Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on this matter of public importance. Let me first say that the opposition welcomes foreign investment in this country. We have been strong backers of foreign investment in this country, but we do need appropriate safeguards, particularly when it comes to critical resources, things related to the defence of our nation, obviously, and residential land. The fact is that, when you're talking about this area, particularly in relation to residential housing, it's Labor's failures on our borders and in our migration system which have driven up housing prices in this cost-of-living crisis. Once again, it is the Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, who has led the way and shown the path forward and is driving discussion on public policy in this country, with the Prime Minister following along behind.

The coalition has been very clear that we need to ban foreign investment into existing residential properties for two years until our population growth catches up with housing supply growth. However, as a trading nation, foreign investment is important in our broader economy, with many of our close allies being significant investors, and I will go to one particular example in my home state of WA. It relates to agriculture, which is also the content of this motion.

The Esperance sand plain was opened up by money from what was then called the Chase Syndicate. The Chase Syndicate was a group of US investors based largely, if perhaps ironically these days, out of Hollywood. These were celebrity investors who were rounded up into the Chase Syndicate, and the syndicate came down to open up land in the Esperance sand plain. That first effort failed, largely because they didn't have the expertise of utilising that country in an effective way. So the first Chase syndicate failed. Now, there was a second syndicate that had better luck. Why? That was because they listened to the Australian farmers on the ground about how that land could be effectively utilised. So, with the use of that American capital, that land was opened up.

As Senator O'Sullivan, who's here in the chamber today, knows, that Esperance sand plain is now perhaps one of the most productive parts of the Western Australian wheat belt, and guess what? The original investors, the original Chase Syndicate members, are long gone. Who owns that land and produces for the Australian economy and for the Western Australian economy from that land today? It's Australian farmers, of course, and I know many of them, and I know that Senator O'Sullivan knows many of them. They're Australian farmers who, through the effective use of capital from elsewhere, allowed that land, now in Australian ownership, to be opened up and developed. We see time and time again through Australia's history the importance of foreign capital to the beginning of industries, to the opening up of industries and to the giving of economic opportunities to Australians, and we need to welcome that. We need to welcome that into the future, as we do have extraordinary opportunities in this country that we can seize upon.

Going back to the other part of this motion, which is to do with residential housing, I will say once again that it was Peter Dutton who pointed out that the severe problems caused by Labor's failure to control our borders brought around a million people into this country in just over 12 months, which threw our housing system completely out of whack and made getting into homeownership increasingly difficult, particularly for younger Australians. That is why we have proposed this ban for two years on foreign purchases of residential housing. This is not something that we take lightly. It is a significant step; however, it is reflective of the situation we currently find ourselves in, where the failures of this Labor government are failures repeated over and over again. Whether it comes to the standards of living faced by Australians, the inflation rate in this country, the 12 successive interest rate rises or the smashing of the small business sector, this is a Labor government that has failed.