Tabuteau Fletcher: Overseas Investment (Owning our Own Rural Land) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTabuteau Fletcher: Overseas Investment (Owning our Own Rural Land) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 22 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5246. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]FLETCHER TABUTEAU (NZ First): I stand in support of this bill firstly because it is a form of flattery for New Zealand First policy. It represents policy we have stood for for 22 years. It represents policy that is common sense but unfortunately it goes only part-way. The frustration standing here tonight listening to the debate from the other side of the House is just beyond measure. It is so frustrating to hear those MPs describe this debate as having anything to do with race or ethnicity. There is no mention of race or ethnicity in this bill.David Bennett: Yes there is.FLETCHER TABUTEAU: No there is not. So the conversation is about foreigners buying land. Let us be clear about what we mean when we say “a foreigner” as well. Because if a New Zealander whether they be born overseas or whether like the speaker before they have been here for 70 years from Korea and are proud of it—that is a New Zealander buying a home or buying a piece of farmland in this country. That is a New Zealander and that is a Kiwi and it is not the conversation here tonight. We are talking about foreigners coming in and buying New Zealand land.Mr Bakshi spoke about foreign direct investment contributing to the New Zealand economy. The return on foreign direct investment payments going overseas totals billions upon billions of dollars. That is money leaving our shores—leaving our shores—because foreigners are coming in and investing in New Zealand. That is my next point. The National members do not know what investment is. They do not understand. I challenge them to give me a definition that is meaningful because a foreigner coming in and buying a New Zealand farm processing that material in New Zealand—usually with foreign labour—selling the proceeds of that labour and those resources overseas back home and then taking the profits back home is not an investment for New Zealanders. That adds nothing to this economy.David Bennett: Aw!FLETCHER TABUTEAU: Mr Bennett when the rest of the Waikato has been bought up by Americans Canadians Chinese—it does not matter where they are from. [Interruption] You probably will not have yours because you would have sold—[Interruption].Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member has the floor; he should be allowed to speak.FLETCHER TABUTEAU: Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. The reality is that that type of investment would contribute nothing to the Waikato economy and for Mr Bennett to yell abuse at the sponsor of this bill is an insult to his constituents who know full well as farmers—whom I spoke to when I was there in Hamilton; I spoke to your constituents and they did not want to sell their farms to overseas owners or investors.What the problem was for them was that they are about to see—and it has been spoken about already—their property values decline. Nothing that this Government will do will counter that. Property values will drop and unlike in the past when New Zealanders were buying from New Zealanders whether the market was good or bad the reality is that now foreigners can come in and take advantage of these bad economic conditions particularly in our dairy industry for example. They can come in and take advantage of these terrible terrible circumstances that our farmers are experiencing and they can do it as has been said with the cost of the money being next to zero percent or maybe even 1 percent. We cannot compete with that and we actually should not have to compete with that.New Zealand First is flattered that this bill has been put in front of the House. It reflects a policy that we have held for years. What I wanted to say though just to add to the conversation at the end is that the Overseas Investment Office has not declined a single application. The criteria were supposed to be set at a high standard but the office is just not doing its job it would seem. We are here to limit the sale of rural land to foreigners—not to new New Zealanders wherever they may have come from; to foreigners. This bill is worthy of debate. It is worthy of moving forward and being taken to a select committee so New Zealand First will support this bill tonight. Thank you.