Collins JudithHon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura): Thank you Mr Speaker. Look I always say a short speech is a good speech and a good speech is generally a short speech but a bill that has no real scrutiny is hardly likely to be a good bill. Having been in Government and having actually occasionally had to bring through legislation very quickly to deal with emergencies they almost invariably—it turned out as it will with this bill—turn out that things are not quite what people thought when they voted for it.This is a bill which having just heard the New Zealand First member Mr Patterson speak is actually all about New Zealand First's worry about these foreigners who are coming in to steal our businesses. Well I don't know. I've had businesses over the years had my own homes and things—they're not your homes. They don't belong to people here; they belong to whoever owns them. I think one of the issues for us is that we are a country that is in desperate need of capital and capital injection into businesses because we are now looking at according to the ANZ chief economist around 10 percent unemployment by September and I heard recent reports that say up to 15 percent unemployment by the end of the year. We are a country in dire need of capital and that capital needs to not just be borrowings but actually needs to be injected into businesses because we are a country that exists on exports.It's all very well hearing parties in Parliament moan on about log exports—well I haven't noticed them doing anything about it in the last three years. What I've seen actually is a lot more logs seem to be moving over wharfs and moving off to various other countries where labour is cheaper and where there is a market for the product because in New Zealand as we all know we are lucky if we have 5 million people and we are a country as I said without that sort of population to be a major market for our own products. We export most of what we produce—whether it's agricultural or other exports and certainly in our manufacturing. We do have actually quite a good manufacturing sector which despite all the years of being told that they didn't exist actually were happily existing away and are in fact some of the people who are in need of capital now.It's all very well for a Government to turn around and say Well we're going to make the banks lend more money to you or we're going to ask them to lend more money to you." Some people and some businesses simply will not be able to borrow that because the asset is no longer worth what it was that they would have used for security and they simply cannot repay that money within any reasonable period of time.This is a bill which is very much—and the member who's resumed his seat has mentioned this—essentially copying the Australian coalition Government's bill. Australia of course is in quite a different situation from New Zealand. Although it is a major exporting country it does actually have around 26 million people. It is an enormous exporter of resources while New Zealand has happily in the last three years nobbled our resources industries and the products that we were selling and still are to some extent but not to where we should be.This bill is very much a knee-jerk reaction. There has been no evidence provided to the House of these apparent foreigners coming in and stealing businesses buying businesses or in fire sales. What we have is an enormous new industry that is now being built up and that is of liquidators. So hearing some of the arguments from the other side of the House on the Government side the new industry will be liquidators of businesses that can no longer get capital access it and can't pay their bills. They've lost their markets in many cases they have to try and get them back and they have to try and do it by Zoom or some other electronic means because they certainly can't get on a plane and go and build relationships and actually get those markets back.People on the other side of the House who might think it terribly funny that businesses are going broke—these are businesses that employ people. So there is a reason that we have the major economists predicting that we will have double-digit unemployment only within the next few months and that reason is because these businesses are going to be put in a situation where the owners shut up shop. If they can cut some of their losses they can probably preserve their homes and they can probably preserve something of their own assets.So I actually think it's really important that we have some restraints around overseas investment but the restraints need to be reasonable. Bringing the level of investment down to zero or $1 for any investment is simply ridiculous. This makes New Zealand not on a par with Australia because Australia even though it has very similar legislation is a far more inviting market for people in which to put their capital than New Zealand with our very small population and our tremendous love of regulation which puts actually all these bulwarks against any investment.For years National Governments and the previous Labour Government of Helen Clark and Michael Cullen worked so hard to bring in foreign investment and to see now a Government that is intent on demonising people whose problem is that they weren't born here is actually a real shock to see. To see that happen when it comes to people who are not born here and by the way happen to have some money to invest—that does not make them bad people and it doesn't make their investment a bad thing. This is very much a sop to New Zealand First and I'm sure New Zealand First will chalk it up as a win. The problem for them is—and Mr Patterson is confirming that's exactly what it is and they will chalk it up as a win.Well this bill will no doubt pass because the Greens had quite some time ago rolled over and said "Tickle my tummy." to New Zealand First. They've given up all their core values on these issues which is a real shame because they have until recently been a very principled party even though they're often wrong. We now have a situation where we will find it harder in New Zealand to even get anybody to be in business. So when we're looking at the ramifications for New Zealand businesses just down in Clevedon the other day on Monday I saw in my electorate the fact that half of the shops were now shut. That is the awful awful consequence for New Zealanders. So half the shops in an area of my electorate which is a very well-to-do area where there's plenty of money normally to spend people are not spending. They can't spend because the businesses are shut. They're shut because they can't get the people in. This is an absolute tragedy. It's a tragedy for all the people who live there. It's a tragedy for the people who have borrowed against their homes to set up their business to buy the stock in. It is an absolute tragedy and it is coming at us as a country like a tsunami.A few weeks before the COVID-19 responses were announced by the Prime Minister she suddenly said "Oh we're going to do something serious now and lock down."—a few weeks before. We had Grant Robertson standing in this Parliament saying that the Budget would not be unduly affected by the COVID-19—there'd be a few tweaks. No it was an appalling misread of the situation. It's all very well for the people on the other side to say "Oh well they've got jobs. They don't care. They're all right." Actually the people who pay the bills our taxpayers who fund everything that Governments do are the ones who won't have the money to pay. They're the ones who will not buy the goods. That therefore means there's no GST coming in to the level that it was. These are businesses and these are people.I look at the other side and I see so few who have ever been in their own business. They have no idea the damage that they're doing. They sit around saying "Oh it's all these foreigners who are going to come in and whip up our land and they're going to do all these things." Actually we would be fortunate if we look at the opportunities in New Zealand—what in? Tourism. Are they going to pick that one up? No international tourism for about a year at least—two years maybe. We are a country who needs capital and we need restrictions on investments but they need to be sensible. A dollar restriction or zero is absolute nonsense and this Government should know better than that. Instead what they're doing is trying to copy another Government of a country with entirely different issues than we have."