WHETHER the sprawling Kidman & Co cattle company is eventually sold to overseas interests or remains in the hands of Australian owners, political wrangling is set to be ignited.
That argument is set to reflect the heated criticism underpinning the Coalition government’s rejection of US multinational food giant Archer Daniels Midland’s bid for Australia’s largest publicly listed agribusiness GrainCorp, in late 2013.
This week, National Party deputy-leader Fiona Nash said her preference was for an Australian company to retain ownership of significant parcels of local land; especially one the size of Kidman & Co.
“Across the board my preference is, where we can, to certainly keep things in Australian hands,” she said.
“I’ve been a strong advocate for changes to foreign ownership rules in this government which I believe has been a very good focus.
“I was at the forefront with (National Party MPs) Barnaby Joyce and Michael McCormack of stopping the takeover of GrainCorp by ADM so where we have the ability to retain Australian ownership, that is my preference.”
Asked about Linfox’s interest in Kidman & Co, Shadow Agriculture Joel Fitzgibbon said “the best approach for politicians is to stay out of it”.
“We want young people coming back to agriculture and the best way to ensure that young people come back to agriculture is to make sure agriculture is as profitable as possibly can be and that those churning or selling their enterprise to someone else gets the best price for the asset,” he said.
“And to get the best price you have to open up the market to all-comers and the FIRB can only deal with any application which might be before it at any given time.
“I want to ensure when landholders are seeking to sell their property to someone else, that they are able to secure the best possible price rather than be so concerned about who’s buying it.”
New Northern Australia Minister and Queensland National Party Senator Matt Canavan he also preferred an Australian company to hold Australian land, “particularly as much land as Kidman has”.
But Senator Canavan said an investment system which “simply rejects overseas investors on a consistent basis” wasn’t needed because foreign capital was required locally.
He said a clear national interest reason was needed to reject the Kidman deal and the right decision was made last November by the Treasurer regarding national security concerns about the Anna creek component.
“We have a system in place that I generally support, so we should let that process go, in favour of the national interest,” he said.
“Certainly I’d be very happy if Linfox was the successful bidder but at the same time this is a commercial deal and commercial arrangement and Kidman have to look after their own shareholders and we have to look after our national interest.
“I need more detail before making a final call - but I don’t support a blanket ban on foreign investment in agriculture because we need foreign investment in agriculture but the key is, we don’t sell off the national interest in doing that.”
Kidman and Co has a herd of 185,000 cattle and pastoral leases covering 101,000 square kilometres in three states and the Northern Territory.
Last November after the Treasurer rejected the original bid for Kidman & Co due to national interest concerns, Federal Agriculture and Water Resources Minister and now National Party leader Barnaby Joyce weighed into the argument.
He said the company’s land mass equated to an area of Australian farm-land larger than Hungary, Austria, Portugal or the Czech Republic and could accommodate two and a half Switzerlands or was equal the 38th largest US State.
“To put it another way, if the properties comprising S. Kidman & Co were a country, that country would rank 106th out of the world’s 195 nations, just nudging out South Korea at 99,909sq km,” he said.
Mr Joyce said he supported the Treasurer’s decision which signalled to the Australian people that foreign acquisition “is not just a tick and flick exercise that will permit any sale to go through”.
“If all of Australia was up for grabs we would slowly lose our sense of nationhood,” he said.
“The Kidman estate comprises 1.3 per cent of Australia’s land mass but more significantly 2.5pc of Australia’s agricultural land.
“What other country in the world would simply wave through the sale of one 40th of its agricultural land without a query?”
