Sage EugenieHon EUGENIE SAGE (Green): Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. The Green Party will be supporting the Overseas Investment (Forestry) Amendment Bill. As others have noted this bill is in response to the changes to the Overseas Investment Act that New Zealand First promoted in 2018. Those changes created what the Hon Shane Jones then forestry Minister described as the primrose path" for forestry because this special forestry test was much easier for overseas investors wanting to buy land for forestry than if they had wanted to buy land to farm it. Buyers didn't have to prove that their land purchase was going to provide any particular benefit to New Zealand they simply had to be of good character they had to commit to replanting the trees if they were harvested and they had to commit to maintaining any existing arrangements around the supply of logs to domestic suppliers or arrangements around public access.And so as with the increase in carbon price now up to nearly $77 a tonne there was quite a lot of interest from overseas investors in permanent forestry for carbon farming. There has been a major expansion in forestry. It's been valued not just for the fibre it produces but also for carbon credits. But under the Overseas Investment Act it wasn't possible to use the special forestry test for carbon farming only for forestry—for plantation pine and harvesting. But since that primrose path was introduced in 2018 there's been some 36000 hectares of farmland which has been approved for sale to overseas investors for forestry.Radio New Zealand did a series in 2019 called Green Rush which really looked at the purchasers and they highlighted that of the 10 largest private landowners in Aotearoa New Zealand the top four of those were all overseas-owned forestry companies. They were companies like Tuamata Plantations which has a big Canadian forestry company as its major shareholder; the Malaysian-based Tiong family associated with Suharto's regime; the Australasian-based New Forests Asset Management: they amassed some 66000 hectares of their 77000 hectare landholdings in less than four years starting from 2016; and Matariki Forests number four on that list is owned largely by the US-based Rayonier forests. So while we've certainly got significant overseas investment in the dairy sector in processing factories like Westland Dairy that's less about owning the land. And so this whole primrose path meant that Ministers and the Overseas Investment Office had very little discretion in assessing these applications and weren't able really to decline them. It also mean that very little information was collected and there was no assessment of whether there was a benefit to New Zealand.I acknowledge the work of 50 Shades of Green and also Federated Farmers. 50 Shades of Green were very generous in organising field trips. We took one in the Wairarapa to see the actual land-use change that was happening to see the areas that were going into forestry that had been formerly farmed. People like Mayor Craig Smith of Wairoa were highlighting the 10000 hectares of hill country farmland that was going into forestry and a really genuine concern that this major landscape change would lead to the hollowing out of rural communities because of the fewer jobs involved in forestry—in the planting some in pruning but not those ongoing jobs. And that hollowing out then of jobs of people involved in local communities in voluntary organisations like volunteer fire brigades. Also there was concern about large-scale exotic forestry the increasing fire risk with drought in eastern areas the risk of wilding conifer spread and just that monoculture of pine because of the lack of diversification into other species and the increasing prices that this land was going for if it was being sold to forestry companies.So now the bill puts forestry on the same basis as other land-based investments but it is still a weaker test than if an overseas investor wanted to buy farmland to farm because it doesn't include matters like the oversight and participation of New Zealanders being of relatively high importance which is a factor that Ministers have to consider when there are applications to buy farmland. But it does bring in those seven criteria under the benefit to New Zealand test things like: is there an economic benefit; will there be jobs created or retained; will there be technology or business skills introduced; will there be environmental benefits like the protection of significant indigenous vegetation; will there be public access to the coast the foreshore lakes and the like? So that is a more even playing field.There are also some more minor changes. There have been some issues where if there have been former farmhouses on land bought for forestry conversion those have only been able to be rented out to people involved in the forestry operation. This allows them to be rented out more widely but does prevent any overseas owners living in those so it should make the regime more workable.The Green Party has a stronger view on overseas investment wants a threshold that's lower in terms of business investments but we will be supporting this bill and were heartened by the comments by Barbara Edmonds that the Finance and Expenditure Committee will be looking at the transitional provisions. Because I still have a concern around standing consents which are these consents given to companies if they have complied with our overseas investment laws enabling them to make a number of transactions to purchase land without having to go back to the Overseas Investment Office for permission each time. And the existing rules under the bill as I understand it will apply to these standing consents or to those who applied for standing consents before the bill comes into effect. I have a concern that that may spark a bit of a gold rush in relation to standing consents and applications to purchase so I would really encourage the Finance and Expenditure Committee to look quite closely at that. But this is a bill which does seek to improve the position and put forestry on a more even foothold with other land-based overseas investment applications."