Woolerton R Doug: General Debate 
Woolerton R Doug: General Debate 
[Volume:647;Page:15945] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 For the few moments I have I want to talk about New Zealand ownership and as I am a member of New Zealand First people will not be surprised about that. We intend to keep on talking about New Zealand ownership and we will be applauding those who have come around to our point of view—that is the Labour Party. The National Party on the other side of the House still has a way to go as far as we are concerned in this regard. We in New Zealand First believe that ownership of the assets of this country does make a difference—it matters who owns them. If that were not so why would people seek to own anything in any part of the world let alone their own house or car or anything like that? I do not think I need to go much further down that track. 
Before I start to talk about what the Chinese are going to do I say upfront that we applaud what the Chinese Government is attempting to do because it is looking after its country and its people. In yesterday’s paper we saw that Rio Tinto Aluminium and Broken Hill Pty Co. Ltd will increase the price of steel or parts of the steel process to their customers to the tune of about 70 percent and the Chinese have said: “Yeah right!”. China is attempting to buy into Rio Tinto and Broken Hill and is worried that those two companies may indeed become one. We applaud China for that because we believe it is looking after its best interests. We believe that that is what we should be doing in this country because it is a model for success. 
The Chinese clearly have no intention of being at the end of some supply chain. In other words they want a piece of the action upfront. They will not be dictated to on price or anything else by corporations in which they have no say and they are moving to rectify that situation. I saw a report the other day—and this is where we must be very careful in this country—that stated that China was also looking for land around the world including in New Zealand that it could either buy or lease so that again it does not have to pay world prices for products but can have some say in the manufacturing of products and get a supply chain from the paddock to the plate as we like to call it in New Zealand or in Australia’s case from the mine to the end product in China. 
I noticed that a gentleman who came before the Finance and Expenditure Committee—one Dr Grenville—was speaking out about the dangers to Australia of China buying into its companies. Clearly China is looking to protect its interests not Australia’s interests. Dr Grenville says—and quite rightly so—that it is in Australians’ and Australian politicians’ interests to protect Australia. That is our issue in this country. Whom are we acting for? We in this House should in every hour of every day be acting for New Zealanders not for some foreign company and not to advantage some sort of notion of free trade in the world. We—all of us—are elected to act in the interests of New Zealanders and that is what we should be doing. 
It is great that the Labour Government has bought back the railways. Clearly more investment is needed. We understand that and I think that everybody in New Zealand understands it. The Labour Government has said that this purchase will not be a huge income earner. Rather it is part of a transport system and we certainly understand that and applaud that. Likewise we applauded when Air New Zealand was bought back and we believe that that is a model for the railway enterprise going forward. Likewise I have pleaded that the Labour Government protect our dairy industry to the extent that it can and not approve the buying up of smaller dairy companies by the likes of Nutritek and so on and so forth. That industry must be protected as well because it is vital to our future.