Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Treasurer, the biggest farm in Australia, Van Diemen's Land Company's dairies, is owned by China; the second biggest, Cubbie, is owned by China. The biggest grain farm, Nicoletti, is owned by China. The biggest farming aggregation, Kidman's, is controlled by China. The biggest of all, Ord stage 2 and 3, is owned by China. Australia's most strategic port, Darwin, is owned by China. The taxi-hire industry, Uber, is foreign owned. Car manufacturing, glass, textiles, petrol and whitegoods have all gone overseas. To us Australians, free trade means jobs exported and cheap labour imported. Treasurer, do we have a new regime that won't continue to sell off Australia, or is it business as usual: Australia for sale?

Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Kennedy for his question. Foreign investment is absolutely critical to lifting Australia's living standards, to jobs and to growth in the Australian economy. And it's about meeting the savings gap that we have in Australia, which is about 3½ per cent of GDP, which is the difference between our domestic savings and the investment opportunities.

We have put in place a number of safeguards around the agriculture space in relation to foreign investment. We're now requiring more transparency and openness around the sales process. When it comes to critical infrastructure, we take the advice and the input that comes not only from the Foreign Investment Review Board, led by David Irvine, but also from the critical infrastructure committee, which involves a number of leading agencies.

So I would say to the member for Kennedy, it's about getting the balance right, and that balance is about foreign investment that is in Australia's national interests. It's a very serious topic. It's not a free-for-all. There are considered opinions and inputs that are taken and, whether it's in the agriculture space or in critical infrastructure or in other aspects of the Australian economy, the Morrison government, the Liberal and National government, will always take decisions that are in the national interest.