The sale of the vast Kidman pastoral empire to the joint venture Outback Beef has passed the foreign investment hurdle.
Gina Rinehart is very close to Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, who has been a critic of the Chinese push for Australian land.
Paul Millar/AAP Image
Gina Rinehart has partnered with a Chinese company to buy the giant Kidman pastoral empire, after two previous bids by Chinese buyers were rejected by the federal government.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull visited China with a large trade delegation in April.
Kanzaburo Fukuhara/EPA
The message Chinese investors are getting from Australia is shifting from ambiguous to ominously hostile.
Scott Morrison told a news conference the Turnbull government welcomed foreign investment where it was consistent with Australia’s national interest.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
Treasurer Scott Morrison has announced that his “preliminary decision” is that the purchase of the Kidman pastoral empire by a Chinese-dominated buyer “is contrary to the national interest”.
Anna Creek, the world’s largest working cattle station, formerly part of the Kidman estate.
Larine Statham
Treasurer Scott Morrison’s reason for rejecting the Chinese bid offers a radically different definition of ‘national interest’ but doesn’t say much about how foreign interests are defined.
In some parts of Australia, cattle properties have been hand over to the traditional owners, but for others the return of their land seems further away than ever.
AAP/Jordan Baker
The company built by ‘Cattle King’ Sidney Kidman is for sale. He enjoyed good relations with the Indigenous inhabitants, but proper recognition of their rights to their land seems ever more elusive.