Foreign ownership of Victorian water surges

A shocking report has revealed just how much of our water is now owned by overseas interests, with China continuing to buy up to buy up precious Australian resources.

China is continuing to buy up precious Australian resources, with new reports revealing foreign ownership of Victorian water has surged by more than 30 per cent in a year.

The percentage of overseas-owned water in the state rose from 205 gigalitres to 267 between June 2018 and June last year.

Nationally, 10.5 per cent of our water is now owned by overseas interests, with both surface and groundwater being leased or bought.

And the newly released Register of Foreign Ownership of Water Entitlements report reveals, it is China leading the charge, owning a whopping 756GL of national water resources.

The Asian powerhouse increased its share from 732GL in 2018, while interests from the United States and United Kingdom — our next biggest foreign owners of water — actually lowered their shares.

China is continuing to buy up our water resources

The total volume of foreign-held water entitlements in Australia rose from 4035GL to 4113GL over the latest reporting period, with overseas ownership of water in the Murray Darling Basin jumping 16.6 per cent.

Victorian water Minister Lisa Neville told the Sunday Herald Sun her government did not support foreign ownership of water and she had raised concerns with the Federal Government over the issue as late as Friday, at the Ministerial Council

“We do not support foreign ownership of water being able to grow. This is in the hands of the Federal Government and unfortunately the State Government cannot stop foreign ownership,” she said.

Victorian Farmers Federation Water Council chair Richard Anderson said he hoped overseas investors were not speculators, trading water for profit and driving up the cost for Aussie farmers.

“There will always be foreign investment and obviously Australian agriculture is pretty attractive, but we’d like to think that somebody buying a big chunk of water is actually going to use it on land … that is going to create employment in other business opportunities, in terms of regional and rural development,” Mr Anderson said.

While steadily increasing, at 3.4 per cent the total amount of water owned by overseas interests in Victoria pales in comparison to Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia.

But as foreign water ownership has increased, the amount of land in overseas hands has dropped slightly.

In Victoria, the amount of agricultural land with a level of foreign ownership dropped by 6.4 per cent.

Also released by the Australian Taxation Office late last week, the Register of Foreign Ownership of Agricultural Land reveals overseas interests in farming land across the country has fallen from 52.6 million hectares in 2018 to 52.1 million hectares, leaving 13.8 per cent of Australian agricultural land in foreign hands.

China and the United Kingdom remain the countries with the largest bites of Australian farmland, each accounting for 2.4 per cent of total agricultural land, followed by the Netherlands at 0.7 per cent and the United States with 0.6 per cent.

In Victoria, the amount of agricultural land with a level of foreign ownership dropped by 6.4 per cent.

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