Where Qatar are buying.
A LARGE investment in prime Western District farmland by the Qatar government is increasing pressure for a toughening of Australia's foreign ownership rules.
Amid growing disquiet in the bush over the loss of national sovereignty, the Greens and independent senator Nick Xenophon have called for changes requiring the Treasurer to approve all foreign acquisitions of rural land above $5 million.
Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten said he was aware of angst in some rural communities but said the Gillard government wanted to examine the scale of foreign ownership in Australia before deciding if reform was necessary.
Illustration: Matt Golding
''Once we have all the facts on the table we can then consider in detail further policy responses,'' Mr Shorten said.
Qatar-based Hassad Foods, which is the agricultural arm of the Qatar government, recently agreed to pay about $35 million for more than 8ooo hectares of sheep-grazing and cropping land in Victoria's Western District.
The secretive deal includes five homesteads around Willaura and Dunkeld, near Ararat, and is believed to be one of the largest acquisitions of Victorian pastoral land in recent history.
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