Peters Winston: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeters Winston: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 19 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3359. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]3.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all his statements?Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): Yes.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Does he stand by the following statements: in May last year “There is no housing crisis in Auckland.”; also in May last year “I do not believe there is a crisis in housing.”; in June last year “It’s not a crisis.”; in April this year “So I don’t think you could call it a crisis.”; and just last month “I don’t believe a capital gains tax works.”?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Yes I stand by all of those statements. Interestingly enough if you look at the information by the Real Estate Institute figures across New Zealand actually show that although Auckland house prices are up the rest of the country is very mixed; some are actually down. And interestingly enough if you look at the equivalent period of time under the last Labour Government house prices doubled. Under National they have gone up nationally by 35 percent.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Does he stand by this statement made by himself: “I don’t believe foreigners buying the odd house in New Zealand is what’s driving the escalation of prices”?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Yes I believe that statement is correct. I think that there is quite a degree of confusion actually about the people who buy houses in New Zealand who may come from overseas originally or may not be Caucasian. But I think the number of very large purchases of properties in New Zealand that are from offshore is likely to be quite a low number—lower than what people expect in my view.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Does he agree with Lyndon Fairbairn of All Property—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! Will the Leader of the House contain himself. Will the member please start his supplementary question again.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Does he agree with Lyndon Fairbairn of All Property Solutions who when asked on Morning Report this morning whether the Government’s measures will be strenuous on foreign buyers replied “No not at all.”?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: That is an interesting view that the gentleman might have—and I do not know who he is. But let us put it this way. If the rules are as they will be that a foreign buyer or a non - resident taxpayer—because that is the test actually a non - resident tax status—has to provide their IRD number has to provide a New Zealand bank account and by the way by the middle of next year will have withholding tax taken off any sales of properties and they will then have to reverse the burden to get that tax back. If that is no effect then that is a very interesting world that that gentleman lives in but I would suggest it is one that is quite a long way away from reality.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Why does he not just stop tinkering around the edges and to use his words “get some guts” and back New Zealand buyers and stop foreign non-residents buying New Zealand land and houses?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: We know Mr Peters’ views about foreign investment and the likes into New Zealand. But interestingly enough maybe the member when he returns back to his office for a nice cup of tea this afternoon might want to have a look on the Sydney Morning Herald website where they actually talk quite openly about how house prices are rising much faster there than they are in Auckland. And the article goes on to say: “It would be nice if there was a single guilty party—foreigners investors negative gearing local Government capital gains discounts cheap money population growth—but it’s much more complicated” than all of those.