Collins JudithHon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura): Good choice Mr Chair might I say. It's great to take a call after that contribution from the Minister in the chair the Hon David Parker—Hon Amy Adams: It would make you look very good.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Yes well it certainly is a land of opportunity for looking good following David Parker I would have thought. One of the problems that he's discussed—and I'm going to talk about this because he's raised it—is the properties sold and bought in Auckland's central business district by foreign buyers. He's used it as evidence of all these foreign buyers buying and he has rightly referred to the fact that I have called out and interjected that most of those are apartments—and of course they are.For those who don't live in Auckland or don't travel to the Auckland CBD it's very hard to find a house in the central business district—there are a couple in Parnell but not that many—but there are an awful lot of apartments. That is actually where we would've thought we needed people to come in with capital to help the developers get enough pre-sales so that they can get their apartments built. What's actually happened in New Zealand in the last few months is that all new apartment building developments have essentially stopped not got off the ground if they hadn't started and even some of those that have started have now stopped. The reason for that is not because New Zealanders don't buy apartments but actually because New Zealanders generally don't buy apartments off the plans.In New Zealand we need to have overseas capital overseas buyers to come in and buy off the plans. That has now been recognised after many submissions to the Finance and Expenditure Committee and the Government is now making an exemption for foreign people to come in and buy apartments off the plans in the areas where they want them to. So they're buying off the plans but unfortunately they can't live in them. That means we can have the ridiculous situation where one person can buy an apartment rent it out to their foreign friend and that foreign friend can buy an apartment and rent it out to the first foreign person. They can't actually live in their own one but they can live in their neighbour's one.The whole thing is a complete mess. It marks the low-water mark of the Labour Party's policy machine because this policy was actually built on a Chinese-sounding name survey that the Labour Party's Phil Twyford and his staff member Rob Salmond ran in their last year in Opposition. They ran that campaign to build up hatred against foreign people and particularly Chinese. They did not run a campaign against Indian-sounding names. There were no Lithuanians picked out. There was nobody else—Hon Member: Irish—lots of Irish.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Lots of Irish—oh yes. They never looked for the Irish but they did choose the Chinese-sounding names. Anybody with a name like Young or Lee—Denise Lee for instance. My colleague Denise Lee was suddenly marked as a Chinese-sounding name. That is a level of discrimination that was applied by a major party in New Zealand.Let's have a look at what has actually occurred since then. Well a lot of people are no longer buying in New Zealand which is why now suddenly the welcome mat has gone out to foreigners to come and buy off the plans in apartment blocks—which by the way they are not really buying at the moment because they got the message that they're not wanted and there's no development in these.The secret to Auckland and Queenstown and these a lot of people want to live there" areas is that we need to have apartments. We can't have apartment blocks without people buying off the plans and we can't all sit around and wait and hope that somebody is going to come and do that. So we've got a situation now where we've got fewer apartments being built than we did last year and we've got fewer people having the opportunities that buying an apartment for their first home can give them than we did last year and that is actually all down to a policy that said "We don't want these foreigners." Remember the "30 percent of houses being sold to foreigners" nonsense that we had? In fact the answer that we gave last year when this was raised was 3 percent. Those were the statistics given to us by the ministries and the officials. Strangely enough they're exactly the same numbers being given this year by the officials. We've got people like the Hon David Parker clinging to the hope that 20 percent of houses—"houses" he said—in Auckland's CBD are being sold to foreigners when he really meant mostly apartments actually and from one foreign person often to another foreign person—that this was occurring.So we've got a policy that is built around probably the poll rating that Andrew Little got as leader when the Labour Party was 23 percent in the polls. It was actually a policy bred from desperation. What they could've been doing instead would've been helping the National Government as we were then to bring about some of the changes that we wanted to make around planning and urban development. Instead they would not support us on anything—would not support us on anything.It's a real joke to listen today to the Hon David Parker talk about that misnamed thing—what was it? CPTPPP? Something like that. That's the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPPA) rebranded with "Comprehensive and Progressive". For goodness' sake! This was a man who was marching in the streets last year against the TPPA. He was a man who along with the Hon Phil Twyford was—yes guess what?—marching in the streets holding up a banner against it. Today we're being told "Well we have to do this now because we've signed up to it and we all agree with it." So that is the level of debate within the Labour Party that has brought them to this place. It's not a strong position.It's worse than that. We've been told today by the Hon David Parker that no one accused him of being racist against Americans or French or anybody else. But actually no one went looking for French names did they? No one went looking for American names—whatever that might mean. No one went looking for Lithuanian names. No one went looking for Polish names. No one went looking for Indian names. No one went looking for any of that but they did go looking for Chinese names and you'd have to wonder why. You'd have to wonder why. I don't believe for a moment—the funny thing is of course the other exemption he wants is for Singaporeans. Well there won't be any Chinese-sounding names there will there!I have to say I just thought that was one of the biggest jokes of all—and why Singaporeans? Well apparently it's in some deal. We heard today "Well the thing is you see there was this free-trade agreement with China which allows Chinese to buy homes in New Zealand." Well who signed that? Which was the Government in charge? Oh I know it was a Labour - New Zealand First Government.Hon Members: Oh!Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Oh it was. It was. It was. Who negotiated it? A Labour - New Zealand First Government? Who was the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time? Oh no no no. The Rt Hon Winston Peters. Hon Members: Oh!Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Oh it was indeedy. Now what does this tell us?Jamie Strange: Very good Minister. Excellent Minister.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Do we think for a moment that there is—what was that Mr Strange?Jamie Strange: I say he's a very good Minister Winston Peters.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Sorry? I think he's loving it. He's loving it because at least he's not to fault. He wasn't here—it wasn't his fault. But where was the Hon David Parker in all this? Was he a trade Minister or something at the time was he? Was he? Was he?Hon David Parker: I was in Cabinet.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: No no—he was in Canberra he said.Hon David Parker: No I was in Cabinet. Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Oh he was in what?Hon David Parker: I was in Cabinet. I take responsibility.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: He was in Cabinet. He was responsible. Well isn't that lovely? He was in Cabinet.So we've got a piece of legislation here which is—and I actually don't particularly care about New Zealand First's position on this because we all know New Zealand First's position. It's the Labour Party's one and the Green Party's position—Hon Amy Adams: Bereft.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: Bereft of any principle. This is—if it's the triumph that the Minister would like it to be—simply of pragmatism policy and politics over principle—it is a piece of legislation that is in fact the low-water mark for the Labour Party. They once were a major party. When they are part of a Government they are the major part. They should not be. They should be in fact the same size as New Zealand First because that is the level of thought that's gone into this."