John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Or less, as Senator Xenophon says, if it is prime land by a river or whatever. We are tightening our control and monitoring of who owns our land and who is buying our land. Some people seem to disagree with that. I encourage foreign investment if they want to go up the Top End, set up dams, clear country and develop it. I would be keen to ask Senator Wong this: how do you look at foreign investment in farms? Is it about clearing country? You are not allowed to clear country in New South Wales because in 1996 we had a bloke called Kimberley Maxwell Yeadon, a minister in the New South Wales parliament, who brought in SEPP 46 and then the Native Vegetation Conservation Act. Who worked for him in those days? It was Senator Wong, of course. So her history goes back with what she thinks of Australian farmers, especially in New South Wales: 'We'll curtail you from investing and growing your production, and, if you knock a tree down in the wrong spot, we'll fine you.' Thank goodness those changes are soon to be completed by the coalition government in New South Wales.

If you are talking investment, often it is about clearing country and putting it into pasture, just like the Americans did: as Senator Back told me the other day, the Americans cleared and established the whole Esperance area. Sadly there have been some terrible fires there recently and four lives were lost. But the Americans took scrub country and converted it to good wheat and mixed farming country—sheep and cattle country as well, and very productive. That is investment. We want all this investment. Then they will tell you that you are not allowed to touch the land. You might breach some environmental plan. It is quite ironic, isn't it, Chair? That is my input. I support investment where it grows jobs, grows exports, grows production, grows income and grows tax take in Canberra. When you simply sell a fully established farm at peak production that has been looked after by generations of farmers, in most cases, who know the land better than anyone—when you sell off that land and the profits are taken out of your country, how is that good for your local community? I fail to see that.