Kevin Rudd plays anti-foreign investment card Sid Maher, Political Correspondent
August 29, 2013 12:00AM
KEVIN Rudd has fuelled the debate over foreign ownership in a pitch to regional Australia that includes dramatic tightening of restrictions on overseas investors buying agricultural land and a crackdown on the treatment of farmers by Coles and Woolworths.
The Prime Minister also promised to examine opening up access to superannuation accounts for "older Australians" but did not provide details.
In the final people's forum of the election campaign, at the Rooty Hill RSL Club in western Sydney, Tony Abbott declared last night the Coalition would not scrap Medicare Locals if it won government on September 7.
An audience of just over 100 undecided voters gave the debate 45 to Mr Rudd to the Opposition Leader's 38, with 19 undecided.
Mr Rudd's pitch on foreign investment came as he seeks to win crucial seats in Queensland, where preferences from Bob Katter's anti-foreign investment party are likely to play a crucial role in deciding key seats.
The Prime Minister said he was "a bit anxious about simply an open-slather approach" to the purchase by foreign companies of agricultural land, saying he preferred joint ventures rather than outright acquisitions by foreigners.
"I think when it comes to rural land, we need to adopt a more cautious approach," Mr Rudd said.
He argued that "without throwing the baby out with the bathwater, we need a better joint-venture approach".
Mr Abbott said it was important "we maintain control of our own country". He said the Coalition would lower the threshold for Foreign Investment Review Board examination of foreign purchases of agricultural land from $248 million to $15m and publish a register of foreign land and agribusiness holdings.
There has been an outbreak of populism on foreign investment in the election as Labor talks tough on foreign control to outflank the Nationals and the anti-foreigner sentiments of Katter's Australian Party.
Agriculture Minister Joel Fitzgibbon has promised to tackle foreign ownership of agricultural land by conducting a stocktake of foreign ownership and introducing a register of foreign owned farm land by July, starting with existing properties.
The shift in the Prime Minister's rhetoric on foreign investment comes after pressure from the Nationals forced a shift in Coalition policy to increase the FIRB's scrutiny of overseas bids.
The proposed takeover of the $3.4 billion GrainCorp, one of Australia's largest listed agribusinesses, by international firm Archer Daniels Midland has also divided the Coalition.
Mr Rudd's pointed remarks echo the increasingly strident warnings from the Nationals, including frontbencher Barnaby Joyce, and independent Mr Katter against foreign control of iconic national assets.
"I'm not quite as free market as Tony on this stuff," the Prime Minister said.
"We often get criticised for trying to be protective. I actually look around the world and I see many many countries being equally protective of their own core assets.
Mr Rudd's anti-foreigner pitch to the bush, however, is likely to unsettle Beijing.
State-owned enterprises must seek approval from FIRB regardless of the size of the investment or nation they come from, but China believes it should enjoy the same $1bn threshold as is applied to the US.
Read more:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/kevin-rudd-plays-anti-foreign-investment-card/story-fn9qr68y-1226706109052 
