“The Federal Parliament has passed a motion introduced by the Coalition to ensure we have the vital information on the level of foreign ownership of agricultural land in Australia,” said Dan Tehan, Member for Wannon.
“The Federal Parliament has passed a motion introduced by the Coalition to ensure we have the vital information on the level of foreign ownership of agricultural land in Australia,” said Dan Tehan, Member for Wannon.
“Our motion requires the Government, through the Australian Bureau of Statistics and ABARE, to collect the vital extra information about foreign ownership of Australian agricultural land”, said Mr Tehan.
“There has been a fair amount of local concern regarding foreign ownership of agricultural land in Wannon, and the current federal Labor Government has shown very little interest in the concerns of country people. The Coalition has forced them to act by introducing this motion in Parliament.
“This is a very important development in Parliament because we must have the information on just how much of our land is purchased, or already owned, by foreign investors before we can develop sensible safeguards.
“Any debate on the levels of foreign ownership of agricultural land is speculative without this information, so it is a strong move to ensure transparency on the levels of foreign ownership.
“Once we have this information, the Productivity Commission will review it and recommend sensible safeguards for national food security.
“Foreign investment has been welcome in our agricultural sector; however, in light of a recent ten-fold increase in foreign ownership and the predicted global food supply shortages, we need to ensure we are putting our national interest first.
“I think this is a very important step towards a more informed debate on foreign ownership of land and it is particularly relevant to the electorate of Wannon as our economy is heavily reliant on the agricultural sector and our valuable agricultural land has been at the centre of this debate.”
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