Media Release

THE amount of foreign owned agricultural properties and water entitlements in Australia continues to skyrocket, with the newly released Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) figures for the 2019 financial year revealing nearly 20% of Queensland’s water entitlements are now foreign owned – a 6.7% increase in just one year.

Kennedy MP, Bob Katter said the figures made him sick to the stomach, but didn’t surprise him in the slightest knowing the traitors who were running the country.

“As outrageous as the figures are, they are wildly inaccurate,” he said.

“They don’t take into account the shareholding of Australian companies that belong to foreigners, which would make the overall foreign ownership of water entitlements and land much higher.”

The 2019 financial year FIRB report showed the amount of foreign held water entitlements in Australia was up by 1.9%, to 10.5% of overall water entitlements, and the number of agricultural properties with a level of foreign interest was up 3.8% to 9,044 properties nationwide.

Mr Katter introduced The Foreign Acquisitions and Takeovers Amendment (Strategic Assets) Bill 2020 to the Federal Parliament earlier this year to keep Aussie water, strategic assets and land in Aussie hands.

“If the Government has any sense of sovereignty or national pride they’ll bring on the Bill for a vote at the next sitting and support it,” he said.

“On behalf of the Australian people we say no more foreign ownership. Nearly everyone I meet is sick of the sale of our assets including the Port of Darwin, Ord Stage II and Stage III, much of the Murray-Darling Basin and four of our biggest farms.”

-ENDS-

- Register of Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land Report as at 30 June 2019 - https://firb.gov.au/sites/firb.gov.au/files/2020-06/2019-rfo-agriculturalland.pdf

- Register of Foreign Ownership of Water Entitlements as at 30 June 2019 - https://firb.gov.au/sites/firb.gov.au/files/2020-05/2019-rfo-water-entitlements.pdf