Williams Andrew: Overseas Investment (Restriction on Foreign Ownership of Land) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Williams Andrew: Overseas Investment (Restriction on Foreign Ownership of Land) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 15 August 2012. Volume:682;Page:4427. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First) 
: 
 I take a call on behalf of New Zealand First on the Overseas Investment (Restriction on Foreign Ownership of Land) Amendment Bill. I guess it will be of no surprise to most people listening to this or watching this or in this House that New Zealand First will support this bill because we do not support the sale of land to foreigners. We have consistently opposed the sale of land to overseas interests and we will continue to do so. In fact back in 1997 New Zealand First first brought in the initiative to drastically reduce the sales of land to foreigners each year. Just imagine—if that had been enacted all those years ago then we would have a lot more land in New Zealand ownership today than is currently the case. 
At the present time about 70 percent of our forestry is in foreign ownership. New Zealand First has always opposed the sale of land to foreigners so this bill is very much in New Zealand First territory. However New Zealand First is not opposed to foreign investment as long as such investment stands the test of being to New Zealand’s advantage. New Zealand First stands firm against asset sales to foreign interests. 
New Zealand First’s foreign investment policy also includes the premise that such investment must be in the interests of all of New Zealand and New Zealanders. The private interests of foreign owners and shareholders are not our concern but the public interest of New Zealanders is. We also are in favour of rewriting the foreign investment policy framework and operational requirements as they relate to the work of the Overseas Investment Office to protect the national interest—and that is where this bill comes in—in line with long-held New Zealand First policy. 
When you look at the definition of sensitive land in the principal Act—and perhaps Government members need to have a look at it—it is interesting to see that it includes things such as islands apart from the North Island and South Island—and we are talking about many sensitive islands around New Zealand’s coasts—the bed of lakes the land held for conservation purposes the foreshore and seabed and many other sensitive areas along those lines including heritage sites wahi tapu sites and the like. So when we are talking about sensitive land it also means that foreign interests cannot buy some of our cherished heritage some of our very very sensitive conservation areas or areas adjoining waterways or foreshore areas which again could be perceived as being sensitive. So in this regard it is good. 
I am a fifth-generation New Zealander. Both my mother’s and my father’s side of the family arrived in the 1840s. I am one who most certainly wants to see New Zealand land kept in the hands of New Zealanders and not sold off to foreigners. We do not want to become tenants in our own country. We do not want people coming to this country just to use it as a convenient place to have some sort of spot in the South Pacific that they can come to once or twice a year but who are in fact giving nothing to the economy. 
I was aware of a number of instances where people were coming great distances to stay in holiday houses in New Zealand that they owned in very very sensitive strategic locations while New Zealanders themselves could not access some of those same areas of New Zealand coastal land. It is a great shame when we get to that sort of a situation. We do not want to be in a situation in this country where good New Zealand Kiwis no longer have the same access to all of our sensitive areas of this country. 
We certainly would hope that this will have a flow-on effect through the current asset sales petition that is going around New Zealand. We certainly hope that the likes of this is another feather in the cap in that more and more New Zealanders will also sign that to ensure that there are not State asset sales per se going on under this Government and that basically we are striving to keep New Zealand for New Zealanders. In that situation it is very much fitting that the New Zealand First Party stands for putting New Zealanders first and in that respect we commend the member in charge of this bill Dr Russel Norman in terms of also wanting to ensure that New Zealanders are put first in terms of our sensitive land in our beautiful country. Thank you.