King Colin: Crown Pastoral Land (Rent for Pastoral Leases) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
King Colin: Crown Pastoral Land (Rent for Pastoral Leases) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 01 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:1847. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
COLIN KING (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to speak in the third reading of the Crown Pastoral Land (Rent for Pastoral Leases) Amendment Bill. To open up I would have to take strong exception to the position that the Green Party has pitched its arguments at because when we listen to the arguments nobody has brought up the Crown’s case at Minaret Station. The farmers took the case against the Crown on the way the rents were set and the Crown lost. When we listen to Labour members speaking and we listen to the Green members speaking that fact has never come up—that there was this precedent where the Crown was taken to task at the Land Valuation Tribunal and it lost.  
Another point that has not been made adequately is that the principles behind the original Act the Crown Pastoral Land Act were always intended to take into consideration the earning value of those properties. So what we can say on this side the Government side of the House is that we are restoring those principles so that those farmers can have confidence that they can bank their businesses and they can carry on farming in the successful way they have farmed for the better part of the last 150 years. We hear all those wonderful romantic notions about flora and fauna but let us not forget that these people have successfully farmed through economic cycles and through climatic cycles and they have maintained an asset at the very best cost back to the taxpayer of New Zealand.  
We hear the word “fear” mentioned. When we were on the Primary Production Committee we heard a lot of fear from those farmers because of the uncertainty that was being created by the culture of what we describe as envy which we also on this side of the House see as a dislike. I would not use the word “hate”—it could be interpreted as that if it were directed at me—but it was certainly a strong intention of unsettling what had been a very fine process. 
 When you stop and think about it the money that is directed at looking after these properties that are tenure reviews or pastoral leases is very much a fine balance. We want the Crown in there as well because with the introduction of rabbits and  
Hieracium 
 and things like that these families these little communities that are surviving up in some of the most inhospitable country in New Zealand are quite fragile communities and they do need to be able to have certainty. When we reflect on all that we have heard—we have heard dissertations on academic levels—these families need to be able to front up to their banks. To be able to fund their businesses annually they need to be assured that the way the rent is set is sustainable from a business point of view and that they can have confidence in that direction.  
One other thing that has not been touched on is the wonderful job that Rob Davison and the economic service do for New Zealand in valuing and understanding what properties can run and how they function. I have absolute confidence and I know Rob Davison and his team from the economic service will be eager to get into this situation when this bill becomes law and those 113 lessees at the moment who are before the Land Valuation Tribunal can opt into this piece of legislation because in conclusion it re-establishes the principle that rents should be set based on what a farm can produce. Thank you.