Nick Xenophon (SA, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

I support the Register of Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land Amendment (Water) Bill 2016 on behalf of my colleagues, Senators Kakoschke-Moore and Griff. I just want to make a couple of observations. I think Senator Rice has elegantly set out the framework of the legislation in terms of what it is meant to do, but I am concerned that it will not be effective enough. We do need this register. We do need to find out who owns the water. The disaggregation of water and land was something that happened a number of years ago, and that was a controversial move at the time, but it helped facilitate water trading in this country. That is the reality of what we now have. Having an effective water register is fundamental in terms of transparency. My concern is that our land ownership register has not been as transparent as it could be. We have seen articles in Fairfax media by Michael Koziol, the political reporter, based here in Canberra, which raised real issues about the efficacy of the land ownership register. I have concerns about whether the water ownership register will similarly have problems in relation to that.

We do not oppose the legislation, and I note that my colleague in the other place, Rebekha Sharkie MP, the member for Mayo, also supported this bill. She made a very good point that Australian people expect more transparency. This bill makes some inroads on that policy theme, but the concern is that those inroads may be very limited because of potential loopholes we have seen in this legislation. The statistics released earlier this year regarding foreign ownership of land were less than satisfactory. For instance—and the point that Ms Sharkie made:

The Australian public now knows that 13.6 per cent of our farmland is owned by international interests, but where is the detail? What is the dollar value of that land? Where is the detail on the total number of farms owned? Where is the easy public access? Where are the region-specific statistics? We have taken the first steps towards greater public access, but it is limited. We could provide, and we should provide, much greater transparency.

Those words of Rebekha Sharkie MP, the member for Mayo, really sum up our concerns here in the Senate with respect to this.

I note that no less than Alan Jones, the broadcaster, has criticised the government for 'an utter betrayal of public trust', for 'whitewashing' the foreign land ownership register. I just hope we will not have that whitewashing with respect to this register. So, I think it is important that there is continued scrutiny as to how it operates. I hope that the government would have learnt from the criticisms regarding the land ownership register. Whilst we support this bill and we hope it does what it is meant to do, there must be constant vigilance to ensure that it does live up to its promises. No doubt I and my colleagues, in the Senate estimates process, will be asking questions about how it actually operates. With those few words, we support this bill, but we just hope it does what it is meant to do.