Media Release

KAP Member for Kennedy Bob Katter used his Question Without Notice to get an unequivocal assurance from the Treasurer that Kidman and Co ‘will not shift to foreign control after the sale to Shanghai CRED and Rinehart’.

Mr Katter asked the question in Question Time after a disappointing response from the Treasurer to Mr Katter’s Question With Notice.

On 12 October Mr Katter asked the Treasurer the following Question with Notice:

Can he confirm reports that an agreement has been reached between Mrs Gina Rinehart and Shanghai CRED Real Estate to jointly purchase the S.Kidman and Co Properties.

Have any Government officials been involved in any such discussions; if so, (a) what was the outcome, (b) what Ministers, if any, have been involved in those discussions, and (c) what assurances can be provided to the Australian people that a majority ownership will not be shifted to the foreign corporation over the course of this partnership.

The Treasurer’s response (attached) did not state what Ministers, if any, have been involved in discussions and did not provide an unequivocal assurance that the majority ownership of Kidman and Co will not be shifted to the foreign corporation.

Unsatisfied with this answer, Mr Katter used a Question Without Notice in Question Time to seek assurances.

“My question is to the Treasurer.

Fifty-one per cent of Australia's land mass is registered desert lands, 21 per cent is Aboriginal lands without title deeds, precluding pastoral activity, and seven per cent is national parks, leaving only 25 per cent—180,000 hectares—available for agriculture. Australia's five biggest farming operations—the Ord Stage 2, Van Diemen's dairies, Cubbie, Nicoletti grains and Terra Firma—are all foreign owned.

Foreign ownership, as researched by Fairfax, is increasing at over 20 million hectares a year.

I refer to a question on notice from 12 October. Minister, why have you refused to give any guarantee that a majority shareholding in Kidman will not shift to foreign control after the sale to Shanghai CRED and Rinehart?” Hansard, Question Time, 8 November 2016

The Minister’s response again did not rule out that control ‘will not shift to foreign control after the sale to Shanghai CRED and Rinehart’; only that the Treasurer would have to ‘consider’ any such change.

“Does anyone seriously think that Shanghai CRED… with its parent company having put in a bid for a whole lot they’re going to settle for a third?”, Mr Katter asked.

This Parliament Mr Katter reintroduced the Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Amendment (Strategic Assets) Bill 2016 that seeks to prevent foreign companies from acquiring a 10 per cent or greater interest in Australian land, water or other assets that are either of “strategic economic importance” or “strategic defensive importance” to Australia (i.e. the Kidman holdings).

“When you’ve been a Member of Parliament for 42 years you can smell a rat from a mile away and this rat is very very smelly indeed.”