Salesa JennyHon JENNY SALESA (Associate Minister of Housing and Urban Development): Thank you so much Madam Deputy Speaker for this opportunity to speak on this bill and I'd like to thank and acknowledge the Hon David Parker for all of his work in bringing this legislation to the House. I'd also like to thank the Overseas Investment Office as well as Treasury for drafting this legislation and having it in front of us.The Overseas Investment Amendment Bill puts in place one of our promises for the first 100 days and it will have a significant impact on managing the demand for housing and reducing speculation in our housing market. We are in this position of having to implement one of these policies which is one of many that we're introducing—but it is to address the housing crisis that we find ourselves in.This bill is about restoring the Kiwi Dream of homeownership for New Zealanders. The objective of the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill is to ensure that our housing market here in Aotearoa New Zealand is shaped primarily by New Zealanders. We cannot continue to have foreign speculators buying up our houses that should be open to New Zealanders to New Zealand families and to New Zealand's first-home buyers first and foremost. Allowing this to continue is the equivalent of pouring oil on to the fire that has become our housing market after the last nine years of the previous National Government's neglect in the housing area.The goal for this policy is to ensure that our housing market is shaped by New Zealand buyers. This will make our homes more affordable for New Zealand's first-home buyers while also supporting our efforts to build a more productive economy by helping redirect capital for productive uses. We welcome foreign investment. We welcome foreign investment that brings benefits to New Zealand. However we would like to encourage foreign investment where it adds to our economy. Investment in residential land by those who do not have a right to reside in this country indefinitely and have absolutely no intention of living here does not contribute to this objective. The new investment legislation that we're proposing brings residential land within the category of sensitive land under the Overseas Investment Act. This will not affect New Zealanders. It would not affect New Zealand citizens regardless of whether they live here in Aotearoa New Zealand or if they reside overseas. New Zealanders will continue to be able to buy houses without any screening from the Overseas Investment Office. New Zealand permanent residents as well will be able to buy houses if they're living here or if they reside overseas. At least if they've been present in New Zealand for at least 183 days over the previous 12 months they will still be able to buy a house here if they're permanent residents.One of the things that the Labour - New Zealand First - Green coalition Government would like to do is address the fact that our whānau our brothers and sisters who live and work here in Aotearoa New Zealand do not currently have the opportunity to be able to buy affordable homes. We want to ensure that they are not continuing to miss out on buying affordable homes. We know that the existing supply of homes especially affordable homes in this country is really really short. We know from the numbers that we've seen as soon as we have gotten into Government that we are short by at least 71000 homes across Aotearoa New Zealand. The legislation that we're introducing as I said earlier on is one of a suite of policies to address that. We want to make sure that the housing market in New Zealand is shaped by those of us who live here.Investment in bricks and mortar by people who do not live here nor have any intention of moving to permanently live in Aotearoa New Zealand does not benefit our economy. Auckland is now the fourth most expensive place in the world to buy a house—10 times the median household income. And we know that the average price of a house now in Auckland is over $1 million. This of course has happened over the last nine years.One of the reasons of course why we are introducing this legislation and making sure that it goes to a select committee and that we get the input from the public is also because of the timing in terms of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. We want to ensure that this legislation is passed prior to that coming into force.As I said earlier on we are open to overseas-based buyers purchasing our land for development purposes but we cannot and we will not continue to allow them to purchase our existing homes because we are already in severe demand for houses for our own citizens. So overseas purchases will need to be screened they will need to be approved by the Overseas Investment Office and in practical terms this means that foreign buyers will not be allowed to buy residential properties. However they can buy land and they can build a new house on that land and in doing so they will add to the overall supply of houses in Aotearoa.This legislation gives us an opportunity to make good on one of our promises and you know our coalition Government—we believe that delivering on our promises for the good of all New Zealanders is a good thing. Owning a home is a privilege—one that we want to ensure all New Zealanders have access to. We know that this legislation will help make homes more affordable for all New Zealanders especially our first-home buyers.Speculation is playing a role in the rising housing costs in our country and this legislation will be one way of ensuring that we take the heat out of the housing market. This is as I said earlier on just one part of a much more comprehensive plan of approaching the housing market which includes increasing the supply of affordable homes ensuring that we have public housing that is affordable and available for people ensuring that we have urban development and ensuring that we address homelessness—homelessness; we know we are now number one in the OECD in terms of rates of homelessness. We would also like to ensure that there is an improvement in the quality of housing for all New Zealanders.This bill is not about deterring genuine people who wish to move to and live and reside in Aotearoa New Zealand on a permanent basis. We welcome all of them who want to come and live and work here to contribute to our economy but as I said earlier on they're welcome to come here buy a piece of land and build a new house.One of the speakers earlier on the Hon Steven Joyce talked about how this legislation will not work. Well there are several countries that have already introduced legislation similar to this. Our neighbour Australia has passed similar legislation to minimise the effect that foreign speculators have on their housing market. Canada is also another country that has done the same thing. In the case of our Australian counterparts living in New Zealand we intend to treat Australian citizens and permanent residents in the same way that New Zealand citizens and permanent residents are treated under this Act. What I mean is that this legislation will allow us to give the same benefits to Australians here in New Zealand as New Zealanders get across the—Hon Tracey Martin: The Ditch.Hon JENNY SALESA: —the Ditch in Australia. This Government is very keen to receive public submissions on this bill including feedback on how different New Zealand residents are treated. It has been necessary to balance the impacts on people that are going to impact and contribute to our society overall.Our underlying commitment under this amendment that we are introducing is that we have a right to live here. When you have a right to live here you should also have a right to buy here. With this change we hope to grant more New Zealanders the ability to purchase homes in our country. This change will impact not only our first-home buyers of today but in addition it will affect first home-buyers and families in the future. Thank you so much.