Wong Pansy: Overseas Investment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
Wong Pansy: Overseas Investment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:626;Page:21594] 
PANSY WONG (National) 
: 
 The Minister of Finance is certainly enjoying himself! I invite him to treasure the dying moments of his role as Minister of Finance because our good member John Key is waiting in the wings to take over. 
As a member of the Finance and Expenditure Committee let me share with the House some of the proceedings at the select committee. [ 
Interruption 
] The chairman calls out; I hope Clayton Cosgrove is going to take a call because we have not heard enough from him. He must be falling short of being a favourite member over there. I have to share with the public that overseas investment is a very sensitive topic. Many many submissioners came before the Finance and Expenditure Committee showing signs of anguish and insecurity at the loss of control of New Zealand business particularly farmland and scenic icons. Part of that unfortunately was brought about because of a few very high-profile cases; the public perceived that the enforcement agent did not do its job did not hold the overseas investors to fulfil their purchase conditions. I think some genuine grievances have been caused by the enforcement agent the Overseas Investment Commission not enforcing the law. 
The enforcement agent assured the Finance and Expenditure Committee that that was due to the fact that it does not have a set of effective tools to monitor the situation. I raised this issue in the Committee stage with the Minister of Finance. I am still not happy with some of the wording in the legislation: the regulator “may” require information to enable it to monitor those investments; it “may” ask for information. I am assured by the Minister of Finance that the Overseas Investment Commission or the regulator—which from now on is to be transferred from the Reserve Bank to Land Information New Zealand—will use this legislation to enforce the conditions that the investors agreed to. 
To say that some of the arguments offered by New Zealand First were entertaining is to be charitable. The New Zealand First member seemed not to understand that successful people who invest in business do not want to dismantle the business do not want to lock up the business. They want to expand it. If they make an investment they want a return. When overseas investors purchase a business in New Zealand they employ people they use consultants and they purchase supplies from New Zealand. If the business makes a loss they have to take that loss. If it makes a profit—why not? I do not think New Zealand wants to be known as a country where every investment will return a loss. Of course we want to show New Zealand as a country where people who invest will find it profitable. They will pay their fair share of tax because we have tax legislation; we have legislation that all businesses have to comply with. 
But there is another issue that we have to think about. I am sure that Peter Brown would take another call in this third reading. What if the Government passed a law to say that Mr Brown is allowed to sell his property to a certain sector only or is not allowed to sell his property to anybody— 
Ron Mark 
: What does China do now? 
PANSY WONG 
: Well actually I have just complimented Dail Jones. He would have been a proud member of Communist China under Chairman Mao. Chairman Mao would have been proud of Dail Jones and the New Zealand First members’ speeches. 
Ron Mark 
: What does China do now? 
PANSY WONG 
: I am not too sure why that member keeps asking me about Chinese legislation. I can answer that I know New Zealand law much better. The member consistently has a problem. That member of Parliament apparently is not interested in what is going on in New Zealand. I feel really happy that New Zealand First takes so much interest in China and is pro-Chinese and pro-China. What a wonderful thing to discover tonight. One can always discover something. New Zealand First is pro - Chairman Mao and pro-Chinese. I think that is a wonderful discovery. 
The only complication in the passage of this bill was self-imposed by David Parker. At the select committee David Parker had this great idea about how to lose his seat of Otago to National’s Jacqui Dean. Jacqui Dean will be a great member in the next parliamentary term. David Parker introduced a provision to create marginal strips around sensitive land such as lakes and rivers. But there is a problem. Labour wanted to create a marginal strip and give no compensation. Members should just imagine that a New Zealand landowner is trying to sell a piece of land from his or her farm to an overseas investor when suddenly a marginal strip is imposed on the property. How would that affect the selling price? David Parker seemed to think it does not matter. And I was told he is a lawyer! That is when I thought that maybe the next Parliament should welcome in more accountants and economists. Maybe they would understand the issue better. 
At this stage I acknowledge that at least United Future woke up to that even if belatedly. Its members said in the select committee that they did not like it but they were not prepared to stand up for their principles at that point in time and they let the bill go through the select committee. But belatedly they did closed-door negotiations with Labour and Labour has backed off from the provisions to take a marginal strip without compensation. 
I finish by sharing why National can see some point in marginal strips being imposed on land purchased by overseas investors. My good colleague the Hon David Carter said that overseas investors might not understand that under New Zealand culture landowners allow access by the public particularly to iconic sites. Marginal strips can be justified on that basis but imposing them without compensation is simply not acceptable. 
We welcome the introduction of the Supplementary Order Paper amendment that removes that draconian provision of creating marginal strips without compensation and now National will support the passage of this bill.