The Treasurer Scott Morrison has blocked the sale of Australia’s largest cattle holding to a foreign buyer, saying it would “contrary to the national interest”.
Advertisement
Despite the size of Kidman’s land holdings, its ranches are largely semi-desert and carry only an average herd of 185,000 cattle, which is a fraction of a percent of the total Australian herd.
The bidding process has reportedly been dominated by Chinese companies.
Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison on Wednesday confirmed the seven houses in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, ranging between 154,000 Australian dollars and 5.2 million Australian dollars, would be sold after their owners had breached foreign investment rules.
Controversy over the 99-year lease of the Port of Darwin to Chinese investors with apparent military ties prompted Mr Morrison to flag a wider strategic review into how the sale of national assets and critical infrastructure was assessed.
“Australian businesses need to be able to provide their services to people in China in the same way someone in Hobart might provide them to someone in Cairns, or someone in Sydney was providing them to someone in Perth”, he said.
In an interview with Beef Central soon after this morning’s announcement (see this morning’s earlier story) Kidman managing director Greg Campbell said the company’s board was now absorbing the implications of the announcement, and would explore what options it now had.
He said it is now up to the vendor to consider how they wish to proceed with any offering.
The US Government is also thought to have flagged concerns about the sale, with the port now a major hub for the US Marine presence in northern Australia. But a Chinese investment company, Genius Link Group, said it was involved.
“I note that the Secretary of Defence, though, has been very forthright in setting out what he believes the issues are in terms of any compromising of the national interest, particularly when it comes to defence issues and the Secretary of Defence has made his view and his department’s view well known to the Northern Territory Government and they’ve taken a few decisions”.
It was believed Shanghai Pengxin’s bid, which was trumped by Genius Link Asset Management was in the order of $350 million.
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above.
Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said the government had put in place new measures to ensure that acquisitions of Australian grazing properties were properly assessed, to ensure they were not contrary to the national interest. “If you look at the region, from south-east Asia to Korea, Australia and New Zealand are the only two that have export capacity”, he told The Australian Financial Review.
But he said it was important to remember Australia had one of the least restrictive foreign investment regimes amongst comparable countries.
“So there’s no issue of discrimination here”.
Advertisement
AusMinerals had a portfolio of Australian and global mining assets, one of which was Prominent Hill, within the “Red Zone” of the Woomera Rocket Range area. He also cited national security issues.
