Twyford Phil: Land Transfer Amendment Bill Tax Administration Amendment Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTwyford Phil: Land Transfer Amendment Bill Tax Administration Amendment Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 10 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:6556. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatū): This legislation as David Seymour explained most candidly to the House just a little while ago is the National Government’s political response to the overwhelming public concern about the effect of offshore money pumping up the Auckland housing market. I thought it was the first useful contribution that I had heard from the National Party’s auxiliary Epsom brand for some time in this House. I want to say thank you to David Seymour for that very candid explanation—something that we have not heard from his National Government colleagues throughout this entire debate.This legislation is a classic of its kind—a classic of its kind. It is what the National Government does constantly. For the past 3 years National Government Ministers Bill English Nick Smith and the Prime Minister himself have denied that speculators are a problem in the Auckland housing market in spite of the Reserve Bank Governor and deputy governor repeatedly raising the problem of speculators pumping up Auckland house prices. The National Government has denied denied and denied that foreign money is a problem and its members have repeatedly accused anyone in this House including myself of being racist and xenophobic because we have raised the problem of non-resident foreign buyers bidding up the price of houses and outbidding Kiwi first-home buyers.But finally finally in the lead-up to the Budget they cracked—they cracked. And why? Because their polls were telling them that 82 percent—82 percent—of New Zealanders want to see a full proper comprehensive register of foreign property buyers; 82 percent. And 72 percent of New Zealanders support a ban on foreign buyers buying existing houses in New Zealand. That is the Labour Party policy. It is the policy of the Australian Federal Government and 77 percent of New Zealanders support it. In fact 54 percent of National Party voters want to see a ban on foreign buyers buying existing houses. It is the policy of the Australian Government. It is also the policy of the UK Prime Minister David Cameron. David Cameron wants to see a register of foreign property ownership in the UK. He does not want to see corrupt foreign money pumping up the price of houses in the UK.This legislation finally takes a little baby step in the direction of collecting a little bit of data. But it is not a register it is not comprehensive and it is not going to create a searchable database of foreign property owners. The public listening at home to the objections and interjections from the National Government members will know very well by now that the National Government wants to make this an issue of race. The National Government members want to make it an issue of race and one speaker after another in this debate has got up and mischaracterised the policies of the Labour Party of New Zealand First and of the Green Party because all of the major Opposition parties in this Parliament want to see a full comprehensive and publicly searchable register of foreign property buyers. All of the Opposition parties in this House want to see a ban on foreign property ownership of existing houses. That is our policy.Repeatedly the Government has tried to say that Labour is opposed to new migrants buying houses. Well that is not our policy—that is not our policy. It never has been and it never will be. In this debate the National Government members have tried to say that this is an issue of race and that we do not want to see people of a particular race buying houses in New Zealand. Well that is not our policy. It never has been and it never will be. Our policy is to look after the interests of New Zealanders not the interests of foreign property speculators. We are the party that stands beside young Kiwi first-home buyers; that is the party that stands behind foreign property speculators.The reason why the National Government does not want to see effective legislation and does not want to see a register of foreign property buyers is that it does not want the flow of foreign money into its party coffers to dry up. That is why it will not touch this issue except with this pathetic superficial charade of a bill that pretends to do something for political reasons as David Seymour confessed to this House. But it will not do anything substantial to tackle the problem.Chris Bishop: I raise a point of order Mr Assistant Speaker. Mr Twyford just made an unparliamentary remark about the motives of the Government in passing this piece of legislation. There are various Speakers’ rulings—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I have the Speakers’ rulings open in front of me and I am noting very carefully what is being said.PHIL TWYFORD: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker—David Seymour: I raise a point of order Mr Assistant Speaker. If I could assist I am fairly certain it is Standing Order 120 that says it is wrong to impute a motive on to a member—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! The member will sit. This is a robust debate and these are debating points. I am listening very carefully to the content. I have the Speakers’ rulings open and I know the page and I know the line number.PHIL TWYFORD: Protecting affordable homeownership is a proper and legitimate goal for the New Zealand Government but not according to the members on the National Government benches. The