Sage EugenieHon EUGENIE SAGE (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. I did so enjoy listening to Mr Bennett because he highlighted why National is there and the Greens Labour and New Zealand First are here. The repeated references to competition in his speech—I lost count of how many times he talked about competition in the market. It's been National's reliance on competition—that whole philosophy which is heartless when it comes to people wanting affordable housing—that has ended up with the housing crisis we have today. Its reliance on the market and competition has been at the basis of its unwillingness to intervene.Mr Bennett 20 percent of the sales of houses in Auckland in the March quarter were to overseas persons. This Government has intervened because we don't think New Zealand housebuyers should have to be competing with overseas people who can often pay a much higher price. The domestic market for our houses should be determined here in Aotearoa New Zealand and not be influenced by competition from overseas persons who are speculating often. So that's why Mr Bennett this bill has been introduced and is close to being passed. The National Government said they couldn't do it. Todd McClay walked around before the election saying that it would cut across trade agreements. National wanted this to be done by stamp duty but that would have cut across trade agreements.So I congratulate Minister Parker and I am very grateful for the huge amount of work that officials in Treasury and the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) have done and the work that members in the Finance and Expenditure Committee have done to actually finalise and develop this bill. It is a measure to ensure that New Zealanders can get easier access to affordable homes by requiring any overseas persons to have to go through a screening process.As the Minister responsible for the Overseas Investment Office can I tell Mr Bennett that there are significant changes there to ensure that those processes are efficient both in the forestry sector and in the residential sector because the processes should be clear-cut and easy to understand and there should be adequate enforcement mechanisms as well. The previous speaker was worried about that. Can I inform him that there's been $7 million allocated in Budget 2018 for compliance and enforcement by the OIO and there are provisions in this bill which would enable the office to require overseas purchasers if they've bought forestry land—for example—and if they are not complying with the conditions of their application to actually be required to dispose of that land. There is more monitoring being done by the OIO so Mr Bennett should rest assured that this Act will actually be enforced.On the forestry front his speech there was making a mountain out of a molehill. The reason this Act gives a clearer more streamlined process for forestry is because of climate change. We have a lot of catching up to do because as a previous speaker Mr Patterson noted National squandered the opportunity to do something about climate change. We need afforestation to sequester that carbon to reduce the likelihood of going beyond the tipping point so that New Zealand does its share to reduce our emissions and to put us on track to being a zero-carbon economy by 2050.Seventy percent of our forestry in New Zealand is already overseas-owned but it's the investment that these companies can bring to increasing the plantings to doing more processing and to providing more jobs in the regions that is why we want a streamlined test. So there are good reasons Mr Bennett for that streamlined test. It's not an easy run and the OIO will be ensuring that there is good information on its website around the consents that are granted around the standing consents in the housing property sector.We want this Act to work. The OIO is investing the time and resources in working with the real estate sector with the conveyancers and with the forestry sector to make sure that the tests in the Act are understood and that the legislation is ready to go when it comes into force because this bill is about ensuring that we get those billion trees in the ground that we do our share to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and that the Government ensures that there is every opportunity for New Zealanders to purchase affordable homes without having to compete with people overseas.So this bill will make a significant difference. It has had to be done at speed—but there's still been a six-month select committee process—because as Minister Parker has repeatedly explained but the Opposition still doesn't seem to realise it needed to be got through before the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement came into effect. So that's why we are doing what National said couldn't be done particularly in that housing space where the provisions in the legislation will ensure that while there's not competition with overseas speculators and where there is investment by overseas companies in actually significantly increasing housing supply to deal with that housing affordability issue that can be accommodated under the Act. So it is sensible Mr Bennett.What else did Mr Bennett say? He said that we face a risk with the forestry provisions of having New Zealand lose some of our best land. That is very rich coming from a National MP because of course it was under National that their ministerial directive to the Overseas Investment Office made sure that those purchasing farms who were living overseas or were overseas companies didn't need to go through all the tests under the Act unless they were large farms—10 times the size of the average farm. So their ministerial directive made sure that the Act was only very narrowly applied and in very limited circumstances and it has been this Government that has changed that ministerial directive to ensure that any sales of rural land over 5 hectares have to go through a consenting regime under the Act. So it's making sure that where there are sales of land to overseas persons there are substantial and identifiable benefits to New Zealand.So this Government's agenda is about ensuring that everyone recognises that it is a privilege to own land in New Zealand if you're an overseas person that it's got to deliver substantial and identifiable benefits and that we don't want overseas speculation in houses because we want to ensure that New Zealanders have access to affordable housing. The National Party with its emphasis on the market on competition is all about allowing property speculation people to capture financial gains for themselves with no concern that our rates of homeownership in New Zealand have fallen to the lowest in 60 years. This bill is about helping to reverse that helping to make housing more affordable helping to ensure that we get the investment in forestry helping to address our climate crisis and not the head in the sand attitude that we've seen from the National Opposition.I commend this bill to the House. I thank all of the officials in Treasury and the OIO who have worked long and hard on it. I congratulate Michael Wood as chair of the select committee and Minister Parker for the huge work that he has done in shepherding this bill through the House. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker.