Australian land registry belies myth of foreign owners

By Jill Fraser

MELBOURNE, Australia (AA) - Less than a sixth of Australian farmland is owned by overseas investors, the government’s new land register revealed Wednesday in the wake of concerns about foreign land ownership.

The registry’s first report came amid media focus on Chinese holdings of Australian land. However, the register revealed that Chinese owners accounted for 0.5 percent of agricultural land ownership.

Overall, 13.6 percent of farmland is owned by foreigners, the register showed.

Treasurer Scott Morrison raised concerns about foreign ownership in April, when he said he had blocked the 370 million Australian dollar ($284 million) sale of Australia’s largest landholder, S. Kidman and Co., to a majority Chinese-owned consortium because it “may be contrary to the national interest”.

The register, compiled by the Australian Tax Office, shows U.K.-based investors own 27.5 million hectares (68 million acres), or almost 53 percent, of foreign-owned land.

U.S. owners have 7.7 million hectares (19 million acres), followed by the Netherlands, Singapore and China, which owns 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres).

Mick Keogh, the executive director of the Australian Farm Institute, told broadcaster ABC he was surprised China did not appear to own more land.

“It may well be that the Chinese interest has been in industries like the dairy industry and farms in southern Australia and again they are smaller acreages but perhaps more productive,” he said.

The register -- the first “stock take” of foreign-owned farmland -- is part of the government’s commitment “to increase scrutiny and transparency around foreign investment in Australian agriculture”.

In May, an ABC survey found 80 percent of Australians were concerned about the size of foreign land ownership.

Leading politicians such as Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd have voiced disquiet over foreign investment in agriculture.

“This is the first comprehensive data on the actual level of foreign ownership of agricultural land in Australia,” Acting Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce said in a statement. “This common perception that the level of foreign ownership has been increasing seems confirmed.

“Previous estimates by Australian Bureau of Statistic surveys found at June 2013, 12.4 percent… was foreign-owned. This has also increased on the December 2010 survey estimate of 11.3 percent.”

Morrison said foreign investment was “integral to Australia’s economy” and warned against risking the country’s economic future by “engaging in protectionism”.