Peters Winston: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeters Winston: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 11 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:7886. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]7.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) to the Minister of Finance: Does he stand by all his statements regarding Silver Fern Farms; if so why?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance): Yes in the context in which they were made.Rt Hon Winston Peters: How can he stand by his comment that farmers should put their money where their mouth is when farmers thought they were getting a $261 million investment and when that instead is going into a separate company controlled by a Chinese State-owned enterprise?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The commercial arrangements between the investors are not really the Government’s business. I have noticed though that a number of hardened long-term shareholders in Silver Fern Farms many of whom I used to represent turned up to meetings and voted overwhelmingly in favour of the transaction. I prefer to back their judgment on it over the member’s.Rt Hon Winston Peters: What substantial and identifiable benefit is there from the Chinese paying only $57 million for Silver Fern Farms when Silver Fern Farms has announced revenues of $2.45 billion a 28 percent surge in operating profit to $86.9 million and a reduction of debt of $168 million?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Getting into a discussion with him about the accounting would be I think as the member used to say like going into a battle of wits with a one-armed opponent. So I do not intend to do that. I think we can rely on the correct processes and that involves the shareholders—who after all have a more vital interest in this than we do and have supported the transaction—the Overseas Investment Act and a screening regime through which the transaction will need to pass.Rt Hon Winston Peters: How is it possible that Silver Ferns Farm a Coda company is allowed to sell half of its share-backed assets without a special resolution to shareholders; and the sale of half of our largest meat exporter is not a major financial transaction as defined in the Companies Act?Mr SPEAKER: So far as there may be some ministerial responsibility the Hon Bill English.Hon BILL ENGLISH: In the same way as having a duel over the accounting might not work—Rt Hon Winston Peters: Point of order. [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! David Bennett. Order!Rt Hon Winston Peters: Mr Speaker.Mr SPEAKER: Order! I have not called the member yet.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I suspect that we are beginning to hear a repeat of the insult in the last supplementary question in terms of the Minister’s answer and he is not allowed to do that. I just want him to tell me what the answer to my question is.Mr SPEAKER: Order! And I am quite keen to hear the answer as well but I do point out that with both this question and the previous one it is difficult for me to actually decipher the responsibility of the Minister of Finance in regard to that matter. I have allowed the questions to be asked and now both of us should wait for the answer.Hon BILL ENGLISH: In the same way as the discussion between myself and the member about the accounting may be fruitless I suspect that a discussion between us about the legal definitions applied to the transaction might be fruitless. I cannot help but think that he is heading in the direction of the ferry bottom that scraped Cook Strait—Mr SPEAKER: Order! That is not going to help. [Interruption]. Order!Rt Hon Winston Peters: I never said that his bottom was scraped by anybody.Mr SPEAKER: And I have not been here that long either. Would the member now ask his supplementary question.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Will the Government now investigate this legally questionable deal designed by Goldman Sachs along with the $7 million payment to the Silver Ferns Farm board which given its profit announcement smells to high heaven; if not why not?Hon BILL ENGLISH: No. The parties to the deal have every incentive to ensure that it is a good deal and actually every incentive to ensure that it is lawful. I am quite sure that the bankers accountants shareholders and company directors have an interest in complying with the law. That member may have more wild allegations as has been his wont but we have found from experience that it is best that those are tested properly.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. With the greatest respect I am relying upon your own rulings on this matter. He should not be allowed to do a detour or a roadblock on his answers by insulting the questioner. I asked him a plain question.Mr SPEAKER: Order! No the member asked two questions. The first one was answered immediately—“Will there be an investigation?”—and the second supplementary question which in my generosity I allowed to go through was: “If not why not?”. I do accept the member’s final point though—where the Minister was then going with the last part of his answer is not going to add to the order of this House.Hon Damien O’Connor: How will the National Government ensure that the benefits claimed by Shanghai Maling when it takes over Silver Fern Farms will be delivered given the absence of any Overseas Investment Office reports to assess the merits of any other overseas business investment in New Zealand?Hon BILL ENGLISH: In the first place the best monitors of the benefit will be the shareholders and the suppliers of Silver Fern Farms who from my knowledge of them apply a forensic and intense scrutiny to everything that the company does. Secondly it is part of the role of the Overseas Investment Office to monitor investments after the fact and it will be doing so in this case.