A report from Australia’s Senate this week called for the threshold for review and approval of foreign farm purchases to be reduced to as low as A$15 million from the current A$248 million minimum. A move to tighten foreign investment rules will likely upset Australia’s biggest trade partner China, which has been encouraging firms to expand overseas to secure food supplies for its 1.3 billion people. The conservative opposition has yet to detail its foreign investment policy but it will likely strongly consider this week’s report to shore up support from Australia’s farmers before the September 14th elections. A poll by the Lowy Institute this week found that 57% of Australians believe that there has been too much FDI from China, however according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 89% of Australia’s farmland is wholly Australian-owned.