Patterson MarkMARK PATTERSON (NZ First): It's an absolute pleasure to stand on behalf of New Zealand First to talk to Part 1 of this Overseas Investment Amendment Bill. What I've heard from over the other side of the Chamber is an absolute exercise in denial. It's the old dead cat strategy I think it was—wasn't that the Crosby/Textor dead cat? We've heard all sorts of stuff about the wine industry and whatever. This is about affordability of housing for New Zealanders.This Government is absolutely united with our confidence and supply partners the Greens on this issue of foreign ownership. We have seen the outcome of what the policies of the previous Government have been and they have been a market failure. As Mr Wood pointed out we have million-dollar houses in Auckland. It's interesting to hear Mr Walker get up and talk about Queenstown where there are also million-dollar houses. The only people that he could quote were people like Graeme Todd and Sir Eion Edgar at the top end of town—the big end of town. There was the Rt Hon David Carter talking about the poor lifestyle block holders on the outskirts of Queenstown. We're here to talk about the policemen the nurses the schoolteachers the meatworkers—the everyday people.Let's talk about Queenstown because it just so happens that the Minister of Housing and Urban Development Mr Twyford has made a recent announcement with the Queenstown Lakes District Council—$52 million—and that is going to build 1850 houses on Quail Rise in Frankton Flats. That's what this Government—this egalitarian Government—is doing. We're not looking after the big end of town; we're looking after the workers and the good ordinary Kiwis. Of course the National Party have got previous on this. Farmland: 465000 hectares of farmland transferred into foreign ownership in 2016—an absolute shame selling out the young New Zealand farmers trying to get through and get their foot on the property ladder. We've seen the outcome now we're scrambling as a Government to try to get access through Hunter Valley Station. Again the aforementioned Mr Todd who brokered that deal for Matt Lauer—we're having to deal with him now and potentially having to get access to our conservation estate that we've sold off the access to.This is a ticking time bomb. What happened to the National Party of Sir Keith Holyoake and his famous property-owning democracy? We now have property ownership in that important 45- to 55-year-old bracket at 59 percent and falling. This is an absolute ticking time bomb. Those people who we would ordinarily expect that by the time they reach pension age they would have freeholded their own house—they don't even own a house and time's running out. That's why we've got to spend $2 billion a year on accommodation supplements. The whole thing is unravelling. It is market failure and we're addressing that. There are ways to do this. This is not the only answer but demand is a part of the answer.We're also dealing of course with supply. Again Minister Twyford: 100000 houses over 10 years. Of course we are dealing with immigration Dr Smith and we can see that trending steadily downwards. Just to the Supplementary Order Paper and of course the forestry carve-out Mr Stuart Smith went on Why haven't we got the wine industry in there? Why haven't we got"—well I can tell you why that is. You ask Paula Bennett when she was swanning over to Paris to swan on the international stage and sign that Paris Agreement what were they going to do? They didn't have a plan at all. This Government has a plan—a billion-tree plan; a nation-building strategy. That is what we're doing. We're taking responsibility.Yes this is a desperate time; we need to take a desperate measure. This is what we've had to do. We've had to get a carve-out as we seek to address this incredibly important issue of our time as Minister Sage has alluded to. So I'm proud that we're standing up for ordinary New Zealanders. I'm proud we're standing up for our international commitments. I really commend this amendment to the committee."