Ardern Shane: Crown Pastoral Land (Rent for Pastoral Leases) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Ardern Shane: Crown Pastoral Land (Rent for Pastoral Leases) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki - King Country) 
: 
 It is always a privilege and a pleasure to follow on from the member for West Coast - Tasman. But I need to back up a little bit and recap some of the comments made by some of his colleagues prior to his contribution.  
The member from the other side of the House who spoke immediately prior to the Hon Damien O’Connor Chris Hipkins can be excused for being very young and very ignorant on this matter but he overwhelmingly demonstrated the philosophical divide between those on that side of the House and those on this side. 
Hon Member 
: I think we might be closer to that member than a number of his colleagues. 
SHANE ARDERN 
: At least the Hon Damien O’Connor tried to bring something credible to the argument but the member over there who is interjecting also demonstrates the philosophical divide. There is a belief that there is a group of farmers in the high country who are rich privileged and not deserving of recognition by the State for the 6 million merinos they farm and the hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of export earnings they produce for New Zealand. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: On public land that they hardly pay for. 
SHANE ARDERN 
: Well there you go! The member over there says it is public land. Let us test that. Let us just test that for a moment.  
When the Labour Government was in power with that member as a Minister it paid well and truly over the odds for Birchwood Station and St James Station and actually set the precedent. It said that the value of the lease was worth nothing effectively—or the value of the lease was worth millions but the value of the freehold part of it the State part of it was worth nothing. Because if the value that the State had set was as high as that member would have us believe now why did it pay so much to get them? Why did the Labour Government pay so much to secure land it already owned? Why did it pay so much to secure land it already owned? Let us just put that to one side for a moment just park that for a moment.  
The Hon Damien O’Connor made some interesting points. He is the only member so far from that side to have made a reasonable contribution. He made some interesting points and the points are this: what is the value of the unimproved value and how does the Government set a fair and equitable lease for those who are farming this land? The reality is that the only way the Government can set those leases is that it must be bankable it must bring certainty. Just look at the track record of the previous Government. Currently 113 leases are before the Land Valuation Tribunal. What does that say? What would you read from that? Would you suggest that it has brought about certainty has brought about security of tenure has brought about protection of the high country and has brought about protection of the iconic values? No what that suggests is that the current situation was unsustainable— 
Colin King 
: Untenable. 
SHANE ARDERN 
: —and something had to happen. It was certainly untenable that is for sure.  
The Hon Damien O’Connor would have a point if the land were ever going to be sold. But both major parties in the House have said that they have no intention of selling Department of Conservation or State-owned land at this point particularly high country and iconic land. All they want to do—on both sides of the Parliament apparently but clearly not evident from the exercise that we have been through with the previous Government—is to secure a viable and long-term secure proposition for those who farm this land.  
Let us just have a look at those people. They are not this rich group of vandals as described by previous speakers. They are hard-working people often living in very isolated areas often substantial contributors to their wider community and generally speaking very very honest and upstanding citizens. To listen to the Labour Party on the other side and to those who have spoken in this debate these farmers would be the biggest villains that the country has ever seen. I just wish that some of those members would actually travel to some of these stations—occasionally—and have a look at what is involved in running these high country stations.  
I also wish that they would actually back up their rhetoric with some facts and so far we have seen none of that. What we have seen is some kind of imaginary comparison with State houses. Well State houses are bought and sold by successive Governments both Labour and National all the time. There is clearly a market value. There is clearly a house on the street next door that is for sale of a similar type and that has a market value that you can set the value by. There is clearly a true market. Try to explain to me if you will the true market of the high country leases. To suggest that these farmers should pay some amenity value because they have an iconic hillside that looks over Lake Wanaka or some other such like the Remarkables and their sheep will somehow grow more wool because it is primarily wool that they produce and that that somehow would give a higher return because of its location is about as “Labour-ish” as it is possible to be and as socialist as it is possible to be. I suggest that they need to take a good look at themselves.  
There is no true market. Unimproved value will become more and more difficult to establish as time goes on. You cannot put a peg in the ground and say: “This is the true value.” There is no market. In fact the only market that we have got to measure by is the market that the Labour Party itself entered into with the purchase of Birchwood Station and the purchase of St James Station. Clearly Labour put such a high value on the lease and no value at all on the land—zero value—because it paid five and six times above what the per-stock unit value of a normal or comparative farming operation would be to secure those properties and Labour itself devalued what the Crown’s share was in this high country.  
I suspect that as this bill passes through the Parliament there will be all this hot air from a group of people who are totally ignorant of the circumstances that we face here. I look forward to the passage of the bill. Thank you.