Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Assistant Minister to the Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Griffith can yell out all she likes, but she does not understand the wheat belt areas of Australia. But we in the Nationals know full well, and our regional Liberal members know, that the grain industry does not need to be dictated to by a board in Illinois. And certainly when it came to S. Kidman & Co. the right decision was made, in the national interest, because we know that Kidman is Australia's largest private landowner and represents a significant proportion of Australia's total land area—approximately 1.3 per cent. We know that Australia's agricultural land is represented by Kidman at approximately 2½ per cent. We cannot afford to have that going to foreign interests. If Labor had their way, they would increase the foreign takeover threshold to $1 billion before it reached the Foreign Investment Review Board's threshold. Against the national interest? Labor is against the national interest.

See this speech in context