Sage EugenieHon EUGENIE SAGE (Minister for Land Information): Kia orana Madam Chair thank you. Just to respond to some of the comments that Mr Stuart Smith was making: why carve out forestry? Well Mr Smith should be well aware that forestry is our third-largest export product earner behind dairy and meat and it contributed 3 percent of New Zealand's GDP. Why carve out forestry? Because this Government through the billion trees project is serious about doing something about climate change. The inaction by the past Government its failure to really seriously engage with the issue means that we need to catch up. If anyone's been watching the international news seeing the wildfires in California—we need to get serious. A billion trees sequestering that carbon is critical to meeting our Paris commitments. We need that additional investment from overseas companies in terms of expanding forestry in New Zealand. They will also through their investments in land be able to increase the amount of wood that's processed domestically creating more jobs. This Government has a plan for a sustainable inclusive and productive economy and forestry is a key part of that. There is already a screening regime for forestry so what the Government did with the bill was listen to the concerns of industry and—responding to the Rt Hon David Carter's point—one would expect a bill to change in select committee to be responsive to the concerns of submitters because that is what the select committee process is all about. I commend the chair Michael Wood for the way in which he managed that process to ensure that the bill is the best it can be responding to submitters. Responding to the Rt Hon David Carter's comments again this bill was done quickly—as the Minister has made very clear—because of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPPA). If the Government had not introduced the bill when it did we would have lost the opportunity to actually ensure that we have a housing market in New Zealand that promotes affordability—that reduces the speculation by overseas buyers so that houses are more affordable for New Zealanders. The last Government failed to recognise that and it was made clear in question time today that finally Mr English is recognising that the boom in immigration the increased pressure that the overseas buyers were putting on housing was contributing to the bubble. This bill is about dealing with that. This bill is about ensuring that we meet the billion trees commitment that we have a coherent effective and simple regime for screening overseas investment that we build on the existing regime in the Overseas Investment Act for screening sensitive land that it is coherent and that we ensure that forestry can make that commitment to being part of our climate change commitments. Why did we deal with profits à prendre Mr Smith? We dealt with that because otherwise it was creating a significant loophole—the fact that these contractual agreements could effectively be the same almost as controlling and owning the land. So the simpler pathways have been developed in response to submissions. The bill builds on the existing regime in the Act. It's been introduced at the time it was so that we are not prevented from controlling speculation in the housing market by overseas buyers as a result of the CPTPPA because this Government cares about ensuring that housing is affordable.