Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to take the opportunity to correct the record as put by the member for Kennedy on 1 March in this place, when he asserted I supported giving water resources to a foreign corporation. The member has very much mistaken as something else entirely my support for investment in our country, my support for investment in industries and jobs and my support for the structures that are in place that work to ensure such investments are for the benefit of this country.

The member has mistaken as something else entirely my objection to the whipping up of anti-Chinese sentiment around the investment in the Ord irrigation scheme, which is a well-scrutinised long-term project that is delivering opportunities in the far north of Western Australia. The leased land in the Ord irrigation region was not 'given away to the Chinese', as the member stated. In return for this lease, we have seen investment in land development in the order of $100 million. Jobs have been created for local people, and the company buys its farming chemicals and fertilisers from the local farmers cooperative. Importantly, locals who actually live in Kununurra and the surrounds support the investment and enjoy the positives this investment has brought to the local economy.

Before getting caught up in an irrational fear about 'selling the farm' and who it is being sold to, let us remember that UK based investors top the list of foreign owners of Australia's farmland, followed by United States investors and those from the Netherlands. Let us remember also that none of these investors can roll up this farmland like a carpet and take it away.