Barnaby Joyce has described the Labor party as communists and has justified concern about foreign investment because people are not prepared to “die for a rented country”.

The deputy prime minister was speaking at the National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) congress in Canberra to an audience which included the Chinese ambassador.

“The love of one’s country is best delivered when you own that country,” Joyce said. “I may like your car but I love mine. Likewise I find your house very interesting but I want to go home to mine ...

“It is the ultimate sign that the Labor party and the Greens just don’t get it and believe you me, there is one thing people are not keen to do and that is die for a rented country”.



In an extraordinary attack on the opposition, Joyce told the audience that Labor’s policies, such as vegetation management, amounted to dispossession of private assets and therefore communism.

He said Labor and the Greens “have no vision, the blood runs cold through their veins, they are boring”.

“I thought about how Labor dispossess people of their private assets with tree-clearing guidelines – ‘vegetation management’ as it’s euphemistically called,” Joyce said.

“This just essentially took away ownership from private individuals and gave it to the community. Dispossession of the individual for the community benefit without the community paying for it.



“When I was marking my 184th lamb I thought there is a word for this – it’s called communism.”

Asked after the speech if it was appropriate to call Labor communist with Chinese officials in the audience, Joyce said: “We weren’t calling the Labor party communist.”

“What do you call it when someone says I’m going to socialise your private asset without payment?”

Joyce has been under pressure again in recent days over his relationship breakdown with the former head of the agriculture department Paul Grimes, who was sacked by the Coalition last year after a dispute over Hansard records.

On Monday, the government finally released a letter from Grimes to Joyce, in which the former secretary of the department said he could no longer work with Joyce “to resolve matters relating to integrity”.

He said he still had respect for Grimes but the relationship had deteriorated during negotiations over the agricultural white paper. Joyce said he was trying to withhold the letter in question because Grimes had wanted to withdraw and things were said under high pressure.

“It’s obvious that the relationship had fallen into a point of no return,” Joyce said. “I’m absolutely certain that Dr Grimes will go on to do great things.”

Dr Grimes did not return Guardian Australia’s calls.

Joyce has also been criticised for his decision to move the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicine Association (APVMA) to his own electorate of New England, a move that has upset key stakeholders and staff, who are based in Canberra. Joyce has so far declined to release the cost-benefit analysis, which he has said would go to cabinet.

On Wednesday, Joyce was defiant about the move at the NFF congress, saying “so what”, Armidale was the best place for the APVMA.

Joyce said the government’s policy to decrease the threshold at which agricultural land purchases are scrutinised by the Foreign Investment Review Board from $252m to $15m was the right thing to do.

“The most precious asset is the land you stand on,” Joyce said. “You could lose sight of that then you lose sight of the people.

“We are not losing investment. They are lined up out the door and down the road still wanting to buy land. Don’t worry about that.”

But the agriculture minister would not express a preference for either bid for the high-profile S Kidman and Co company. One bid, Australian Outback Beef, has been led by his friend and supporter, the Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart, with one third Chinese ownership . The other bid is the BBHO consortium of four high-profile Australian grazing families; Sterling Buntine, Tom Brinkworth, Malcolm Harris and Viv Oldfield.

“I don’t communicate with her [Rinehart],” Joyce said.

“There’s a good reason for that. Malcolm Harris, I have known him for years. I have known his parents since my early 20s. They are up against each other and I will let them do it in the proper commercial way with no interference from [me].”