Goldsmith PaulHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): Thank you Madam Speaker. So here we are with the second of the overseas investment bills and the National Party will again support this bill to the select committee for further consideration. Look we're supportive particularly of the elements of this legislation that aim to make it simpler for people to make productive investments in New Zealand.So just for people tuning in if we go right back to where we get jobs and growth from and opportunities for New Zealanders fundamentally most of those jobs and opportunities come from somebody somewhere making an investment—an investment in a new business. To rebuild their business to start a business to grow their business to take a chance to take a risk to be entrepreneurial and to get ahead ultimately you have to invest some money.As we've seen today in this Budget where New Zealand has fallen into a colossal economic hole initiated by this virus and we're now looking at you know new debt of up to $140 billion—extra $80000 per household—and unemployment rising we're in desperate need of economic growth and opportunities and so we're in a desperate need for investment. Now there are only two places you can get investment from: either domestically—that is from New Zealanders—or/and the rest of the world. Now if we rely entirely on domestic savings for investment well that's fine but we'll grow quite slowly because there's not that much of it. So if we want to grow faster and if we want to have more opportunities we need to get money from the rest of the world—which is what we do and which is what we've done for the history of this country for a very long time.Hon Member: He's on to it. Since Kupe.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: That's right. It's what has led to the growth of this country.So in the meantime in response to concerns particularly around land and around sensitive land sets of rules have been developed to ensure that when overseas interests purchase sensitive land in New Zealand in particular they have to go through a series of hoops. Now obviously nobody can take the land away and so the land will always remain there but a lot of New Zealanders have been concerned about our ownership and direction over land across the countryside. You can argue about the merits of that. There are benefits in terms of having some sense of comfort that we're not going to be tenants in our own land—the fear that many people have. Against that of course these rules become very tedious and cumbersome and difficult to negotiate.The practical reality of the current laws is that because they are so difficult—and particularly because they're so hard to predict the outcome of those laws—when an international investor is considering buying something in New Zealand or has an interest in New Zealand which involves lots of landholding then it becomes very complicated and very time-consuming. Now the logical outcome of that is that many foreign investors who could be investing in this country providing jobs and opportunities for New Zealanders will throw up their hands and say It's all too hard; I'll go somewhere else". Because there's a whole world out there of places where you can invest; you don't have to invest in New Zealand and if we make it too difficult and too complicated they won't.So this bill does some things that will make it easier—in particular no longer requiring low-risk transactions to be screened. Now obviously we in the National Party would like this to go further but it's saying that investments in less sensitive land that are only screened because land adjoins land that is sensitive in its own right won't need to be screened. You would think that would be pretty obvious. So we're protecting sensitive land but under the current regimes if you happen to be dealing with land that's next to sensitive land well then that gets caught up in the system which is terribly cumbersome.Then we've got: it affects many New Zealand companies and people. We think of New Zealand companies—like Fletcher's for example—but because there's a certain amount of international shareholders over a particular threshold that gets caught up in the regime. So they have to go through hoops every time they want to purchase land and move around.This legislation also excludes leases for less than 10 years which again we'd prefer that to go further. But at least it makes it a little bit easier and removes a section of transactions from this whole cumbersome process. It also streamlines various other processes and so forth.So to the extent to which this bill streamlines the process a little bit we are supportive of that. We notice that there are some elements to this bill which go the other way and are somewhat vague—I'm referring to some reference to Māori cultural values and wāhi tūpuna. So it will be very important that we have some clarity about exactly what that means so that people who are sort of contemplating purchasing things consider that. The information required to be disclosed regarding the tax structure and tax treatment probably is useful and helpful.The final point I'd make is that we're at a time now where there will be many businesses across the country that are shaky—in fact could be about to fall over and New Zealanders are about to lose their jobs. There will be examples where there will be people around the world prepared to invest in those companies and put some money into those companies because they think they're fundamentally good businesses they need to get through a very difficult spell where they haven't been able to sell any products get any revenue and they just need some capital injection to get through the next couple of months. If we make that too difficult because of these laws—this one and the previous one—then we could be costing more jobs. We've had a Budget where tens indeed hundreds of billions of dollars have been thrown at the task of trying to save jobs and help the New Zealand economy. If we're passing legislation that goes in the opposite direction that would be obviously highly counter-productive.So we'll be looking very closely at this bill as it goes through the select committee. We are hopeful and indeed confident that by the time that it comes out of the select committee there will be a different Government and we'll have a good chance to scrutinise this and make sure that it does the best job possible in order to provide the opportunity for New Zealand companies to get the capital they need to provide jobs and opportunities for New Zealanders. Thank you Madam Speaker."