Report into foreign ownership of Australian farming land finally released

The tax office has released its report from the register of Foreign Ownership of Australian Agricultural Land, 17 months late.

The federal government has released a long-awaited report on the amount of Australian farmland in foreign hands, 17 months late.

Until this week, the most recent data on the level of foreign ownership in Australian farmland was more than two years out of date.

The data was revealed on Tuesday after the Australian Taxation Office finally tabled its report from the Register of Foreign Ownership of Australian Land, for landholdings at 30 June 2023.

The report shows the slide in the amount of Australian agricultural land owned by foreigners has been arrested.

The total area of agricultural land in Australia with a level of foreign ownership fell by 0.3 per cent from 47.709 million hectares at 30 June 2022 to 47.561 million hectares at 30 June 2023.

This compared to a 10 per cent drop in Australian farming land with a level of foreign ownership between 2022 and 2021, from 52.985 million hectares to 47.709 million hectares.

At 30 June 2023, according to the Agland register, of the 47.561 million hectares of foreign held agricultural land, 36.241 million hectares, or 76 per cent, was owned by foreigners and 11.320 million hectares, or 23 per cent, was owned by foreigners in joint partnerships with Australians.

China remains the largest foreign owner of Australian farmland, followed by the UK and Netherlands. Picture: Supplied

The countries that owned the greatest slice of Australian farmland did not change in 2023 compared to the previous year, with China remaining on top with 2.1 per cent.

The UK owned 2 per cent, followed by Canada with 0.8 per cent and then the Netherlands and the United States, both with 0.6 per cent.

National Farmers’ Federation welcomed the release of the 2023 Agland report, “given the importance of timely and accurate data on investment levels to help inform industry settings”,

NFF deputy chief executive Charlie Thomas said.

The latest report is the last ever stand-alone report to come from the Agland register.

The register was set up in 2015 along with a register for oversight of water ownership by the previous Coalition government to improve transparency of foreign ownership of the nation’s major agricultural assets.

The registers are set to be bundled into a new and much broader Register of Foreign Ownership of Australian Assets, which is managed by the ATO and includes mining, business and residential assets.

More recent data on foreign ownership of Australian farmland can be found in the Treasury’s latest annual report that shows the value of approved investment proposals for the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector was $5.3 billion in 2023-24, which represents a 34 per cent drop on the previous year.

Historically, annual Foreign Investment Review Board approvals for agricultural investments have been valued between $7 billion and $8.5 billion since 2016-17, aside from 2020-21 at the height of the pandemic.