Turnbull: defence land acquisition agreements must be “consensual”

Speaking on Sydney radio station 2GB today, Mr Turnbull was asked what he was doing to support those farmers facing a potential take-over of their properties by the federal government for training purposes, in a deal with the Singapore government.

It comes as Deputy Prime Minister and Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Barnaby Joyce prepares to visit the Shoalwater Bay area today for talks with local stakeholders that are demanding no compulsory government acquisition of farms.

Mr Turnbull said the Defence Department and the Defence Minister Marise Payne had been up to visit the impacted area and were talking to land owners.

“Obviously the aim is to reach land acquisition agreements that are consensual, that people are happy with,” he said.

“And I just want to say that while these expanded training grounds will be used by Singaporean forces when they are training here as part of our arrangements with them – they belong to the Australian Defence Forces.

“They belong to us and they’ll of course be used by our forces as well.”

Asked whether compulsory acquisitions were going ahead, Mr Turnbull said, “It’s all in the state of process of negotiation and I don’t want to run a commentary on that”.

“Marise Payne has got it under hand,” he said.

“This is the Australian Defence Department seeking to acquire land for the purpose of expanding the training facilities that it uses for our Defence Forces and which will also be used by Singapore when they visit to do training.

“And, of course, the Singaporeans are putting $2.25 billion of investment into those North Queensland centres, into Rockhampton and Townsville and these are going to be very important.

“I absolutely can understand how they (local farmers) feel - I absolutely empathise with them.

“And that is why it is important that the arrangements that are negotiated are as far as possible, ones that have been reached by agreement.”

The National Farmers’ Federation and AgForce have urged the government to rule out any compulsory land acquisitions, ahead of strategic report being released in coming weeks by the Department of Defence, identifying land-use priorities.

In his address to the National Press Club in Canberra this week, Mr Turnbull also spoke about the importance of confidence to regional Australia and the economic value of agricultural production; especially for trade deals.

“Regional Australia is vast, no one city or town is the same as another,” he said.

“Many parts are thriving others are doing it pretty tough, but there is one common denominator - the resilience, confidence and enterprise of regional Australians.

“And we are backing our regions with infrastructure, with new and open markets, and with job opportunities - we can’t succeed as a nation without our regions succeeding.

“Trade is delivering more jobs in our regions, the NBN and our mobile black spots program is improving communications and our massive infrastructure programmes such the Pacific, Bruce and Midland Highways, and the Inland Rail are conquering the tyranny of distance.

“Above all in every way we are working in partnership with regional communities to give them confidence in the opportunities of the future.”

In reference to the US withdrawal from the Trans Pacific Partnership under new President Donald Trump, Mr Turnbull said, “We cannot retreat into the bleak dead end of protectionism”.

“We must compete aggressively to export our services in education, health, engineering, tourism and more, and we must pursue even greater access for our agriculture and manufactures,” he said.

“Whatever other countries may think, it is very clear that for Australia, more trade means more exports, which means more jobs and more opportunity.”

Mr Turnbull said the Coalition’s “big export deals have dramatically expanded the horizon for Australian business - large and small, regional and metro”.

“Why would we want to limit opportunities at a time when demand for ‘made in Australia’ has never been stronger?” he said.

“Beef from the Darling Downs is being served in the restaurants of Guangzhou and Shenzhen, wine from the Barossa Valley is being purchased in the bars of Tokyo and macadamias from the Northern Rivers are on the supermarket shelves of Seoul - cities each with a population larger than Sydney and Melbourne combined.

“Australians, in communities across our nation, are benefiting from these opportunities.

“That is why, although disappointed by America’s withdrawal from the TPP, we continue to work to open more markets for our exports with negotiations underway with India, Indonesia, the EU and in due course the United Kingdom.”