Media Release

Establishing a register of all foreign-owned farmland will do nothing to halt the sell-off of Australian agriculture overseas, warns KAP Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter.

"So what – now we will be able to watch how our country is being sold out," commented Mr Katter regarding the Federal Government’s announcement today that it would establish a foreign-owned agricultural land register.

"Meanwhile, agriculture in this country is closing down and we move rapidly toward being a nation unable to feed itself."

Mr Katter repeated his warnings that foreign ownership of Aussie agriculture was inevitable while the policies of successive Australian governments meant our farmers could no longer operate profitably in Australia, where they were forced to compete on an un-level global playing field created by a soaring $AUD, a result of interest rates 400 per cent higher than the rest of the world; and negligible support levels compared to those enjoyed by competitor nations, which the OECD puts at 41 per cent.

"In the past five weeks we’ve seen overseas sales of Australia’s biggest farm; our biggest water licence; our biggest fishing licence (which was reversed); one of our five biggest banana farms and possibly a second; as well as the pending sale overseas of Australia’s biggest dairy businesses and half of our nation’s steel industry… the list goes on.

"And the same policies which make our farming unprofitable mean the whole Australian land mass will be up for sale – whether it’s to the Chinese or Callathumpians – because Australian governments are sell-outs.

"They’ve already sold our mineral wealth – 85 per cent of it already owned or controlled by foreign-controlled corporations – and now they want to sell our land and pastoral wealth."

Mr Katter’s private members bill to reverse the overseas sale of Australia’s biggest farm, being introduced into the House of Representatives next week, will force politicians decrying to the sale of Cubbie station to stand up and be counted.

"But we are kidding ourselves if we think our farmland will not continue to be sold off. We’ve already let 12 per cent of our farmland to be sold off to foreigners, and the only difference between the ALP and the LNP on this issue is that the LNP will sell us out faster.

"The LNP-ALP corporation that runs Australia are just like the slithering Sydney suits with dollar signs in their eyes: the only thing that interests them is the share price on the stock market. And overseas buyers means higher share prices."

Mr Katter said while there was "always a place for foreign investment so long as it locks in new markets, or provides new technology or finance, that can we cannot otherwise obtain. But even then it should normally not be 51 per cent".