HAROLD Mitchell has criticised Treasurer Scott Morrison's decision to block the sale of Australia's largest cattle property portfolio, S. Kidman and Co, to foreign buyers and called on local investors to take a greater interest in the country's agricultural sector.
Mr Mitchell, who sold his media buying business to London-based Aegis Group in 2010, called for a more "nuanced approach" to foreign investment in Australian agricultural assets after the government blocked the Kidman sale on national interest grounds because its massive Anna Creek cattle station is near the Woomera weapons testing range in outback South Australia.
"There are real problems. It shouldn't be handled in this way," he told The Australian Financial Review.
"There should be much more consultation and a better understanding between the government and markets about what is happening.
"There should be a much more nuanced process in how we handle Australian investment. We are short on capital and have been for a century and we rely on international co-operation."
Mr Mitchell took a particularly keen interest in Mr Morrison's decision because he is one of the owners - along with former Seven West Media director Doug Flynn and the Sale family - of Yougawalla Station in the Kimberley region in Western Australia which is on the market.
As revealed by the AFR Weekend, Mitchell and his partners have appointed ANZ Banking Group and KPMG Corporate Finance to sell Yougawalla in its entirety, which covers 1.4 million hectares with 44,000 head of cattle.
Mr Mitchell said he was confident any sale of Yougawalla to foreign investors would not be blocked given it was smaller than the 101,411-square-kilometre Kidman and does not own land critical to Australia's defence interests.
"I am confident that the government would allow us to proceed if the acquirer was a Chinese company or individual," he said.
"[However] they would be concerned if it was a state-owned enterprise but I think that's wrong. The Chinese economy is driven by state-owned enterprises and China is looking out to the world."
Chinese investment firm Genius Link Asset Management is believed to have been the highest bidder for Kidman after rival company Shanghai Pengxin made a $350 million bid for the company. Mr Mitchell, who said he'd "been in Asia in terms of advertising since the mid-nineties", said he had never had trouble with foreign investors.
"We should embrace the world completely and as someone clever once said, 'The first time we see a cattle property being loaded onto an export boat we should be worried'," he said.
Mr Mitchell also criticised local superannuation funds for not buying Australian cattle farms.
"Farming requires patient capital and the Chinese are very, very long-term thinkers," he said.
"We should be working together, we have a great asset but we need help. It is wrong to think you can put a border around Australia and if we do, we will be left out."
