PROBLEM? What problem? That continues to be the Federal Government's view of foreign investment of farmland.
And that view has been bolstered by last week's ABARES report, which showed 11 per cent of the nation's farm land was now in foreign hands, up from 5.9 per cent in 1984.
The Government pointed to the fact that 89 per cent was in Australian hands and declared it a non-issue.
Yet it fails to acknowledge the near-doubling of foreign ownership in the past 27 years.
But, more importantly, the figures do not reveal the type of land under foreign control.
A raw figure does not reveal the true picture.
The Government does not seem to realise you only need to hold a small parcel of highly productive land to distort a market.
Take the dairy industry, for example.
It only takes one buyer to grab a string of farms in one of Victoria's dairying areas - which nationally would be a drop in the ocean size-wise - establish their own processing plant and threaten the viability of local processors in that region.
The same with wool.
China is our biggest wool buyer.
If it could tie up some of our best wool-producing land, it could then send the wool direct to the Chinese mills.
That means less wool in our auction houses, less competition for buyers and, quite likely, lower prices for Australian-owned wool.
It is not a fanciful notion.
Farmers do not oppose foreign investment.
They would simply like the Government to provide the checks and balances that other countries impose.
Nor are they xenophobic in questioning foreign ownership, despite Trade Minister Craig Emerson's view that to raise the issue is to run "xenophobic scare campaigns".
It was clear from this response, and that of Assistant Treasurer Mark Arbib, who last week said Australia had a "rigorous national interest test" for foreign ownership, that the Government doesn't understand the concern over foreign ownership in rural Australia.
Or worse, it doesn't care.
