AGRICULTURAL LAND AND WATER OWNERSHIP SURVEY - DECEMBER 2010

The question of Australian ownership of Australian agricultural land and agricultural businesses was raised in Federal Parliament during the latter half of 2010 and as a result, ABS was requested to conduct a survey in order to provide the answers to that question. Prior to this survey, there was very little data available on foreign investment in Australia and the ABS didn't hold information which detailed the amount of Australian ownership for agriculture in Australia.

The Agricultural Land and Water Ownership Survey, Australia (ALWOS) was conducted with the reference time period of 31 December 2010. The survey was a mail out / mail back paper form with a phone based follow up. Data from the Australian Business Register and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) was used to populate and update the ABS Business Register. A sample of approximately 11,000 businesses were surveyed for ALWOS with the method used being the same as that used for the Agricultural Census.

The ALWOS requested information on the level of Australian ownership of the surveyed businesses and information on the ownership of the land and water entitlements which were used for agricultural activity. The information reported was used to estimate the level of Australian ownership of agricultural businesses, area of agricultural land and volume of water entitlement for agricultural purposes which have a level of foreign ownership.

The results of the survey were released on 9 September 2011 and can be seen in the publication, Agricultural Land and Water Ownership, December 2010 (cat. no. 7127.0) on the ABS website.