Australia

The Federal Opposition is supporting a call for a national register of foreign purchases of land and water in rural Australia.

The Greens have called for a national register of foreign purchases of land and water in Australia.

New Zealand's Green Party has drafted a bill seeking to stop overseas buyers snapping up large tracts of NZ land. Australian farmers also fear they may have trouble coping with future food and water demands if foreign interests snap up too many of the nation's agricultural resources.

Critics say Australia's Labor party has failed to come to grips with country's future food security, including the acquisition of domestic farmland by foreign investors

As the world's available farming land shrinks in the face of population growth, climate change and soil degradation, Australia's vast tracts of land are going to be increasingly important for global food security. Is the sell-off in Australia's long term interests?

Foreign interests including state-owned companies from China and the Middle East are increasingly looking to Australia to secure their food production by purchasing key agricultural assets.

Wilmar, which already owns 200,000 ha of sugar cane plantations in Indonesia, said it intended to use Sucrogen’s proven expertise in the sugar business to pursue growth strategies in “Indonesia and other high potential Asian markets.’’

TIAA-CREF owns agricultural land in the US, Australia, Brazil and central and Eastern Europe, most of which is leased out.

Western Gulf Advisory, a Bahrain-Zurich based company, plans to invest $1 billion into the Australian economy, including farm acquisitions, over the next few years.

A rush of foreign investment interest in Australian farmland is stirring new concerns about just how much overseas ownership of local agricultural resources is too much.

The Chinese Government is buying Australian farms to directly feed its population, a senior Liberal said on the eve of a visit by a top Bejing official.

Questions have been raised at a Senate inquiry in Canberra about whether foreign investment rules go far enough to keep Australian agriculture sustainable.