Gilmore Aaron: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGilmore Aaron: General Debate[Sitting date: 31 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12132. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PAUL FOSTER-BELL (National):I am afraid members that I do not have a visual exhibit to display today. Unlike the front bench of the Opposition I did not have much time on my hands to sit around engaging in a little bit of graphic design. But I have got some firm facts and figures here that clearly demonstrate that any potential coalition between the Opposition parties would be as the Minister Simon Bridges—[Interruption ] I will take that picture. Thank you. It belongs in the rubbish. Thank you. As the Hon Simon Bridges the Minister of Energy and Resources said we are staring down the possibility of a Government made up of the coalition of quackery or as I call it the cock-up coalition. I will tell you why it is the cock-up coalition. It has actually been a pretty dark week in New Zealand politics thanks to an announcement from the Labour Party. I was quite surprised having worked for this country overseas for 9 nearly 10 years to promote New Zealand as a destination that is sensible that is welcoming that is open to foreign investment to see a pretty dark policy announced by the Opposition. In fact “policy” might be a generous term when in fact it is just a slogan and there is no research underpinning it there is no basis and it certainly is something that will not work.Let me tell you the BNZ survey on housing affordability and in fact on house sales to foreign buyers showed that only 3 to 4 percent of purchasers of homes were foreigners.Barfoot and Thompson has also put the number of foreign buyers at 4 percent. So I think it is pretty clear and anyone with any common sense would see that the policy that the Opposition is proposing will be completely ineffectual at taking the heat out of the Auckland housing market. But there is a dark side to it. There is a hint of xenophobia to this policy. We could see that in fact when the Leader of the Opposition appeared on radio. He actually did not use the terms “foreigners” or “non - New Zealand citizens”. Twice in an interview on radio the Leader of the Opposition specifically referred to Asian buyers. How do you think that makes members of the Asian community feel?The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): Order!PAUL FOSTER-BELL: How do members think that that makes members of the Asian community feel—those hard-working New Zealand citizens who happen to be of Asian origin who pay their taxes and contribute to this country employ people and are generally obeying the law and being good citizens in this country?We know that the policy is planning to exempt Australians which again I have no problem with. I like our Australian cousins and brothers so I am delighted that it is exempting Australians. But what about Cook Islanders? What about Niueans Tongans Samoans Irish Scots English Canadians? I am pretty appalled by this policy but it is reasonably reassuring to know that there is very little chance that a policy like this will be implemented given the likelihood of the coalition of quackery the cock-up coalition being formed after the next election. That said there is that sinister element. Despite the inefficacy I would have to say that perhaps it is not so much the Leader of the Opposition being the New Zealand Enoch Powell but more a case of “Eunuch Powell”.There are several other policies we could talk about but I think the housing policy is another case of borrowing from the Greens and New Zealand First. According to the Greens it was unfortunate that the man ban was reversed. Metiria Turei was highly critical of the move to reverse that ban. So I am just wondering how long it might take others on the liberal left to actually convince the Labour Party that a xenophobic policy a policy that is discriminatory a racist policy is bad for the Labour Party. It is bad for New Zealand. It certainly impacts on our look overseas and it has consequences in terms of our free-trade agreements that we have signed up to with some of the economies. We know and academic experts have discussed this point that with the free-trade agreement with China we actually have to be equal in setting restrictions so we cannot exempt Australians. It is an unworkable element of the policy and I think it is something that the Labour Party will drop when inevitably I am sure it drops this policy in its entirety after the next election—after the coalition of quackery is defeated and after the cock-up coalition is out.