Bennett DavidHon DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): Thank you Madam Chair. It's great to be able to speak on this bill and I'd like the Minister to respond to my comments. I fear he won't respond because he's only responded to issues which he feels he can bat away and he's left all the hard questions outside of the ambit of his response. My question is: why is the New Zealand First and Labour Government now selling our land overseas? During the election campaign it was very obvious they made an issue about land sales and said that no more land should be sold overseas. That was their whole campaign. In fact a whole political party is based on that being the New Zealand First Party. And here we come to this legislation here tonight. This legislation gives an exemption to land sales going through the Overseas Investment Office if it's for forestry. So outside there in the public if anyone's listening if there is a purchase of land that is less than a thousand hectares—that means the best land in New Zealand because it's in smaller blocks and smaller farms—it's now got the easy run for an overseas investor. Previously those overseas investors had to show that they were adding value to that property that they were going to turn it into something different that they were going to add a new industry employ people invest in that property. Now all they have to do is say I'm going to put it in forestry." and they don't have to worry about improving anything. I can't understand why the New Zealand First - Labour Government is allowing that to happen other than the fact that they need to satisfy their promise for more trees.But it gets worse. The New Zealand Government will in fact be paying that overseas investor to buy that land. So for all those people listening what this bill does is because they're going into forestry they will now get those forestry credits and deals that the Minister has given through the Primary Growth Partnership fund through the regional fund that they are looking at. Their regional fund will enable overseas investors to get paid for investing in forestry. So the Labour - New Zealand First Government that was against sales to overseas people is now paying overseas people to come in and invest and buy land and they don't have to meet the criteria they would have had to in the past. That's the question I want the Minister to answer: is that true that scenario or not? Can a foreign investor come over here and now get an easier ride than they would have had before as long as it's forestry land and potentially could that person also get paid to do that?Then it gets worse. We will never know how much they are getting paid. Under the regional growth fund those kinds of conditions of those contracts are commercial realities that can't be disclosed at any point or in any form. Under this legislation the confidentiality clauses in Part 3 will mean that those investors won't have that information put to the public. In the past if you had been an overseas investor that investor would have had to prove in a public form what added value they were going to do to the property. Now that overseas investor gets a free ride gets paid by the New Zealand Government to do it and nobody will ever know how much they get paid apart from a couple of Ministers that are sitting in the chair that signed it off. That is a disgrace to the New Zealand public and it is selling New Zealand down the drain. It is selling New Zealand land for nothing—in fact giving the people that are going to buy that land a freebie. That makes no sense and that is exactly the hypocrisy that we see in this Parliament time and time again through these forestry deals that they have to make to ensure they can meet that promise and that commitment.I say to David Parker the Minister: don't stand for that. As Minister I know there are coalition deals that have to be done and I know that you've signed this with Winston Peters but as Minister in your heart of hearts you know this is wrong. You know that you're actually paying for overseas investors to come here take our best land not have to prove what they're going to do and at the same time potentially get a return on that. And I bet you he doesn't get up and answer that straight. He won't answer that straight. He won't do that. He'll tell you a lot of waffle. He'll tell you "Oh that's wrong." and that but he won't answer it straight."