FEDERAL Opposition leader Bill Shorten says the new Treasurer and new Prime Minister need to apply Foreign Investment Review Board procedures consistently.
Speaking to media today after Treasurer Scott Morrison blocked the sale of iconic Australian cattle business S. Kidman and Co to foreign investors, Mr Shorten accused the government of being inconsistent with similar policies.
“I noticed on the sale of the Kidman properties they've gone through a process, they've been very clear on that - that's fair enough, I can see that,” he said.
“What does concern me is when it comes to other matters they're not consistent.
“When it comes to the National Party and farms, this government's all over foreign investment.
“When it comes to some matters, when it's in their political interest, they move really fast - but be it the apparently clumsy handling of the Port of Darwin or indeed, their lack of interest in Australian jobs, then this government is, I think, a lot more disappointing.”
Asked directly for his view of the S. Kidman and Co sale being blocked, Mr Shorten did not provide a direct answer but said it was a big parcel of agricultural land.
“Now, personally I had concerns - it's a big issue - but that's why we have a Foreign Investment Review Board process,” he said.
“The thing this government needs to be careful of is what message it sends to foreign investors.
“On the one hand, they say Australia's open for business, that's a fair point.
“But on the other hand we're seeing issues they're handling getting mired in politics from the Kidman land to the Port of Darwin to the way they handle the fact there's 800,000 people with temporary work rights in Australia, 800,000.
“I think this government has a lot of rhetoric about foreign investment and trade - but when it comes to checking some of the detail as it affects Australian jobs and Australian land, they're a lot more inconsistent.”
Responding to today's announcement, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said his Treasurer had “explained the decision well”.
“It's a huge piece of Australia, these Kidman properties being sold in one line and a large part of the acreage is in the Woomera Prohibited Area, which of course is used for weapons testing and so there are national security issues involved,” he said.
“You would be wrong to assume that there was only one foreign country associated with the buyers.
“So there's no issue of discrimination here.
“But plainly, the Woomera Prohibited Area is called the prohibited area for a reason.
“What Scott (Morrison) has said in his statement, which I'm sure the owners will read carefully, is that there's nothing to stop them to recalibrate or restructure the way in which they are selling these assets and resubmit.
“So no doubt they will reflect on that.”
Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Barnaby Joyce spoke to media today saying he supported the Treasurer on the Kidman decision.
He said it was a “clear sign to the Australian people that it’s not just a tick and flick and anything goes through”.
“There is proper oversight (and) there is proper control of our national assets,” he said.
“This property is 1.3 per cent of Australia’s land mass, it's 2.5 per cent of our agricultural land mass, and there is a strong reason and the Australian people are asking for us to have a proper oversight and deliberation into exactly who owns what and how much of it we actually sell.”
Mr Joyce said Australia had more foreign investment in land than any other nation.
He said in the last three years, foreign investments of 50 per cent or greater had increased by about 25 per cent and partial foreign investments had climbed by about 11pc.
“We’ve had an exponential growth in foreign ownership in our agricultural assets in Australia,” he said.
“Far from discouraging foreign investment, we have a boom of foreign investment.
“Of course with a boom in foreign investment we need a proper oversight.”
Mr Joyce rejected a suggestion the decision to block the Kidman sale sent a negative message to foreign investors about Australia.
He said the decision meant there was a proper review process.
“No one in their wildest dreams would think that you’d be able to go to China and buy 1.3pc of their land mass or go to Japan and buy 2.5pc of their agricultural country, or go to the United States and without any questions asked, buy an area of land that would be the same size as a number of their states without the proper oversight by that nation’s Government,” he said.
“I am not going to go into the hypotheticals of different propositions.
“What I can say is that I am glad that in this instance we are showing the Australian people that we have the proper oversight and control of the most precious asset – that is the land they stand on.
“We have seen that people in the city are just as alive to this issue as anybody else and the expectation that is firmly held is that we will have the proper review process in place and for that review process to have some cogency in its argument, so at times there must be the word no.
“And this is one of those times where there is the word no.”
NSW Liberal Democratic Senator David Leyonhjelm pointed to a 2013 FarmOnline blog to back up his current view on the Kidman sale being blocked.
