Ardern Shane: Crown Pastoral Land (Rent for Pastoral Leases) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ardern Shane: Crown Pastoral Land (Rent for Pastoral Leases) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 01 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:1841. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SHANE ARDERN (National—Taranaki - King Country) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to rise tonight and speak in favour of the Crown Pastoral Land (Rent for Pastoral Leases) Amendment Bill and can I say so on this basis. Having listened to the last speaker David Parker you would have to really question how the late Howard Paterson got it so wrong and how the good folk of Otago actually made a mistake—only once and they soon corrected it and now are well represented by the member of Parliament for Waitaki Jacqui Dean who does know this issue well and does represent these people very well.  
The concept that we are being asked by the other side to believe is that the Crown’s ownership in this land is such that a massive discount has been given to these folk in the way that the rents are being set. The real irony of that is that it was the last Government that actually said the Crown’s ownership in this land is worth nothing—absolutely nothing. In fact it could be less than nothing if it is possible for that to be. The last Government went in and it bought two stations Birchwood and St James and it paid a price that your colleague Mr Deputy Speaker that good farmer from Southland tells me was five or six times—I said it was five or six times and he said it was more than that—more than the value per stock unit of any equivalent merino run anywhere else in New Zealand. So what does that mean? If the Crown owns the land the Crown goes and buys the lease and it pays five or six times more than what anyone else would pay for a merino station anywhere in New Zealand what value does the Crown place on the freehold part of it? What value did the Clark Government place on that? Zero or even below that if it is possible to be on the other side of that balance. So to say that the leases are too low on the basis that 2 percent of the freehold value amounts to X figure—and it will be different for each particular station—is so misleading and it is the reason why so many of these people have felt so insecure for so long.  
Let us just have a look at what exists here. We have got 212 leases 112 rents in dispute at the Land Valuation Tribunal—so that seems to be a system that is not working too well; something needs to be done to fix that—and $2 million project rents under the new system. So there is an income for the State straight away. Some have suggested doing away with that by charging an amenity value—that is making the price of the lease such that you cannot make a profit from farming merinos because merinos that have a lovely view of Lake Wakatipu Wanakaor somewhere are obviously going to earn a lot more money from their wool than those that are hidden in the back of my good colleague here Colin King’s Kaikoura electorate or somewhere.  
As an aside I actually was flicking through the channels on television on Saturday night and  
Country Calendar 
 was on. I had not seen it for I do not know how long and I happened to stumble upon it. It was featuring a high country lease 5 hours from a tarsealed road—5 hours. You had to travel in a vehicle for 5 hours before you got to a tarsealed road and when you got there you had the tearooms and another couple of hours to get to— 
Hon Maryan Street 
: Sounds like Taranaki—your country. 
SHANE ARDERN 
: It was on  
Country Calendar 
. I thought that here was a rich farming family driving around in their 15-year-old Toyota Hilux that had done a million kilometres and that they were wealthy living way in the back country there and farming. They had a daughter who had recently returned from being overseas for many years. She had decided to come back because she was born and bred there and loved the lifestyle and she brought her family and her husband back. I just looked at that and I wondered how a Government could look upon that family as being vandals to the environment who were ripping off the system and not paying a fair rent and say that they should be taken off the land so that the Crown can take it back. I bet you the Department of Conservation could not find that station let alone anyone from the Department of Conservation driving 5 hours from the end of a tarsealed road to get to it. So whatever is needed to make that family successful and sustainable on that land is what the State has to do in response to that.  
There is something like I understand $3 million worth of merino wool out of just the Otago region alone. I am not sure whether that figure is correct—and the member may be able to correct me—but effectively if you take that income out of there it goes completely out of that community. It just takes that money out of that community. The conservation investment that these families make in the sustainable management of this land is such that the Crown would be likely to have that amount of liability to maintain the land in anything like the state it is in now. So to suggest that somehow or other the National Government is doing some sweetheart deal for its rich mates when you look at the facts is so far from the truth. You may find one or two examples somewhere that you might be able to hold up and it is interesting to note that those members hold up the foreign investors whom they allowed to buy the land when they were in Government. You know how did that get past the Overseas Investment Office? If having foreign ownership of the land is such a dreadful thing how did that happen? I am not saying it is a bad thing. In fact the previous speaker said what a wonderful job those investors were doing of farming it and he talked about the amount of money they were investing in conservation values there. The land and the property will be in better condition when they decide to sell it—likely back to a New Zealand owner—at the end of their tenure there. I do not see any downside from that at all only upside. So it is with pleasure that I stand tonight in support of the Crown Pastoral Land (Rent for Pastoral Leases) Amendment Bill. Thank you.