O'Connor DamienHon DAMIEN O'CONNOR (Minister of Agriculture): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. Another outrageous speech from a National Party member who knows better. I'll stand by my colleague David Parker and his integrity any time. The problem is that the National Party can't understand that Ministers can judge with integrity because they can't do it over there. Nick Smith's one of them—the courts ruled that.The veterans who went to fight the wars from this country would be ashamed with some of the speeches coming out of that side of the House. This bill is ultimately about sovereignty and about New Zealand's ability and New Zealanders' ability to live in their own country as we move forward. The reality is that around the world there are billions and zillions of dollars literally sloshing around looking for a safe place to park. Our country for the most part is a country free of corruption—for the most part. It's a country where people work hard where the regulatory systems are sound and people like to park their—Hon Dr Nick Smith: It was. It was.Hon DAMIEN O'CONNOR: For the most part I was saying Nick Smith. The fact is that they would like to park their money in this country particularly a country that doesn't have a capital gains tax—but that'll be looked at because I think it's a perverse disincentive for many people. This bill is about setting a line in the sand and saying that New Zealand—and this Government anyway—wants to manage New Zealand primarily for New Zealanders—firstly to have a good job and to have a home and to have somewhere to put their family and bring their family up. The reality is—in part because of the incompetence of the last National Government but also in part because we're a very small country and we are attractive for investors—that we have seen house prices and land prices escalate to the point where they are not affordable for the average New Zealander.The previous speaker pointed and referred to a percentage ownership in this country. Can I say that the percentage ownership of houses in foreigners' hands is less relevant to the fact that they're in the market trying to buy them. Because what they do is drive up the values and drive up the market drag up the market and make every house in the market less affordable. The fact that 20 percent of the house sales in central Auckland in the March quarter were to foreign buyers is indicative of the ongoing and upward demand by foreigners to invest in this country.We are concerned about affordability for New Zealanders buying homes and farmland—the National Government wasn't. I'm quite proud of the fact that we're intervening passing a piece of legislation that will better protect—not absolutely but better protect—the ability of New Zealanders to be able to afford to buy a home because that's why we're in Government. We're not in Government under some market ideology like the National Party was that the market will sort this all out. What sort of flat earth have you come from—right? We accept the reality that with zillions of dollars out there—happy to take 1 percent return then they would like to invest in New Zealand with no capital gains tax and actually speculative returns that are quite out of this world. So they want to keep doing it unless we intervene and unless we bring into place legislation that protects the long-term opportunities for New Zealanders.I'm proud to be part of a Government that's doing that and I'm proud to be led by senior colleagues like David Parker who's managed to walk the fine line through his trade negotiations respecting the rights of our foreign partners to come and invest where there's clear additional value for our country but when it's just to buy existing assets or existing homes what's the point? We're here to manage for New Zealanders. We will welcome foreign capital but we've got to be cautious with that and we have to put controls on it and some guidelines and that's indeed what we're doing here. We're not saying no to foreign investment absolutely but we're saying that we'll treat it cautiously.If people want to come in and buy or build new hotels that we can utilise in our tourism industry we're saying that's OK. We'll have some caution on that of course but we welcome that. If you want to come in and invest in a business utilising New Zealand land then we say welcome. Come in and add additional value to our economy but don't just come and speculate or park your money and inflate values to the point where some poor New Zealand business person or some poor New Zealand homeowner or farm owner can't afford to buy the property and make a decent living. We want opportunities for all New Zealanders all the way through the system.In terms of forestry: yes we do want to see some more trees planted. There is an opportunity an advantage for New Zealand in having a billion trees planted because it will help us offset our carbon emissions. It will help us continue with our economy and our way of life pretty much as it is if we put in place proper mitigation and change our behaviours you know in a reasonably moderate way. It won't require the radical change in the way that our economy operates if we were not to have the billion trees planted.So I acknowledge the investment in this area. I acknowledge this bill as being a careful measure of a balance between welcoming investment for new opportunities but blocking investment for speculation. Kia ora.