Norman Russel: Overseas Investment (Restriction on Foreign Ownership of Land) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Norman Russel: Overseas Investment (Restriction on Foreign Ownership of Land) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 15 August 2012. Volume:682;Page:4433. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 I rise to speak on the Overseas Investment (Restriction on Foreign Ownership of Land) Amendment Bill which is about protecting New Zealand farmland for New Zealand residents and citizens. This is part of a broader debate that we need to have about foreign investment in New Zealand. 
The Green Party is not opposed to foreign investment. We think however that before the New Zealand Government and people approve foreign investment there should be some value-adding for New Zealand. There should be new capital new networks and new technology. There have to be some reasons to approve such foreign investment. Unfortunately we have not been able to have the mature debate in this Parliament that we need. For example from the National Party Jonathan Coleman and Maurice Williamson we have just had abuse directed at me for being a migrant. That is National’s approach and we see them sniggering over there. They abuse migrants and they argue that migrants do not have a right to speak in New Zealand. I disagree with that and I would say to Maurice Williamson and Jonathan Coleman and to John Banks who also said this that migrants have got a right to speak in this Parliament. 
I say to migrants in New Zealand that the National Party the ACT Party Jonathan Coleman Maurice Williamson and John Banks abuse migrants but the Green Party stands up for migrants and the rights of migrants to speak in this Parliament and the rights of migrants to own land in New Zealand because this is about New Zealand citizens and permanent residents being able to afford to buy land in New Zealand. 
If we have unrestricted overseas buy up of land in New Zealand as part of the global land-grab it will become unaffordable for ordinary New Zealanders whether those New Zealanders were born here or whether they are migrants like me. So if you are a migrant do not listen to the abuse from Maurice Williamson do not listen to the abuse from Jonathan Coleman and do not listen to the abuse from John Banks. Actually stand up for your rights. Because you are a citizen in this country you are a permanent resident in this country and you have rights. 
Under this Green Party bill you have rights to own land. In fact you will be able to afford land under this bill because as opposed to the National - ACT Government—the John Key - John Banks Government—we think that land should be affordable for all New Zealanders. That is the purpose of this bill because those who understand what is happening with global capitalism at the moment will understand that there are these enormous capital flows and there is enormous value being placed on food-producing land all over the world. There is what is called a global land-grab under way; a massive area of land has been bought both by sovereign countries and by large corporations because they value food-producing productive land. New Zealand land is a target for that global land-grab and if we do not protect the golden goose—the golden goose that lays the golden eggs—then we have only ourselves to blame. New Zealand is a target if we are not smart enough to have the intelligent debate which obviously the National Party is incapable of to discuss how we engage with foreign investment what kind of foreign investment is good for New Zealand and what kind of foreign investment does not add anything to the New Zealand economy but simply becomes a drain on the New Zealand economy. 
That is the kind of sophisticated discussion that we need to have as a country as we engage as a small open economy with the rest of the world. It is very difficult to have that conversation in this Parliament when of course the National Party and the ACT Party just flaunt abuse. But I am very thankful that my colleagues in the Labour Party New Zealand First the Maori Party and Mana are all supporting this bill through to the select committee stage because I accept that not everybody thinks that this bill is perfect. But it is part of the debate we need to have in the select committee and elsewhere in New Zealand about what the right kinds of policy settings are so that we get the most from foreign investment but do not lose control of our country and do not lose control of the profit streams that come out of land as well as other kinds of assets in New Zealand if they become overseas-owned. 
We have seen problems in the banking sector and the telecommunications sector where overseas purchasers have simply bought up existing companies and have dominated those sectors and they have become drains on the New Zealand economy as those profits have travelled overseas. So it is very important that we protect key strategic parts of our economy like our food-producing land and make sure that those profits and the benefits from that land actually flow back to New Zealand. That is what this bill is all about. 
This bill is likely to be defeated tonight on the vote of John Banks—that one person; that man who solicited and received donations and then declared them as anonymous. It is John Banks that one vote that is likely to defeat this bill and that is morally repugnant. This bill should go to the select committee. This bill has the support of New Zealanders. This bill is the bill that will actually keep New Zealand farmland under New Zealand control and all New Zealanders support that as a matter of fact.