Register shows who owns our land

7 SEPTEMBER 2016: The first report from the Register of Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land was released by the Liberal National Government today. I have long been an advocate for the register and this report provides the basic transparency needed to ensure oversight and confidence in agricultural investment. Today’s report showed 52.1 million hectares of Australia’s total agricultural land (more than two times the size of Victoria), is foreign owned. The Liberal National Government instigated the register so the Australian people could keep tabs on who owns what and this report seems to confirm perceptions that the level of foreign ownership has been increasing. Previous estimates by the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that as at June, 2013 an estimated 12.4 per cent or 49.6 million hectares out of 400 million hectares was foreign owned. The land register is now giving us the first comprehensive baseline picture of foreign ownership of Australian agricultural land. From now on, the annual reports from the land register will give us more accurate data on which to base public discussion.The report also shows “who owns what” and includes a Top 10 of countries by area of agricultural land owned. More than 52 per cent of foreign owned agricultural land is owned by investors in the United Kingdom. The rest of the top five is made up by the United States (14.8 per cent), the Netherlands (5.7 per cent), Singapore (3.6 per cent) and then China (2.8 per cent).For more information and a copy of the report, visit www.firb.gov.au.