Where the Darling River meets the Murray River at the town of Wentworth. Greens leader Richard Di Natale said it was ‘critical that we view Australia’s agricultural land and water as key national assets, not to be sold off recklessly’. (Photo: Dean Lewins/AAP)
Foreign ownership of water licences faces scrutiny as Coalition agrees to set up register
by Daniel Hurst
Australia is set to publish a register of foreign ownership of water licences, after the Turnbull government reached a deal with the Greens to increase scrutiny of agricultural investments.
The deal guarantees passage of the Coalition’s legislation to lower the screening thresholds for foreign investments in farmland and agricultural businesses.
The government – driven by pressure from the Nationals – has already moved to ensure the Foreign Investment Review Board (Firb) looks at proposed private investments in agricultural land that are worth $15m or more. The previous threshold was $252m.
The legislation will also set a $55m threshold for foreign investments in agribusiness. The government estimates the lower screening thresholds will subject about 125 extra proposals to screening each year.
The Greens pledged to support the legislation on the condition the government begins work on creating a register of foreign ownership of water entitlements. It is understood the Nationals had also been pushing for greater scrutiny of these water licences.
The parliament recently passed a law establishing a register of foreign ownership of agricultural land. The Greens’ amendment would insert a sunset clause ensuring the farmland register legislation lapses if the government has not passed legislation to set up the water register within 12 months.
The treasurer, Scott Morrison, and the agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, wrote to the Greens to pledge the government’s support for the amendment. They said the government would work on the technical details and would soon begin “full public consultation” on the way the register would be implemented.
The deal ensures the water register measure and the broader legislation have the numbers to pass the Senate.
The Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, said his party had long been calling for a decrease in the trigger for the Firb’s national interest test, so the deal was “a significant step in the right direction”.
“We’re extremely proud to have a commitment, written into the legislation, that the government will establish a register of foreign-owned water entitlements, in addition to the register of foreign own land that we passed earlier this month,” he said.
“As global warming and extreme weather events disrupt food production worldwide, it’s critical that we view Australia’s agricultural land and water as key national assets, not to be sold off recklessly.”
The Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson pointed to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showing foreign ownership of agricultural water entitlements had increased 55% between 2010 and 2013. “You can’t manage what you don’t monitor,” he said.
Labor’s Senate leader, Penny Wong, said Morrison had “joined forces with the Greens to push through retrograde legislation which will deter investment and hurt jobs growth”.
“It is extraordinarily hypocritical for the government to be claiming Australia is ‘open for business’ while it is doing everything it can to impose new red tape and barriers on the investment Australia needs,” she said.
“Business will rightly be alarmed to see the Liberal party making a common cause with protectionists in the National party and the Greens on a core economic reform issue.”
Labor had proposed amendments to the government’s legislation to have a $50m threshold to screen agricultural land, arguing this was in line with the trigger required under the Howard government’s free trade agreements with Singapore and Thailand.
The Senate continued debating the foreign acquisitions and takeovers legislation amendment bill on Monday evening.
The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, said it was part of a package of three bills aimed at “strengthening the integrity of Australia’s foreign investment framework”.
“The government has been able to work constructively with the [Labor] opposition in relation to the first two bills ... and we’ve been able to work constructively with the Australian Greens in relation to this third bill,” he said.
Australia would maintain a welcoming environment for foreign investment where it was not contrary to the national interest, Cormann said.
