Nash Stuart: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNash Stuart: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 18 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5847. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]11.STUART NASH (Labour—Napier) to the Minister for Land Information: How many hectares of New Zealand agricultural and forestry land are owned or controlled by foreign interests?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister for Economic Development) on behalf of theMinister for Land Information: It is not possible to give an answer to that for a number of reasons and let me take the House through them. Firstly often overseas owners sell land back to New Zealanders. Consent is not needed to do this and no record is kept. Secondly overseas owners can change their status—for example they can become New Zealand citizens or permanent residents. Thirdly overseas owners sell land to each other. Fourthly the Overseas Investment Office records grants of consent; it does not necessarily mean—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Minister will resume his seat.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. If you look at the question it required a simple answer not a long obtuse—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume his seatimmediately. I will be the adjudicator of how long a question is to be answered for and that will be greatly determined by the measure of interjections that are coming from areas in this House. If there are interjections then a Minister will certainly be given more latitude in responding to those.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Mr SPEAKER: Order! Would the member please resume his seat. I have ruled on this matter but I just want to give the member a warning that might be of some relevance to him. If he continues to relitigate that point of order that is seriously disorderly and I will deal with it appropriately. If the member wishes to raise a separate point of order I am happy to hear it.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I am not contesting what you have just said. What I want to know is: could I have some prior Speakers’ rulings or Standing Orders that reference the right of a Minister to go on and on on the basis of—Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member is in serious risk of being thrown out of the House on a second occasion for exactly the same reason. I have ruled that I will adjudicate the length of the answer and that will be determined by the level of interjection that I perceive to be coming from any area of the House. Would the Minister like to complete his answer.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The fifth reason is that the Overseas Investment Office has records dating back to 1998only as prior to that time consents were granted by the Land Valuation Tribunal which kept no data. So for those five reasons and more it is not possible to provide an answer to the member.Stuart Nash: Does the Minister for Land Information think it is acceptable that she can approve sales of New Zealand’s agricultural and forestry land without ever knowing the total number of hectares of New Zealand productive land that is going into foreign ownership or control?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The point is that we actually test every single transaction. In fact this Government tightened up the Overseas Investment Office consent process by increasing New Zealand participation protecting New Zealand’s economic interests and limiting vertical integration. If the member would like to go over the history of some of these transactions and which Government sold what to whom I am more than happy to indulge him.Mr SPEAKER: No that will not be necessary.Stuart Nash: In light of the answer that the Government tests every sale how many jobs have the 716 overseas investors who promised to create jobs actually created; if the Minister for Land Information does not know why not?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: I do not have the total but I can give him an example that I think is an important example because one of the transactions relates to a purchase of Carter Holt Harvey’s forestry assets. This is an important example of—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! If I hear interjections of that level coming from two particular New Zealand First members they will be leaving the House immediately.Hon STEVEN JOYCE: So one example is the Carter Holt Harvey forestry assets which included 3380 hectares of freehold land that was purchased by Oji Paper Co Ltd which the member may be aware is the operator of the Pan Pac Forest Products Ltd mill in Whirinaki. It employs very many New Zealanders and is developing those assets so if he wants to continue down that line of attack—Stuart Nash: Point of order—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! I have a point of order from Stuart Nash and I certainly hope that it is not attempting to relitigate on the length of this answer.Stuart Nash: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Not at all Mr Speaker. It was a very clear question. I had the answer within 2 seconds. Can I please ask—Mr SPEAKER: Order! That is relitigating exactly what I have already handled. The member is very much in danger of having the same treatment as the others. Does he have further supplementary questions?Stuart Nash: Does New Zealand not need a publicly accessible register listing foreign ownership and control of our agricultural and forestry land?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: No I do not believe so. What New Zealand needs is the ability to vet each transaction which this Government does just as other Governments did before it to ensure that there is economic benefit for New Zealand. And the member knows from his own electorate that there are some very good examples of foreign investment in New Zealand and the Pan Pac Forest Products Ltd mill at Whirinaki is exactly one of those examples. It also owns foreign land for forestry purposes.Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] No I think that on this occasion the answer is certainly long enough.Stuart Nash: Will the Minister for Land Information approve the sale to foreign interests of any of Landcorp’s 160000 hectares of farms and forests; if so why?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: She cannot make hypothetical decisions on individual pieces of land but she would probably be more careful than the Labour Government from back in 2004 which sold 170000 hectares of the Kaingaroa Forest to a Harvard pension fund and that particular transaction was authorised by one David Parker.