State owned investment?

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Didn't Swan tell us 3 years ago that the govt. had passed legislation to ensure no foreign state owned enterprises would be able to purchase tracts of agricultural/mining etc. land here?

Why are Labor objecting to Abbott's stance on enforcing this policy? Labor are now saying that they only scrutinise foreign state owned enterprises applications. Have we been misled - again?

Mr Swan said Mr Abbott had outsourced the policy to the Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce.

''I actually think that it's very damaging for Australia that foreign investment policy in the Liberal-National Party has now been taken over by Barnaby Joyce,'' Mr Swan said in Sydney. ''There's a pipeline of investment that is coming our way … creating jobs and wealth in Australia.

''Now Mr Abbott wanders off overseas and puts a very big question mark over all of that because he wants to play politics while he's wandering around the world.''

Dr Emerson said the Foreign Investment Review Board already scrutinised every investment bid by a state-owned company.

''What he's saying is … he would step in and override that and ensure it was not approved,'' Dr Emerson said. ''This is an extraordinary lift in sovereign risk perceptions of Australia.''

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Regardless of how unpleasant Abbott appears to those who bat for the other teams, he's going to win some votes over tightening up the foreign investments laws - which is what Swan reassured us he was doing or had done.

The national register of foreign owned property hasn't even been kept up to date and the Review Board appears to play a very minor role in vetting these purchases. Abbott intends to change that - but can we believe him? How many lies have we been told to date about foreign nations buying up our land. Will the Libs approve of any new restrictions?

We'll wake up one day and find either a Chinese, Indian or Arab conglomerate controlling all our food and water distribution.

BIDS by private foreign investors for Australian farms would face increased scrutiny under an Abbott government and the threshold at which the Foreign Investment Review Board became involved would be lowered dramatically.

Cumulative provisions would also apply, meaning several individual purchases by a single investor would all be looked at if the sum total of the purchase reached the threshhold.

And any foreign private sector applicant would have to disclose any direct or indirect ownership or direct source of influence by a foreign government.

The Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, who is trying to ease internal divisions between Liberals and Nationals over foreign investment policy, is to release a Coalition discussion paper today.

At present, any proposed investment by a foreign state-owned company or sovereign wealth fund is assessed against the national interest by the review board, regardless of the value of the bid.

But bids by private investors are scrutinised by the review board only if the proposed purchase is for 15 per cent or more of an entity valued at $244 million, a threshhold which is indexed annually.

That means someone buying a farm business worth $243 million attracts no foreign investment scrutiny, even if it is 100 per cent of the business.

Under proposals in the Coalition paper, the threshhold for an agribusiness such as a farm or dairy will be a flat $53 million, or 15 per cent of the total value of a business worth $244 million or more, whichever is lower.

For example, 15 per cent of $244 million is $36.6 million, which is lower than $53 million.

For purchases of agricultural land, the threshhold at which the board would become involved would be slashed to $15 million for either a single purchase or cumulative purchases.

The policy would make no changes to the national interest test and the board would be increased from four to seven members, including at least one individual with agricultural-sector expertise.

The Coalition will also propose developing and implementing a national register of foreign ownership of property in co-operation with state land titles offices.

Mr Abbott will seek feedback by the end of October before finalising the policy.

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