1. Overseas Investment—Overseas Ownership of New Zealand PropertiesRt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) to the Prime MinisterTUESDAY 21 MARCH 2017Mr Speaker took the Chair at 2 p.m.Prayers.ORAL QUESTIONSQUESTIONS TO MINISTERSOverseas Investment—Overseas Ownership of New Zealand Properties1. Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) to the Prime Minister: Has he required all his Ministers to be properly briefed on issues within their portfolios; if not why not?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH (Prime Minister): Yes but they should always be willing to listen and take on more information and more advice. Rt Hon Winston Peters: When his Minister for Land Information was asked on Sunday's Q+A Can New Zealanders find out exactly how much New Zealand land is owned by a foreign buyer?" why did he reply: "The answer is yes."?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: I am sure he was referring to the fact that you can see the applications that have gone through the Overseas Investment Act and what happens to those applications.Rt Hon Winston Peters: How is that possible and what is his Government hiding when journalists and local residents trying to find the conditions put on overseas buyers of New Zealand land get refusals from the Overseas Investment Office on spurious grounds such as "substantial collation" or privacy?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: I am advised that it is a pretty complex picture and just by way of example the most recent figures about the amount of land bought by foreigners are inflated very significantly by one large forestry block where the owners restructured their company. Because our foreign ownership rules are so tight that block of forest got counted twice adding something like 300000 hectares to the apparent amount of land that was bought.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Can he confirm that the 465863 hectares transferred into foreign ownership in 2016 equals 3.24 percent of New Zealand's total farmland—sold off offshore by the National Government in just 1 year?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: No I do not confirm that. In fact I can confirm that around a tenth of that area was actually bought by overseas owners. As I just explained to the member the 465000 figure is inflated at the very least by 300000 hectares that is attributable to one forest which was already in foreign ownership. The company restructured in a way that meant that 150000 hectares was then counted twice because our foreign ownership rules are so tight that when a small change of shareholding occurs in existing owners it is counted as a new foreign owner transaction. So the member's number is actually the gross number and it is over 10 times the net change. [Interruption] Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! If I could have less interjection from my immediate right I would be grateful.Rt Hon Winston Peters: If the rules are to quote him "so tight" can he confirm that since his Government came to power in 2008 it has approved the sale of a massive 1.5 million hectares of land—Hon Member: What?Rt Hon Winston Peters: —1.5 million hectares of land—into foreign ownership?Rt Hon BILL ENGLISH: Can I bring a bit of sunshine into the member's life. As we have pointed out just this year although there have been transactions recorded of 465000 hectares 300000 of that was simply one transaction counted twice that was already owned offshore and actually the net amount this year was only 40000 hectares which is on par with what it has been over recent years.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I seek leave to table a Land Information New Zealand letter to a journalist on the question of denial of information dated 7 February 2017 and second a Parliamentary Library request for research showing that the transfer of land by this Government last year alone was compared with our farmland 3.24 percent.Mr SPEAKER: Leave is sought to table two things there. One is a letter from Land Information New Zealand and the other is a Parliamentary Library research paper detailing some overseas ownership transactions. Is there any objection to either of those pieces of information being tabled? There is not. They can be tabled.Documents by leave laid on the Table of the House."