Coleman Jonathan: Overseas Investment (Restriction on Foreign Ownership of Land) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Coleman Jonathan: Overseas Investment (Restriction on Foreign Ownership of Land) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 15 August 2012. Volume:682;Page:4421. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Defence) 
: 
 What a shocker of a bill! This Overseas Investment (Restriction on Foreign Ownership of Land) Amendment Bill would have to be the most stupid bill that will be brought to this House during this Parliament. I just cannot believe that the Green Party members have the audacity to bring this here as a member’s bill. It is like something that they have cooked up over a joint out the back of the Green Party conference. It is “spliff-onomics” “dak-onomics”—that is what it is “dak-onomics”. 
Gareth Hughes 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I take offence at the allegation that the Green Party is engaging in criminal activities. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Point of order— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch) 
: No no. The member needs to withdraw that comment. I call Jonathan Coleman. 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: I am sorry what am I meant to withdraw? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch) 
: You made a derogatory comment and the Greens have taken exception. I ask you to withdraw and apologise. 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: I withdraw and apologise. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Point of order. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch) 
: No we are moving on. Dr Jonathan Coleman has the floor. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I think there is also a convention that there is an apology. If anybody knows about blowing smoke— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch) 
: That is not necessary. 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Well I would just like to see the Green Party members go out to their core constituency and tell them that they are opposed to the smoking of marijuana because that would be really really interesting. 
What I can say is that—I will not call it anything derogatory—what we will call this is “yokel-nomics”. Basically if this bill were to be passed we would be going back to the yokel economy of 11th century Europe where people pulled ploughs with oxen they ran around with pitchforks and they farmed little subsistence plots. For these guys the Greens to think that you could seriously go into an international forum and say that we are going to ban land sales to all foreigners is a joke. 
What is really interesting about this is that this is a vision of what you would get if we ever had the misfortune to have a Labour-Green Government. You would have Russel Norman as Minister of Finance—and obviously this is his pet project—and he would be rushing this through. This would be part of his first 100 days: to ban land sales to all overseas interests and to ban all sales of sensitive land. Clayton Cosgrove and David Parker would have to sit there in that Cabinet with these Green crazies and go along with this stuff because if they did not they would be out of Government. So this is the price that New Zealand is going to have to pay. It will be the Luddite vision of the Greens and they know it and they have been badly embarrassed over this. 
I do not know where Russel Norman cooked this up. I have given you my thoughts on it but I reckon he would have been thinking ever since this went into the members’ ballot: “You know I really do hope that bill doesn’t come out quite frankly. I really do.” because actually it was a pretty damn stupid bill and he is going to regret having put it in there. 
What has been interesting over this debate—and we had the snap debate very foolishly called by the Labour Party yesterday and it got completely thrashed in that because the actual fact is that it has changed its position on overseas investment so many times that it has been an embarrassment. Do not forget that Labour actually introduced in 2005 the Overseas Investment Act which this bill today which Labour is supporting effectively repeals. So it is completely over a barrel on this. 
Poor old David Parker. He is really taking one for the team today—big time. He signed off the sale of thousands—hundreds of thousands—of hectares of land. It is absolutely incredible. When he was the Minister for Land Information—it is absolutely incredible. But I can tell you he is going to be the next speaker and he is going to get up and tell you that Labour is backing this Green bill. [ 
Interruption 
] They are. They are. Those members are backing it and they are going to be getting up and saying that they do not support the sale of land to any foreign interests at all. It is absolutely true. That is what he will be doing in a moment. He is going to have to get up and all the National speakers are going to look to David Parker’s record as Minister for Land Information when he sold hundreds of thousands of hectares of land. 
The Labour Government sold 665000 hectares of land in its time and 380000 hectares in 2006—most of it signed off by David Parker. It got in this very difficult situation yesterday when Clayton Cosgrove I believe was saying that Labour’s position has evolved over time. It has continuously evolved. It has evolved in the last 24 hours. Yesterday those members were saying in that debate that they were in favour of the sale of some sensitive lands but they just were not in favour of the sale of the Crafar farms but today it has evolved further. They are now not in favour of the sale of any sensitive land— 
Hon John Banks 
: Xenophobic. 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: —yes xenophobic—to any foreign interests. But that is what this bill is. This is blatant xenophobia. This is an embarrassment a national embarrassment that Labour and the Greens are backing this bill in this House and I really hope New Zealand First is going to see sense on this bill. I know those members have a different position to us but actually they are sensible practical people and they will see the madness of this absolutely ridiculous bill. 
