Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan says the trigger for reviewing a foreign investment in agriculture is too high.
The Government has declared it will not lower the $230 million threshhold it has for reviewing an investment.
It came after a report found foreign companies improve food security.
The ABARES study found one per cent of agribusiness is foreign owned, but it conceded there is not enough information on companies are owned by countries.
Senator Heffernan, who's head of a Senate Inquiry into foreign ownership rules, says he's not scaremongering.
"I just think we ought to be awake to the fact that as a nation to maintain your sovereignty you are better to sell your production, not your means of production to another sovereign country," he says.
Farmers agree
Western Australia's biggest farm lobby group says there needs to be a separate set of rules for foreign farm investment in Australia.
WA Farmers President Mike Norton says a decision this week by the Federal Government - to keep the point where a review is triggered as it stands - is disappointing.
He says with most farms selling for less than $10 million, agriculture shouldn't be subject to the same limits as big business.
"It's just fanciful to use that number when you're talking about foreign investment in buying individual farms," he says.
"It probably works for big corporations, but its just totally irrelevant so far as agriculture is concerned."
Source: abc.com
Back to News Headlines