Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I have a couple of points and then another question to Senator Cormann. I think it is important to acknowledge that no-one in the government has ever, even in that contribution, articulated why we need a threshold so much lower for land and agribusiness than we do for other sectors in our economy. No-one has articulated the public policy rationale as to why we have to be so much more restrictive and have so much more red tape in relation to agribusiness. With Agribusiness you have set at a $55 million threshold, when sensitive sectors such as media, telecommunications, transport, defence, military related industries, uranium or plutonium extraction and the operation of nuclear facilities would be at $252 million. All of a sudden we are much more frightened and we want to spend much more red tape on investment in agribusiness than we do in those more sensitive sectors.

The second point is: again, no-one has explained why more red tape and barriers are a good thing for jobs. The third point is: even if people agree with some of what is being said, the government's approach does not make investment more difficult or more subject to red tape across the board; it only makes it more difficult for certain investors in certain activities. Investors from the US, New Zealand and Chile will continue to have the higher thresholds.