Parker David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Parker David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:667;Page:14420] 
8. 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
 to the  
Minister for Land Information 
: Will the changes to overseas investment rules mean he will decline more overseas purchases of New Zealand farmland? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (Minister for Land Information) 
: 
 It is not actually possible for me to answer this question on the grounds that it would require me to be clairvoyant on two matters. First of all I would have to predict the future as to how many applications we would receive; secondly I would have to predict the future as to the quality of those applications. But I think I can make one bold prediction: land sold to foreigners under this Government which to date is about 8500 hectares for the year will be way less than that sold in the heady days under the Labour Government. For example in 2006 385000 hectares of land were sold to foreigners. 
Hon David Parker 
: How many farm sales to overseas purchasers has the Minister declined since he became the Minister? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: I do not have that specific information available to me but I can confirm that up until now I have processed them under the same rules and the same criteria as the Labour Government did. However the Hon Bill English has announced that National thinks those rules are too loose and that we will put two new criteria in place—an economic interest test and a mitigating factors test—that I think will give Ministers more scope and powers to decide on the merits of an application in the future. 
Hon David Parker 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. My primary question asked whether the Minister will decline more overseas purchases. The Minister should have prepared and to be able to judge whether it will be more he has to know how many he has already declined. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is not a point of order. The Minister said he did not have the information. That is an answer to the question. 
Hon David Parker 
: Does he recall declining even one sale since he has become the Minister? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Not off the top of my head no. 
Hon David Parker 
: Why does he pretend that a change in the rules will make any difference to the number of farms he approves for overseas sale when the current law already gives him wide discretion to decline farm sales? He just will not do it! 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: I think the two new tests—the economic interest test and the mitigating factors test—will be significant elements to the decision. But I tell the member—because I do get very concerned about this—that I have probably used the same processing as Labour did and have declined about the same number of applications as Labour did as a percentage so why it is of interest— 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: How do you know that? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Actually I cannot remember the exact number. 
Hon Damien O’Connor 
: Does the Minister accept that overseas purchases of New Zealand dairy land occur only when overseas buyers pay more than a New Zealander can afford? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: I am not sure that I have any ministerial responsibility for the transaction of the sale. I am responsible for whether the overseas investor meets the criteria the Government has set in the Act. 
Hon Damien O’Connor 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. My question was very very clear and I am sure that the Minister can answer it. Can I repeat my question: it asked— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I have not invited the member to repeat his question at all. The member’s question asked whether the Minister accepted a statement that sales to an overseas buyer occurred only if the price being offered by the overseas purchaser was higher than what New Zealanders could afford to pay. I think that was the guts of the member’s question. The Minister pointed out that he does not have responsibility for the details surrounding such transactions. Such matters I think he was pointing out are not for the Minister’s consideration because it is only where land is proposed to be sold that it comes into the Minister’s area of responsibility. I think the Minister did answer the question because he does not have responsibility for that matter. 
Hon Damien O’Connor 
: If he cannot answer that one perhaps he can try this one. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! 
Hon Damien O’Connor 
: Did his approval last week of the sale of one of New Zealand’s largest dairy farms—in fact the largest ever dairy farm sale to an overseas interest in both size and price at $34 million—make it easier or more difficult for New Zealanders to afford to purchase farmland in their own country? 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: I need to get the member to understand the role that I play. I am not told what all the bidders are bidding. I do not know about any other bidder. All I am given is advice from the Overseas Investment Office about the specific foreign application and whether it meets the criteria of the Act and I have to make a decision whether to approve it on those grounds. I know nothing of any other commercial offers for the properties. 
Hon Damien O’Connor 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It was a very simple question. I was just asking the Minister whether he thinks about these things. 
Hon Simon Power 
: That is ridiculous. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: A point of order is being considered and there will not be interjection. The member was a Minister in this House for some time and he knows that there is no point in raising a point of order with the Speaker to seek a particular answer when a member asks that kind of question. Seeking an opinion of a Minister—especially with the particular question asked—means the Minister has licence to say almost anything in relation to that kind of question. The member has been in this House long enough to know that if he expects a specific answer he has to be a bit more precise than that. 
Hon Damien O’Connor 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The Minister himself referred to greater ministerial discretion in this area of decision making. What I am trying to establish is what criteria in thinking about the applications the Minister does in fact consider. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: It is a shame the member did not ask that question. Instead of asking the rather convoluted question about a matter for which the Minister had no responsibility the member should have asked exactly the kind of question he has alluded to just now. I invite members to think more carefully about their questions. I am very happy to help them hold Ministers to account. I have demonstrated that—even today I demonstrated that. But I cannot help members if their questioning is too convoluted and puts in statements about matters that Ministers are not responsible for or statements that Ministers can challenge because that just lets Ministers off the hook.