Bennett DavidHon DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. If anyone needed to understand why the New Zealand economy is crashing and burning look at what we have just heard from the New Zealand First member Mark Patterson and the other nine members of New Zealand First that are the economic geniuses behind this bill that are delivering the economic plan for New Zealand that is working so very very well! They are ably supported by the other economic geniuses we see in this room from the Labour Party that have got no idea either and the Green Party that will never stand up for its values in this House.There's a reason that we have a property market and that is a market where buyers and sellers come together. Like any other market there needs to be a fair interaction of buyers and sellers. Once rules are put into a market that dictate what the price may be who may buy what time they may buy and all those other factors that are all opportunities that the New Zealand First Party can't resist then that market is distorted. What is happening to ordinary New Zealanders the very people that the Labour and New Zealand First parties talk about here? They are distorting the future of New Zealanders because they are presenting to them an unrealistic market for property. If we can't compete in our property markets there is a reason and that reason is because we are not earning enough on the international stage.Any time any country in the history of this world has put rules in place to stop competition in one area thinking that they can dictate that price it fails. And when those rules go away that country and those people are not able to compete and they go further down the scale. That is what they are doing to New Zealanders. They are giving them false hope and taking away their future to compete. Why can't New Zealanders compete in the property market if we expect them to compete in the overseas markets where they sell their products? Should we expect New Zealanders to be competitive in their overseas trade and yet uncompetitive in our property markets? No we shouldn't and that is the strength of New Zealand agriculture: it's because our farmers are competitive in the land market. They can actually make enough money out of their farms to buy their farms. That is the strength of New Zealand agriculture and to take that away in fell swoops like this bill does leads to the economic decline that we are seeing in New Zealand now.We need to be competitive as people and we need to be able to do that in a way which Government doesn't dictate. That is the fundamental belief that the Government doesn't understand. Because they don't understand that they are destroying the New Zealand economy because all the business people out there understand that and they live by that. The people in this room have no experience in the business community and they will lead New Zealand down the track of failure.New Zealand has a very fragile economy. We can't afford to do too many of these decisions. We can't afford to cut mining cut roading and cut foreign investment. Once the New Zealand economy gets the jitters it gets it big time—and the New Zealand economy has already got the jitters—and there will be no way back under this Government. That Government is facing an economic decline that we thought would take a matter of years. It's only going to take a matter of months and that's because of policies like this.Let's have a look at this policy. Even if the person that was delivering this policy actually believed in what the New Zealand First and Labour Party and Green Party have espoused during the election campaigns—and that is their belief that there should be no foreign ownership of land or that anybody coming in here would not be able to purchase land if they're not a New Zealand resident. That's the premise the Minister started with. Well look at this very piece of legislation—what is enabled to happen under this legislation? It makes an easier road to purchase farmland in New Zealand than there ever has been before.Previously if an investor from overseas wanted to come and buy an 800 hectare farm in the north Waikato—beautiful rolling country that could be our productive land for sheep beef dairy whatever fruit vegetables—they would have to go through the Overseas Investment Office and prove that they are adding value to that beyond what a New Zealander would having purchased it. Those are the current rules. Under this legislation—Mark Patterson: It had never been enforced.Hon DAVID BENNETT: —there is an exemption. They are enforced and they have to go through them and under this legislation there's an exemption for forestry. Now the Minister is very cute in his response to this saying Oh forestry rights have never been acknowledged." Well maybe that is true but he also said after that that there will be a lower threshold for land purchase. So essentially that overseas buyer can come in now and say they're going to buy that beautiful farm and put it into forestry and they will be exempt from having to go through the full force of the Overseas Investment Office.That is the tragedy of this bill: it actually increases foreign ownership. It makes it easier for someone to buy property in New Zealand than it would've in the past. What's worse that investor will be paid to do that because we know that the Government is going to bring in something around forestry rights emissions trading scheme payments to put in forestry. In fact there are payments to put in forestry now through the Provincial Growth Fund; we just don't know what those payments are how much is being paid to somebody and whether that's consistent. But take that foreign buyer. Now potentially they could get paid through the foreign investment fund to buy New Zealand land and to take it out of its most productive use and put it into forestry. The people over there will say "Oh nobody will ever do that. Why would they want to do that?" Well if that person is getting only a 1 percent return on their investment overseas and they don't actually want to have to come here and work the land but they're quite happy just to park a few million dollars here to have a safety mechanism in case their home country has some difficulty—Barbara Kuriger: And they don't have to pay for the rural roads.Hon DAVID BENNETT: —they don't have to pay for anything—they will actually get the advantage of this bill. So they can come over here buy land put it into forestry take it out of productive use and get paid by the Government to do so at a higher rate of income than they would be getting for their money overseas. That is not good business. That is selling New Zealand down the road.That's what the New Zealand First Party has done here today. The reason they are doing that is because Shane Jones has a wild promise that he needs to actually meet. The Labour Party have no economic credentials. They do not understand what they are doing in this bill and they're just trying to appease the New Zealand First Party and the New Zealand economy sees that.People in business understand what is happening and they see right through what this bill is. They see that it is silly policy made by people that have no understanding of what they are doing and it is creating a false economy for New Zealanders. It is meaning that New Zealanders will be told they don't need to be productive and competitive. It means that New Zealanders will actually lose some of their best land under silly rules that you could drive a truck through.Angie Warren-Clark: No hyperbole there.Hon DAVID BENNETT: No that member there wouldn't know. That member there—I bet you she's never been involved in a property purchase involving farmland and seeing how that works. So—Angie Warren-Clark: Wrong—wrong.Hon DAVID BENNETT: Have you? Forestry? No she hasn't done any forestry purchases has she? I'd love to see her do a forestry purchase and if she did it'd probably still be to some foreigner.But this is an attack on the very values that New Zealanders need to succeed. We need to be competitive hard-working New Zealanders that have the opportunity to compete on the international market. If we constrain ourselves and we put ourselves behind barriers there is only one thing that will happen to New Zealanders and that will be that we will be less competitive. We will fall behind and we won't be able to deliver what we want for our future generations and this bill does exactly that. It constrains our people's ability to succeed and go forward and at the same time—at the very same time—we are incentivising people to come and buy New Zealand property without adding value to that. In fact we are probably taking away economic value and that is not smart economy."