Redefining Land’s Investability: towards a neo-nationalization of resources in Australia?

Abstract

Between 2010 and 2015, the Australian government revised its legal regime for foreign investment in Australian farmland. As part of a broader public debate surrounding what some considered to be the ‘selling out’ of Australian farmland to foreigners, this revision has been a contentious political process revolving around Australia’s ‘national interest’ and a recurring quest for transparency regarding the governmental screening process of foreign investments in Australian land. By examining the governmental debate surrounding the appropriate treatment of land within the country’s legal framework, this paper first reveals the endogenous role of the state in redefining what we term the ‘investability’ of land – the multidimensional elements that shape investment parameters and their assessment by stakeholders. Second, we argue that these debates show a clear reinvigoration of the national significance of land, which in turn challenges Australia’s longstanding political position that being ‘open for business’ is best for its national interests. This paper demonstrates the frictions that emerged as a neoliberal governance model – responding to foreign interests in land – became infused with elements of resource nationalism. We suggest that this conflation of neoliberalism and resource nationalism can be interpreted as a ‘neo-nationalization’ of resources.

Biographical Note

Dr. Sarah Ruth Sippel ( SFB 1199 & Leipzig University)

Sarah Ruth Sippel is a Senior Researcher at the University of Leipzig, Germany, and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland, Australia. She studied Middle Eastern studies and philosophy in Leipzig and Aix-en-Provence and received her PhD in geography. She has intensively worked on the interlinkages between export agriculture, rural livelihood security, and labour migration in North Africa and the Western Mediterranean region. Her current research explores the nexus between global food security, financialization of natural resources, and emerging forms of solidarities within global agri-food systems. She is Principal Investigator of a four-year research project on imaginations of land (C04, SFB 1199) funded by the German Research Foundation.

Sarah Ruth Sippel developed the Explorative Workshop Envisioning the Future of Food Across North-South Divides which is part of the strategic cooperation between the Forum Transregionale Studien and the Max Weber Stiftung – Deutsche Geisteswissenschaftliche Institute im Ausland. The workshop will take place in Berlin from 1 to 3 December 2016.