7127.0 - Agricultural Land and Water Ownership, 2015-16 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 13/09/2017   
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OWNERSHIP OF WATER ENTITLEMENTS FOR AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES

The volume of water entitlements owned by businesses with some level of foreign ownership was 1.9 million megalitres at 30 June 2016 or 12.5% of the total volume of water entitlements for agricultural purposes in Australia.

Of the water entitlements with some level of foreign ownership, the majority (1.6 million megalitres or 83%) was held by businesses that were more than 50% foreign owned. In comparison 10,000 megalitres (or 0.5%) were owned by businesses with a level of foreign ownership which was less than 10% at 30 June 2016 and 283,000 megalitres (15%) were owned by businesses with a level of foreign ownership between 10% and 50%.

Of the states and territories, Queensland has the highest proportion of its water entitlements owned by businesses with a level of foreign ownership at 22.3% (or 745,000 megalitres) while South Australia has the lowest proportion at 2.2% (or 31,000 megalitres).

The industry with largest volume of water entitlements owned by businesses with some level of foreign ownership was the other crop growing industry (ANZSIC 015), which includes cotton and other broadacre crops. The volume of water owned by businesses with some level of foreign ownership in this industry was 1.2 million megalitres in 2016. This represented 63% of all the water entitlements owned by businesses with some level of foreign ownership in 2016.

The proportion of water entitlements owned by wholly Australian-owned businesses in each industry is shown below.

Graph Image for Proportion of agricultural water entitlements wholly Australian owned

Footnote(s): (a) Due to confidentiality restrictions some data may not be published. See Explanatory Notes for more information.

Source(s): Agricultural Land and Water Ownership (cat. no. 7127.0)