Treasury Secretary warns foreign investment in Australian farmland is crucial
Australians' national interest depends on foreign investment, Treasury Secretary Martin Parkinson has warned.
And Australians face declining living standards if they do not work harder.
The Treasury Secretary said in speech last night that Australia could not rely on the mining boom to prop up the economy and if productivity did not improve incomes would not be sustainable.
Given the recent calls for new rules governing overseas investment in Australian farmland, Parkinson suggests discouraging capital from legitimate foreign sources could harm the country's potential wealth.
"I think the issue around foreign ownership, whether it's of the mining sector or the agricultural sector, has to be handled quite carefully," he says.
"And so you can see, there have been a number of political interventions this week, I just hope that they are handled with clear recognition of where Australia's national interest lies."
The Greens, members of the federal Coalition members and independent Senator Nick Xenophon have been seeking stronger rules for farmland purchases by foreign companies.
Parkinson also says economic reforms should make it easier for people to move to rapidly growing mining areas.
He says lower stamp duty – which could encourage people to sell their houses and move – and other reforms that would make it easier for people to transition to new jobs were sensible.
Parkinson has previously worked at the International Monetary Fund on the reform of international financial architecture and in the early 1990s served as senior adviser to Treasurer John Dawkins.
The speech was to the Melbourne Institute Economic and social outlook conference.
