FOREIGN investors are free to buy a 5000-acre south-west grazing property without restriction but they need approval from federal regulators to buy a small hobby farm.
Member for Wannon Dan Tehan describes it as a "glaring anomaly" in the foreign investment rules he is now pushing for changes to government policy.
"It's not too much of a problem at the moment but if you act quickly, you can get a good, sensible policy in place before it becomes an issue," he said yesterday.
Mr Tehan said the foreign grab of Australian farming land was one of the major concerns raised with him at Hamilton's Sheepvention last year.
It followed the sale of several large grazing properties in the Dunkeld area to the Qatar government in a $35 million deal.
Concerns about Australia lityerally selling off the farm have also been raised about recent, large Chinese investment deals.
Mr Tehan expects similar concerns to come from local farmers when he attends the Sungold Field Days with Opposition Treasury spokesman Joe Hockey next week.
"It hasn't been an issue before because of drought and because of low commodity prices," Mr Tehan said yesterday.
That is now changing as the need for food security drives investment in agricultural land around the world.
Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday night, Mr Tehan said the government reviewed foreign investment against the national interest on a case-by-case basis.
"It prefers the flexible approach to hard and fast rules (claiming) that a case-by-case approach maximises investment flows while protecting Australia's interests and that it recognises community concerns about foreign ownership of certain Australian assets," Mr Tehan said.
"(This) does seem to be the case that this is true when it comes to residential real estate.
"But, sadly, it is not when it comes to rural properties," he said.
Mr Tehan said regardless of a property's value, foreigners generally needed to notify the Foreign Investment Review Board if they planned to take an interest in residential real estate.
"In this regard, residential real estate includes vacant land that can be used for residential purposes, hobby farms and rural residential blocks.
"Even though commercial property and rural land are not classed as residential real estate, special rules exist for commercial real estate."
He said foreign investors had to notify the board if they planned to take an interest in developed commercial real estate valued at $53 million or more, unless the real estate was heritage listed and then a $5 million threshold applied.
“When it comes to vacant land, foreign persons need to apply to buy or take an interest in land for commercial development, including to start a forestry business, regardless of the value of the land.
“Compare this to what happens to Australian agricultural land.
“A foreign person needs approval to buy an interest in a primary production business where the total assets exceed $244 million.” Mr Tehan said that he could not think of a rural property in Victoria, let alone Australia, that would be worth that much money. “Why should we have a one-bedroom unit in Moonee Ponds that comes under review and not a farm in the Western District? If you buy a heritage-listed house in Melbourne you need approval, but if you buy a bluestone homestead on 5000 acres in the Western District you don’t.
“Surely it is time that all land was treated equally by the Foreign Investment Review Board. Surely it is time for the national interest test to be applied without discrimination to all parts of Australia.”
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