Xavier Duff has included some interesting facts in a Weekly Times article on foreign investment. He mentions that foreign ownership of rural land is regulated in many other countries. Other countries, presumably most of them, require that all rural land owned by foreigners is registered with the federal government (eg USA). Some countries restrict the amount of land that can be purchased, in other countries overseas purchases over a certain (often small) size must be approved (NZ), while in some regions foreign ownership of rural land is prohibited outright (China, the Philippines, and some US states).
It would be great to have a comprehensive list of what the government requirements are on purchasing land in all countries. For example what are the laws regarding foreign ownership of rural land in Britain, and Eastern and Western Europe? In the Middle East? In India, Indonesia, and all the Asian countries in-between? These are all regions where private citizens, companies and governments have bought up tracts of Australian food producing land. And presumably all if not most of these countries, at least keep detailed and current records of land owned by non-citizens.
I suspect a comprehensive list of foreign ownership laws in relation to rural land, in other countries, would show Australia is one of the least restricted on the planet. Why do we give it away?