Tirikatene RinoRINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. I am pleased to add my contribution in support of this bill. Can I congratulate the right honourable member on his good fortune in bringing this bill to the House. We are supporting this bill. It is a very straightforward bill. Why should Kiwis not be entitled to know when foreign nationals are buying up our land where those purchases are and how much land is being sold? Why?It is a very clear bill. We have heard in this debate people touching on the loss of whenua to Māori and this cuts deep to every Māori when we are talking about a debate on land. Mr Peters is from the North and I am actually reminded of the great Ngāpuhi prophet Āperahama Taonui—his prophecy has come to pass. The prophecy was that there is a taniwha coming from across the sea and its kai is land. It has an insatiable appetite and its puku will never be filled. To Māori that prophecy has come to pass but I fear that the taniwha is coming back and it has grown another head. The taniwha is coming back and this Government is not keeping a tight rein or any measure whatsoever on this taniwha.That is all we are asking for in this bill. All we are asking for is that there is an accurate up-to-date register of foreign nationals who are purchasing land in Aotearoa New Zealand. We have heard all sorts of excuses. The Government is great at coming up with excuses and throwing up tax definitions and the like as to why it should not do things. But this is a very simple piece of legislation. All it is asking for is—it is applying the definition that is contained in the Overseas Investment Act 2005 that Any purchases of lands by overseas persons should be entered into a register."So who are we talking about when we are talking about overseas persons? It is better if we say who we are not talking about. Obviously we are not talking about New Zealand citizens and we are not talking about overseas persons who may be ordinarily resident in New Zealand. So those who hold resident class visas under the Immigration Act or who are domiciled here and have an intention of staying here we are not talking about those people; they are all fine. But what we are talking about are foreign nationals who have no intention of being ordinarily resident in New Zealand who are not New Zealand citizens and yet have unrestrained access to buying up residential land rural land all lands within New Zealand.All we are asking for is that we keep an accurate measure and a register of that. How can we manage an issue how can we manage a problem when the Government refuses to measure it? It refuses to capture the data and the data that it does use is so crude it is absolutely pointless. So that is all we are asking for. All we are asking for is an accurate measure and that we keep this register. Sure there may be some tweaks that may be required to the bill. I am sure that the select committee will tease out those issues but fundamentally the purpose of this bill is very sound and that is why we are supporting it.We want to see and I think all Kiwis right throughout the country would like to know how much of our land and where in all of our lands is owned by foreign nationals by those who are not citizens of our country who are not ordinarily resident in our country and who have no intention of being so. That is all that this bill asks for. I think if it is good enough for Australia if it is good enough for the UK and if it is good enough for all those other jurisdictions from around the world to implement exactly what we are doing here then surely it is good enough for this Parliament to be supporting this bill and putting it to select committee so we can tease it out and hopefully usher it into law. I commend this bill to the House. Kia ora."