The buy out of Linc Energy's Galilee coal deposits is worth $3 billion over 20 years.
"They have also bought rights to operate the Abbot point coal terminal for 99 years for $1.83 billion. This investment is still going through the approval process."
Agricultural investments in Australia don't seem to be as alluring as the resource investments.
"That is certainly an interesting area and should be of great promise and interest to companies in agricultural trade, exporting and importing products, but I am not aware of any large commercial interests in this area so far."
Mr Nanda welcomes moves by the Foreign Review Board to set up a registry of foreign investments.
"Having information and transparency in markets about the other market players helps in making markets more efficient."
He says Australia is appealing for Indian investment for a number of reasons.
"We have a similar political system. We are both democracies. We have an independent judiciary, free press.
"The institutional similarities are very important because they give confidence to our business people."
