“This is the first comprehensive data on the actual level of foreign ownership of agricultural land in Australia”, he said in a statement.
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The countries with the next largest shares are: the United States, Netherlands, Singapore and China.
The sale of valuable farmland to foreigners, particularly through Australia’s biggest trading partner China, has been a sensitive issue in recent years. The information in the report “informs the quality of decision making, it informs the quality of policy making and it informs, hopefully, the quality of the debate”, he said.
Tasmania has the least amount of foreign-owned farmland.
Livestock production represented the highest use of foreign-owned agricultural land by area with 45.8m/ha (88 per cent) followed by cropping at 1.5m/ha (2.8pc). Americans don’t need permission for similar deals under A$1.1 billion.
But if the Federal Government had approved the sale of the 10 million hectare cattle empire S Kidman and Co.to a Chinese company, China would have placed second highest on the register.
UK-based investors own nearly 53 per cent, or 27.5 million hectares, of that portion.
Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal.
“Previous estimates by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) found at June 2013, 12.4 percent (of farmland in Australia) was foreign owned”.
Mr Morrison highlighted strong powers that allow him to force foreign owners to divest an entire property or business if Australia’s multinational anti-avoidance tax laws are breached.
“This has also increased on the December 2010 survey estimate of 11.3 per cent or 44.9 million hectares out of 398 million hectares being foreign owned”.
But he said the community must have confidence that this form of investment was in the national interest.
Meanwhile the nation’s Treasurer Scott Morrison said that foreign investment was “integral to Australia’s economy”, and the register would be a vital asset to the government as investment opportunities continue to arise.
Mr Morrison today supported in principle greater foreign investment.
“The Turnbull government understands that trade and foreign investment has always created jobs in Australia for Australians, driven our economic growth and always will”, he said.
“With more than $3 trillion worth of foreign investment in Australia today, we can not afford to risk our economic future by engaging in protectionism”, Mr Morrison said in a statement on Wednesday.
The register showed that foreign ownership is growing, according to Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce.
“Every stakeholder needs to be involved in this because we need to get a clear picture, based on facts, about what’s going on”, he said.
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The newly elected member for the south-west Queensland seat of Maranoa, David Littleproud, said all foreign buyers should be forced to undertake a “productivity test” to demonstrate their “carrying capacity” and to specify exactly what the land would be used for.