Look Clayton Cosgrove does not agree with this bill. These guys are just laughing at it. They know that it is a joke. In actual fact he is a sensible centre-right man Clayton Cosgrove. Actually he is quite a cuddly little fellow but you know he just hates this. He hates this stuff eh? He is caught in such a terrible position because he knows that if he wants to get back into Government he has to agree to rubbish like this. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: I enjoy putting the sword into you mate. 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: What is that—putting the sword into me? Well if that is all you are living for. You see Clayton Cosgrove—look at the face of that man. That is the face of a man who truly hates himself. He does. He is torn apart with self-hatred. He has lost his seat he is back here he is in the purgatory of Opposition— 
Hon John Banks 
: Did he lose his seat? 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Yes badly. He lost it—he got the kick all right—to Kate Wilkinson. Absolutely. And now he is so desperate that the only leverage he can get in this Parliament is by putting bills in and out of the ballot and talking to people in the constituency who are not coming to see him as their electoral MP and putting forward legislation of dubious benefit and then having to withdraw it. But that is another issue. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Oh! Shall we have a look at your return or hers or yours? 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: You can look at my return any day of the week. 
Back to David Parker. This is what David Parker signed off: Hancock Natural Resource Group Inc. He sold land to an American company in October 2006. David Parker sold 240000 hectares of sensitive forestry land worth $1.5 billion to Americans and in a moment he is going to get up and say that he agrees with this crazy Green bill. He also signed off to Ernslaw One Ltd a Malaysian company almost 14000 hectares. That was in March 2008. 
Hon Member 
: Was it sensitive? 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: It was $117 million of sensitive land. But I tell you what. We have got Raymond Huo over there. Raymond is a good guy a sensible guy and a good representative for the Chinese community. He has got to go back to his community over the weekend and explain why the Labour Party is supporting xenophobic anti-Chinese legislation. I feel for Raymond because he signed up to the wrong party there. 
These guys here from the Green Party and the Labour Party are going to take us into a very difficult space internationally. They are going to take us into a space where New Zealand diplomats and politicians are not welcome in international fora because we will be the people if this bill passes who do not want foreign investment and who say that foreigners are unwelcome in New Zealand. I tell you what. The only losers from this legislation if it were to pass—and thankfully it will not but I will get on to that in a moment—would be the New Zealand people and the New Zealand economy. I can tell you what will happen if this goes through. There will be less capital coming into New Zealand. There will be less investment. There will be fewer people coming here to put capital into our economy and the economy will not grow. 
Russel Norman the Australian who now does not want Australians to be able to buy land here says that this bill is going to be defeated today by an evil coalition—an evil coalition. That is the National Party United Future and the ACT Party. Well I have got to say that I am very proud to be part of this coalition part of this Government because we have got sensible economic growth policies that are actually seeing us get ahead. It is about looking outwards. It is about earning our income by trading with the world. You cannot trade with the world if you say: “Actually you’re not welcome to come here and buy land.” We cannot go down the path of “yokel-nomics” that Russel “Green” Norman wants us to follow. 
Russel Norman this bill you are putting forward here is an embarrassment. There is no intellectual grunt or input that has gone into this. Russel Norman is a man who is better than this bill. He is brighter than this. He is severely misguided an unreconstructed Marxist but this is not his best work. He needs to get up and explain how the heck he came up with this because he knows that this should never have seen the light of day. It is a big mistake and a political stunt. He is going to completely embarrass David Parker who has to get up and explain that he now opposes land sales having signed off hundreds of thousands of hectares of land sales to foreign interests. I just think this bill is a joke. It is actually a waste of parliamentary time. It should be dead and buried and it is a very serious warning to the New Zealand public.