Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party, Leader of The Nationals in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Foreign Acquisitions Amendment (Agricultural Land) Bill 2010. I should state from the start that, because the section of land that they want to bring in as having to cross the foreign ownership threshold level is too small—I think it is merely five hectares—it is going to be very hard for us to support it, so we will not. But I just want to talk about how this is an issue that we do have to go further with. I think it is no secret—every time I hear Mr Emerson mention my name—that the public know my position that we need stronger controls on foreign ownership, especially in the realms of state owned enterprises. I say that because state owned enterprises are not individuals. State owned enterprises are an arm of another nation's government. As an arm of another nation's government, they do not pass away, they do not require a profit and they very rarely go broke, and in any dispute you have to recognise that you are not having a dispute with an individual; you are having a dispute with another nation. Therefore it creates concerns in regard to how—