Foreign ownership of Australian farmland, farm Businesses and water

Vanguard october 2011 p. 2
Duncan B.

Statistics released in September by the Bureau of Statistics show that 45 million hectares-11% of Australian farm land is at least partly foreign-owned.

As of last December, 5.8% of land was majority owned by foreign interests, while foreign interests had a minority stake in a further 5.5% of land.

The Northern Territory had the highest percentage of farmland with some foreign ownership at 24%. New South Wales had 2.6% and Victoria 0.8%.

The sheep, beef cattle and grain growing sectors have the highest proportion of foreign ownership. About 11% of the land for these commodities has some foreign ownership.

Of the 135,600 agricultural businesses in Australia, 133,600 were totally Australian-owned, 1300 had some level of foreign ownership and 732 had unknown ownership.

824 of the 1300 businesses had more than 50% foreign ownership.

Of the 13,700 gigalitres of water used for agricultural purposes, 12,500 or 91% were used by Australian-owned interests, 1169 gigalitres were used by companies with some foreign ownership, and 97 gigalitres had unknown ownership. Of the 1169 gigalitres, 915 gigalitres were used by companies with greater than 50% foreign ownership.

These statistics do not reveal the high concentration of foreign ownership in some key industries such as grain marketing.

The Greens and the opposition have been calling for greater scrutiny of foreign investment in Australian farming, but Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten used the survey results to claim that the vast majority of agricultural resources are locally owned.

Australians from all walks of life including farmers and workers are raising their voices about the increasing foreign take-over of Australia’s agricultural resources. People are concerned about issues such as food security, environmental concerns, the viability of local communities, and the impact on local jobs.

There is great scope for unity around the question of foreign ownership of Australia’s land and resources.