Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Agriculture. Will the minister update the House on how the government is better monitoring foreign investment in Australian agriculture?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This'll be a good one!

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We will have some silence for the answer, particularly from the member for McMahon.

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question, because it is vitally important, being someone who actually owns a property, to understand how we want to make sure that we have got better oversight on the purchase of our most precious asset, which is the land we stand on. This nation is defined by the land we stand on. It is precious to the Indigenous people, it is precious to everybody else and we want to have proper controls and a proper understanding of exactly who owns that asset and where that asset is held. If we run out of gold, we can always dig deeper to find better and find more, but there is no more land. In fact, the stock of land throughout the globe is actually getting less. So it is definitely the most precious asset—because it is what we feed ourselves with.

Of course, it is not very important to those opposite, because when we went to the Australian people it was made absolutely abundantly clear to us that $240 million—now $252 million—was vastly too high. The idea that someone, on one day, could go to the north of a town and buy a place for $250 million, come back the next day and buy more land to the south for $250 million, come back the next day and buy something to the west for $250 million and then, on the next day—the final day—buy more land for $250 million and never be triggered to go to the Foreign Investment Review Board was an absolute absurdity. It was as relevant to the people of the western suburbs as it was to the people of the Western District.

I will tell you who it was not relevant to—that is the Australian Labor Party. Senator Wong and the shadow minister for agriculture said that they unilaterally want to move it to $1 billion. What that would mean, at $500 an acre, would be that you would have to buy a property in excess of three times the size of the ACT before it would trigger an investigation by the Foreign Investment Review Board.

This is a policy that you stand by right now, and this is a policy that the Australian people are hearing loud and clear. The only way you feel you are going to pay off your debt is to sell the place—sell the joint. That is exactly how it is going to work under the Labor Party. You have no respect for the views of the Australian people.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise on a point of order.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Has the minister completed his answer?

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, could you ask the minister, for the remainder of his answer, to address his remarks through the chair.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister has the call and will so address his remarks.

Barnaby Joyce (New England, National Party, Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We have a policy debate, and that is something that rarely happens here. On the other side the Australian Labor Party support moving the limit to $1 billion. The Australian people have to understand that if you vote for them they want to move the limit to $1 billion—one thousand million dollars. On this side the limit is $15 million. There is a policy debate. There is something we can discuss on 2GB or on whatever talkback radio station you want to go on.