Little Andrew: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLittle Andrew: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 13 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7108. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]2.ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by his statement that “I don’t want to ban foreigners from buying residential property”?Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): I stand by my full statement which went on to say: “I don’t think that’s actually good public policy that works. And … around New Zealand there would be a whole lot of people who’d say ‘I don’t want to stop an Australian buying a house in Queenstown or an American buying a place in the Bay of Islands or actually people buying a house in Wellington.’ ”Andrew Little: Does he accept that it is a loss of New Zealand’s sovereignty if future parliaments cannot pass laws without being sued to stop Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement nationals buying our homes?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: No I do not believe that is the case. In fact the Labour Party not only supported but actually helped with negotiations of free-trade agreements to which it was a party and it did exactly that.Andrew Little: Supplementary question. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition is standing to ask a supplementary question but the level of interjection coming from his own colleagues is unacceptable.Andrew Little: Why did his Government fail to protect the sovereign right of New Zealand to limit foreign buying of existing houses when the Australian Government was able to do it?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I know the member has had so many positions on the Trans-Pacific Partnership that it is embarrassing—Mr SPEAKER: Order!Rt Hon JOHN KEY: —but actually he is just continuing to show that he does not even understand how it still works because the Australian Government had negotiated its position around bans on foreigners buying houses long before the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement came along.Tim Macindoe: Has the Prime Minister received advice on whether New Zealanders can freely buy residential property in other developed countries?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Yes I have. I am advised that New Zealanders can buy residential property with few if any restrictions in at least the following OECD countries: Australia Austria Belgium Canada Chile Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Ireland Italy Japan Luxembourg Mexico the Netherlands Norway Portugal the Slovak Republic Slovenia Spain Sweden Turkey the United Kingdom and the United States. That tells me that more than ever New Zealand’s future lies in being open and connected with the rest of the world—which overwhelmingly should be the case—which is far less xenophobic than the Labour Party is.Mr SPEAKER: Order!Andrew Little: What advice has he received from the trade Minister on our efforts to carve out protection for the right of New Zealand to limit foreigners buying existing homes as Australia has done as Malaysia has done and as Singapore has done?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Australia had those provisions prior to going into the Trans-Pacific Partnership. What the Government did do as part of the carve-out that it wanted to follow was to allow extra taxes to be applied for foreigners who buy property in New Zealand if the Government of the day deemed that to be possible. Why? Because that will work. What will not work is a ban on foreigners. It did not work in Australia and it would not work in New Zealand.Andrew Little: When Tim Groser described the deal as having “dead rats” did he mean the meagre increase in access for dairy exports over an extended period of time higher costs for medicines and the loss of sovereignty over who owns our land? Why will you not stand up for New Zealand?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: What Tim Groser was meaning when he very successfully on behalf of New Zealand—and I personally want to congratulate him—negotiated the Trans-Pacific Partnership was that he was going to give this country access to 40 percent of the global economy with 93 percent tariff-free. But I look at this quote and I hear these words ringing in my ears: “What always haunts a Prime Minister is ‘will there be a series of trade blocs develop that you are not part of?’ Because that is unthinkable for New Zealand as an export-oriented small trading [economy].” Once again I agree with Helen Clark just like I did—Mr SPEAKER: Order!Tim Macindoe: How would a ban on foreigners buying residential property sit within New Zealand’s network of trade agreements?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: As well as the Trans-Pacific Partnership such a ban would be inconsistent with CER the Singapore free-trade agreement our agreement with Chinese Taipei our free-trade agreement with Korea and as a consequence our free-trade agreement with China. New Zealand entered those agreements in good faith with support from both sides of the House. It would be a sad day for New Zealand’s international credibility if a party started picking and choosing with bits of an agreement to blatantly flout it.Andrew Little: In light of that answer why has his Government introduced and in fact passed legislation requiring foreign buyers to register with the Inland Revenue Department and have a New Zealand bank account?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Because the Government is interested in getting more information on foreigners and is happy for them to pay taxes which is exactly the very point that we negotiated in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.Andrew Little: Why does the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement compel Pharmac to reveal its negotiating strategy to drug companies when his own Government itself said that it would be insanity for a party to give away its negotiating strategy to the other side?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Because we are quite comfortable with it. Those provisions will not see any material change in the way that Pharmac operates. If one looks at the Trans-Pacific Partnership in its wider context with all of them I agree with this: “There are huge advantages from being involved with TPP and even bigger disadvantages of being locked out.” These words were said with force; they were said with meaning—they were said by the leader of the Labour Party; they were said by Phil Goff in 2013.