SpeechHon TRACEY MARTIN (Minister for Children): Kia ora Madam Speaker. So I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to speak to the Overseas Investment (Urgent Measures) Amendment Bill. The contribution by the member who just resumed his seat the Hon Gerry Brownlee was an interesting one. He put forward a proposition that suggests that never before has there been urgency after a Budget never before has there been bills placed on the Table for the Opposition to see just after the Budget speech has been made and never before has the Opposition actually had to get up and go and do work really really quickly for the benefit of this House. Having sat in those seats it is with some irony that you listen to that particular member knowing how often it was used and how often we would see a paper with something like five minutes beforehand. But you know I understand what it's like in Opposition; and so you build an argument and you rewrite history. New Zealand First supports the bill. The bill contains measures which the coalition Government considers need to be put in place urgently to mitigate the economic effects of COVID-19. It should come as no surprise that the Opposition—well at least one of the Opposition—speakers have already argued that we should open the borders to whoever wants to come in and buy us. It will be no surprise to anybody listening that New Zealand First who has always stood for investment and who has always understood and acknowledged that some of that investment will come from offshore refuses to accept that everything we have and everything we are should be up for sale to somebody else and particularly at this moment. So the bill's purpose is to ensure that the risks posed by foreign investment can be managed effectively while reducing the regulatory burden of the screening process to support the role of productive—and there is an interesting word. There is the key word. New Zealand First and the Rt Hon Winston Peters have articulated it before—that any such investment from offshore must enhance New Zealanders' futures and not just the profit margins from those offshore and line their pockets. It must be productive foreign investment in our recovery. In particular we need to minimise the possibility that cornerstone businesses in our productive economy are sold in a way contrary to our national long-term interests while the pandemic is causing the value of many businesses to fall. Mr Brownlee said that this was putting in roadblocks. Inside this piece of legislation and of equal importance is the need to attract productive foreign investment to support our recovery. As a result this bill brings forward some measures to cut red tape. I would have thought the Opposition—I think they rolled out a series of speeches about cutting red tape—would have celebrated this particular part of the legislation. Cutting red tape means encouraging investment by reducing the number of low-risk transactions unnecessarily caught by the Act including the screening of purchases by majority New Zealand - owned and controlled entities investments in land that has little economic cultural or environmental value because it sits next to a public park or sports field and a range of small transactions that do not grant meaningful control over or access to sensitive New Zealand assets. Cutting red tape also means clarifying and simplifying the consent process for the transactions that will continue to be screened with longer-term changes including focusing the requirements for assessing an investor's character on the factors that matter the most such as serious proven offences and requiring all applications to be processed to a deadline giving investors the certainty and confidence they need to come here to invest. New Zealand First understands that we require investment on our way out but we will not sell our souls to get there. We support the bill.