Donald Rod: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Donald Rod: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:613;Page:9843] 
6.  
ROD DONALD (Co-Leader—Green) 
 to the  
Minister for Trade Negotiations 
: Which countries requested the New Zealand Government to remove or ease requirements for Overseas Investment Commission approval for foreign investment in the current General Agreement on Trade in Services negotiations? 
Hon JIM SUTTON (Minister for Trade Negotiations) 
: 
 It is accepted practice amongst World Trade Organization members that requests made by and of other countries are to be kept confidential. But I can confirm that nine countries have asked for changes to our screening system as part of their General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) requests. That does not put New Zealand under any obligation to acquiesce to such requests. 
Rod Donald 
: Can the Minister see any similarity between the European Union request to New Zealand to remove all requirements for Overseas Investment Commission approval for foreign investments and Dr Cullen’s request that the review of the Overseas Investment Commission considers “whether company purchases should be removed from the purview of the OIC” and is that similarity pure coincidence? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: I am not prepared to confirm that any particular country has made such a request of New Zealand but I would point out to the member that the review of the Overseas Investment Commission may just as likely result in the requirements being tightened up as in their being liberalised. 
Luamanuvao Winnie Laban 
: What is the New Zealand Government’s position on its participation in the GATS negotiations? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: The New Zealand Government has published its 10 guiding principles for New Zealand’s participation in those negotiations. The discussion document was published in March. I now seek leave to table it and I draw it to members’ attention yet again. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Dail Jones 
: What discussions has the Minister undertaken with the Greens on preventing the sale of land to foreigners—which incidentally is New Zealand First policy—and has he received an assurance from the Greens that they will take a principled approach and oppose any removal or easing of the powers of the Overseas Investment Commission relating to the sale of land to foreigners or will the Greens’ approach be the same as it was on the GE legislation? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: I have not myself undertaken any consultation with the Green Party on that policy which I take to be the failed policies of the former New Zealand First coalition partner. 
Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith 
: Can the Minister confirm with regard to the procedures of the Overseas Investment Commission and particularly our sensitive land purchased by overseas interests namely our coastal land that in the last 6 years the total proportion of our coastal land purchased by overseas interests represents not 0.1 percent but 0.018 percent of our coastline? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: My understanding is that the correct figure is 0.1 percent but if the member really wants to get more information on that he should set down a question to the Minister responsible. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: As the Minister thought he would put into contention the record of New Zealand First is it not true that when he was in Government between 1984 and 1990 virtually no applications failed to get approval that between 1989 and 1996 every application was successful and that since the new Government has come back in 1999 the applications to the Overseas Investment Commission are not handled inside the office of the Minister of Finance or Treasury but rather down there where they are rubber-stamped on a constant basis? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: I cannot confirm any of the statistics from the member but I can confirm that when he was Deputy Prime Minister the Government of the day introduced a new and more rigorous set of criteria for the Overseas Investment Commission but then sneakily never implemented them. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I seek leave to table evidence that on the passage of the bill at the time of the coalition collapsing the bill was withheld by the then National Government operating by itself and later submitted by the Minister of Finance the facts of which that Minister next to him knows—[ 
Interruption 
] Tell the truth for a change. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member cannot accuse another member of not telling the truth. He will please withdraw and apologise. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I withdraw and apologise. I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Please be seated. The member has asked for leave to table a document. I am going to take that leave. Is there any objection to him tabling that document? There is not. 
Document not tabled. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: My point of order is that what the Minister said he must know not to be the truth because he was in a Cabinet that did precisely that—took a bill that was through its third reading and awaiting the Governor-General’s assent and sent it down for that. A statement to that effect was put out by the Minister responsible for the Treasury at the time the Minister of Finance Dr Cullen. He as a Cabinet Minister must have known that. If he knew that then either he has amnesia or there is something else. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member has made a statement in the House. He cannot be accused of not telling the truth. 
Rod Donald 
: Is the Minister aware that US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick has asked Australia to remove its foreign investment regulations as part of its negotiations over a free-trade agreement and can he see the uncanny resemblance between that and the proposal floated yesterday by the Minister of Finance to remove companies from the purview of the Overseas Investment Commission? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: No. 
Rod Donald 
: Can the Minister confirm that New Zealand laws around foreign ownership of land cannot be tightened beyond those committed to under GATS without breaching New Zealand’s World Trade Organization obligations; if so which is more important to this Government: protecting iconic sites from foreign ownership or toeing the line at the World Trade Organization? 
Hon JIM SUTTON 
: New Zealand can if it wishes tighten the conditions surrounding the purchase of land by overseas people in New Zealand.