Most of Australia's biggest companies are majority-owned by US investors. The attention being given to possible covert influence being exercised by China in Australia shouldn't distract us from recognising that very overt foreign influence now occurs through investment.
The United States and United Kingdom are the biggest investors in Australia, followed by Belgium, Japan and Singapore. China is our tenth largest foreign investor, with 1.9 per cent of the total.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia was the largest Australian bank as at H1 2022, by value of total assets. The value of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia's assets amounted to over 1,149 billion Australian dollars.
The United States and the United Kingdom remain the two largest economies for Australian investment. At the end of 2022, Australian investments in the US totalled $1.1 trillion and our investment in the UK was $836 billion.
Wesfarmers Limited is an Australian conglomerate, headquartered in Perth, Western Australia. It has interests predominantly in Australia and New Zealand, operating in retail, chemical, fertiliser, industrial and safety products.
Foreign ownership of Australian farmland increased last year but remained flat as a percentage of the overall total, with China holding the most land.
China remained Australia's largest two-way trading partner in 2018-19 and was our largest export market and import source. Two-way trade with China surged past $230 billion, well over double the second ranked trading partner, Japan.
#1 - Harry Triguboff
Harry Triguboff is Australia's most prominent real estate tycoon, thanks to his work with Meriton. He made his fortune developing high-rise apartment blocks throughout the country.
The valuations of Gina Rinehart ($37.41 billion) and Andrew Forrest ($33.29 billion), the richest and second-richest Australians for the fourth year in a row, surged 10 per cent and 8 per cent respectively as listed-market analysts re-rated their outlook for red Pilbara dirt.
AFR Rich List 2023: The ten richest Australians for 2023, ranked | Gina Rinehart, Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest, Anthony Pratt, Harry Triguboff, Clive Palmer, Mike Cannon-Brookes.
Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart, is the daughter of iron-ore explorer Lang Hancock. Rinehart made her wealth rebuilding Hancock Prospecting, becoming chair in 1992 when her father died.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' rights and interests in land are formally recognised over around 50 per cent of Australia's land mass. Connection to land is of central importance to First Nations Australians.
China may own as much as 20 per cent of all Australian Government debt according to big Canadian investment bank RBC.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the nation's biggest company, is more than 60% owned by American-based investors. So too are Woolworths and Rio Tinto. BHP, once known as “the Big Australian”, is 73% owned by American-based investors.
Trade and investment
China is Australia's largest two-way trading partner in goods and services, accounting for nearly one third (32.2 per cent) of our trade with the world.
1. George Soros. George Soros, aka "the man who broke the Bank of England," was born a Jew in Hungary in 1930, survived the Holocaust, and fled the country then. He is one of the most popular and famous traders worldwide.
Billionaire, businessman and the chairman and chief executive of LVMH (LVMUY), Bernard Arnault holds the crown as the richest person in the world. According to Forbes, Arnault has a fortune of $234.5 billion.
'Billionaire Stocks': Bill Gates, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B)
The natural stock pick held by the world's wealthiest person is Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), the giant tech company Bill Gates co-founded with Paul Allen in 1975. Gates still owns almost 103 million shares of the company worth $15.4 billion.
The Williams family, of Williams Cattle Company in South Australia, have the title of owning Australia's biggest farming aggregation — the 2.37 million-hectare Anna Creek and The Peake Stations, covering an area bigger than Slovenia.
The mining magnate Gina Rinehart is Australia's biggest landholder, controlling more than 9.2m hectares, or 1.2% of the entire landmass of the country, according to data compiled by Guardian Australia.
According to a government report on foreign ownership of agricultural land, Chinese investors are in fact one of the largest foreign entities with an interest (leasehold and freehold) in Australian farmland.