Overseas Investment (Restriction on Foreign Ownership of Land) Amendment Bill

on behalf of Dr Russel Norman (Co-Leader—Green): The Greens are very proud to be presenting this new bill. It is a bill that is absolutely critical—[Interruption]

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order! I am sorry. I need to advise the member that he needs to move that the Overseas Investment (Restriction on Foreign Ownership of Land) Amendment Bill be now read a first time.

I move—

💬 Gareth Hughes: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): The member has started. He needs to keep going.

I move, That the Overseas Investment (Restriction on Foreign Ownership of Land) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I intend it to be referred to the Finance and Expenditure Committee.

💬 Hon Tau Henare: What does the bill say?

What the bill says is that we need to be excluding foreign ownership from sensitive land. Successive Governments have been allowing, through the Overseas Investment Office, significant parcels of land—and sensitive land at that—to be moving into foreign ownership. It is absolutely imperative that this is changed.

This bill is totally timely. New Zealanders have become very, very concerned about losing control of our economic sovereignty following the attempted sale of the Crafar dairy farms into foreign ownership. This bill gives Parliament an opportunity to address these concerns. According to the figures provided by Terralink, since 2005 the Overseas Investment Office has approved 312,600 hectares for sale into overseas ownership, and 280,000 hectares of this land has been rural land. Labour-led and National-led Governments over the last decade have approved the sale of vast areas of New Zealand into foreign ownership. This bill provides an opportunity to put that to a stop. This bill is an opportunity for National and Labour to change course, and to stem the flow of land into overseas ownership. There are strategic economic interests, and this bill is about protecting strategic economic interests. New Zealand must protect its global advantage by keeping New Zealand land for New Zealand citizens, permanent residents, and companies.

Our land is the source of a very large part of our exports to the world: food, especially, but also forestry. If the land, and hence those profits, fall into foreign ownership, it will mean that New Zealand will no longer benefit from those exports. Food prices have increased dramatically over the last decade, and if green economics is correct, we live in a world of finite resources. The price of food will then continue to rise over the long term, and hence the value of food-producing land will continue to rise. Hence, it is no surprise that many Governments, corporations, and investment funds have been engaged in large-scale land-grabbing. In New Zealand we have seen the Chinese Government - backed corporation Shanghai Pengxin buying up Crafar farms, but it is part of a global trend.

Soaring grain prices in 2007-08 led to countries such as Saudi Arabia and South Korea worrying about their national food security, and buying up overseas land. Then speculators and investors joined in. Oxfam says that more than 2 million square kilometres in the last decade have been grabbed; two-thirds of that in Africa. That is like Spain, France, Britain, Italy, and Germany all put together. That is huge. Governments around the world are buying up land to protect their national interests.

Debate interrupted.

Sitting suspended from 10 p.m. to 9 a.m. (Thursday)