Treasurer Scott Morrison has declined to say whether the Foreign Investment Review Board was in favour of the sale of the Kidman property empire to Chinese buyers.
Mr Morrison last week blocked the $371 million bid for the vast S Kidman and Co portfolio on national interest grounds.
Asked at the National Press Club on Wednesday whether the decision went against the board's advice, he said: "FIRB always gives advice but it is my decision."
China's Dakang Australia Holdings, which is working with Australian Rural Capital, withdrew its FIRB application on Tuesday.
But Dakang and ARC are working on a new bid structure for the cattle stations portfolio of more than 100,000 square kilometres.
Kidman runs a herd of almost 200,000 cattle on the largest private landholding in Australia, covering about 1.3 per cent of the nation's total land area and 2.5 per cent of its agricultural land.
Mr Morrison said he held "great concerns" about the size of the landholding.
"As a result of the decision I took last week, Australia's largest landholding will not be sold to foreign interests. I make no apology for that," he said.
"I consider every single one of these cases on their merits ... and on this occasion there's got to be a limit and it was just too big."
Foreign investment is set to be a key election issue, especially in regional seats held by Nationals MPs.
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