O'Rourke Denis: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Rourke Denis: General Debate[Sitting date: 31 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12129. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First):Labour’s policy of putting the brakes on foreign speculators pushing up Kiwi house prices is a good idea; it just is not its idea. New Zealand First announced the housing policy in November last year. Back then we proposed to “introduce restrictions on non-residents/non-citizens entering the New Zealand domestic housing market.” On Sunday David Shearer said: “Labour will restrict the ability of non-residents to purchase New Zealand houses”. In any other walk of life that is called plagiarism but it is good to see Labour adopt New Zealand First policy. An important difference is that we would not allow exemptions based on nationality. Labour says it will exempt Australians but Australians happen to be the single-largest group of investors in New Zealand houses. So how is Labour trying to achieve anything by exempting the Aussies?New Zealand First would apply this policy fairly across the board. There will not be any exemptions based on nationality or race or any other form of discrimination. We will stop all non-residents from buying both existing houses and sections for houses. We would allow special cases to be approved only upon application where extraordinary circumstances such as humanitarian factors and similar genuine needs could be proved.Our two largest trading partners already have similar policies in place. Australia restricts foreign investment in residential property to the creation of new housing stock and China bans the sale of land to foreigners altogether. There are many other countries where foreign ownership is restricted or prohibited but it is important that no race nationality or other category be singled out.The justification for tough restrictions is clear. We know that some foreign investors can get very cheap loans not available to Kiwis and that these people can therefore outbid Kiwis in the house property market. But to make matters worse the Government allows parent reunion category immigrants under tier 1 to have fast-tracked entry to New Zealand if they bring in at least half a million dollars with them. They often invest this of course in a house. So National’s witless immigration policy also makes the Auckland housing problem worse.New Zealand must regulate the foreign ownership of residential property if it is to fully address the Auckland housing crisis. It is in the national interest to do so. To that end we are pleased that our policy is gaining cross-party support except of course for the National-led Government because National does not really care about the impact that foreign buyers are having on the Auckland housing market. It pretends that there are so few foreign buyers that there is no problem but New Zealand First is gettingmany contacts from Aucklanders who say just the opposite. Even if they are only 10 percent of the market in Auckland that is still significant. But we have good grounds based on information from Auckland real estate agents and others that the proportion is in fact much higher than this.So why is the Government doing nothing about it when the Aussies have already taken action and so have many other countries? The answer is that National puts business first not ordinary Kiwis and especially not first-home seekers. Our philosophy has always been to put New Zealanders first. The Government must stop the practice of foreign investors buying up residential property and taking the rental profit or capital gains offshore. This practice inflates house prices and effectively shuts Kiwis out of the market. That is especially the case in Auckland.Offshore property speculation is a full-fledged assault on the Kiwi dream of homeownership. Thousands of New Zealanders are being forced to live in substandard houses and to give up the dream of homeownership while people stepping off a plane can obtain any number of properties for purely financial gain. We in New Zealand First believe that access to quality housing is a fundamental right for all New Zealanders to enjoy.