movement of hot money across national borders is a problem that Governments all across the world are grappling with. It is about the instability of markets and it is about protecting important social and economic goals like access to affordable homeownership. But that does not mean anything to the National Government.Putting New Zealand’s tiny real estate market into a global market place is a fool’s errand. It is a recipe for what is already happening under the policies of this National Government—that is New Zealanders are standing by and watching housing and land being sold out from under their feet. That is why Malaysia Singapore Hong Kong and Australia have all enacted policies in the past few years to limit the effects of foreign property speculation in their real estate markets. That is why Beijing and Shanghai do not allow non-residents to buy houses in those cities. Is that racist? Is it racist when Beijing and Shanghai prohibit non-residents from buying houses in their cities? Of course it is not racist. That is their Government looking after their local citizens by protecting affordable homeownership. That is what it is about.There is a particular issue with foreign direct investment from the People’s Republic of China and we need to be able to discuss it without the pathetic and juvenile trivialisation of this issue by MPs like David Seymour and Jami-Lee Ross. Juwai.com the preeminent Chinese website that markets international real estate to Chinese citizens in China has estimated that $15 billion of private investment from the People’s Republic of China is heading towards the New Zealand real estate market in the next 5 years—$15 billion from China which it predicts will be invested in the New Zealand real estate market. We need to be able to talk about this. This is about managing the stability of our markets in the face of huge volumes of international investment that will serve only to pump up the price of real estate and deny young Kiwi families their dream of affordable homeownership.The National Government is in denial. It does not want to know that—it does not want to know it. It is not only because that party benefits politically from the donations of property—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! Now you have crossed the line and you will withdraw those comments. You cannot say that someone has benefited and I will refer the member to Speaker’s ruling 56/4. I ask the member to withdraw that comment and to move back now in the last few minutes to the content of the bill and not something that may be hypothetical.PHIL TWYFORD: It is not the only—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I asked you to withdraw the comment.PHIL TWYFORD: Oh sorry. I withdraw that comment.David Seymour: I raise a point of order Mr Assistant Speaker. Immediately after you resumed your seat Ruth Dyson repeated exactly the same allegation and by the same standard I think she too should withdraw and apologise.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Well I did not hear that but did the member make an unparliamentary comment?Hon Ruth Dyson: I’m happy to tell you what I said.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): No. [Interruption] Order! The point has been made that while I was adjudicating on this there was an interjection. The question is: was there an unparliamentary interjection? The answer is either yes or no so that is what I am asking.Hon Ruth Dyson: I certainly did interject and I do not believe that it was outside of the Standing Orders. That is my view.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I will take your word for it.PHIL TWYFORD: The point has been well made in this debate by members on this side of the Chamber that this bill is inadequate. It will not capture the information that is needed. It has a giant loophole at its heart—that is the main home exemption—and the very definition of “main home” contains another loophole that will make this bill worse than useless.The point I made earlier that so upset members on the other side of the House is not the only reason why the National Government does not want to tackle seriously the effects of foreign money in the Auckland housing market. Those members do not want to touch the effect of foreign money in the Auckland housing market also because they like it that foreign money is pumping up house prices because there is nothing else going on in the economy. After the Christchurch rebuild has come off its peak and after the dairy slump National’s housing bubble in Auckland is the only thing that is left going on in the economy. The last thing that the National Government wants to do is turn off the tap of foreign money which is driving up Auckland house prices and denying an entire generation of young Kiwi families the chance to own a home of their own.The Prime Minister was incredibly candid the other day on Newstalk ZB when he said that he thinks there are some Aucklanders who are very happy with rising house prices. He made it very clear that that is National’s political strategy. It wants to harvest the votes of homeowners who think they are getting rich. They do not give a damn about the half of Aucklanders who rent or the whole generation of young people who will never ever own a home of their own in Auckland under this Government’s policies.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Members just before we continue we are operating on an emergency sound system. I understand that the sound quality is not good outside the House so just be mindful of that. I do apologise to the House and I apologise to any member and to those who may be listening and watching the telecast on TV. I apologise for that.