Agriculture

The majority voted against a motion introduced by Democratic Labor Party Senator John Madigan. This means that the motion was rejected. The motion was:

That the Senate-

(a) notes that:

_(i) in 2010 the Australian Bureau of Statistics published the Agricultural Land and Water Ownership survey (December 2010), which indicated that 11.3 per cent of Australian agricultural land was foreign-owned,_

_(ii) according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Vote Compass, a significant majority of Australians want to 'further restrict foreign ownership of Australian agricultural land', and_(Explore the ABC's Vote Compass, including the data on whether the government should restrict foreign ownership of Australian agricultural land, here.)

(iii) Australian agricultural land is a national treasure and should not be treated as a global commodity; and

(b) calls on the Government to table, no later than the first sitting day of 2013, an updated Agricultural Land and Water Ownership survey, outlining foreign ownership of Australian agricultural land as at June 2013.