Connell Brian: Overseas Investment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
Connell Brian: Overseas Investment Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:626;Page:21586] 
BRIAN CONNELL (National—Rakaia) 
: 
 Thank you for a call on the title clause of this bill. One knows when one looks around this Chamber that a Government is on its way out when it is relying on people like the Greens who want to stop all investment in this country to come not into caucus but into Cabinet with it. Then it wants the same Cabinet to coalesce with the Maori Party which wants to send everyone out of New Zealand. The Government expects that it will then have the support of a nation and wonders why the tide is going out for it. 
Mr Prebble said he was confused. I cannot speak for Mr Prebble’s state of mind but what I can say is that if Mr Prebble had been here throughout the course of the debate he would have known that National was strongly opposed to the bill before Supplementary Order Paper 376 was tabled which precludes the Government annexing private property without even offering compensation. So with that cleared up I am sure that Mr Prebble will accept that investment in this country through foreign capital is what this country needs and to send signals that that is not important as the Green Party is doing supported by the New Zealand First Party would be totally unacceptable. 
Now we have some Luddites here who are trying to turn the clock back. After years of market reform through the 1980s and 1990s we now have a strong-performing economy that people want to invest in. That is a vote of confidence in this economy and we should embrace people who want to come to this country and invest here. Capital creates jobs prosperity and confidence. I tell Mr Donald and others that if we want to share wealth then first we have to create it and creating it depends on getting capital and on getting people to invest their hard-earned dollars in things like infrastructure and property. 
Dail Jones mounted an argument earlier in the debate that all investors coming to New Zealand are large companies and they are going to suck every bit of goodness out of this country. They are here just to rape and pillage. Well I have to say to Mr Jones that the vast majority of foreign investors in this country are not— 
Peter Brown 
: The member admits that there are some people of that view. 
BRIAN CONNELL 
: Well yes New Zealand First members are of that view. We are in agreement. 
The majority of investors who come to this country are small investors who come here to live and to invest their time and their money—they have kids—exactly the same as Mr Jones and Mr Brown did not so long ago. It is good enough for them but they want to chase everybody else away. Reasonable people know that in order for New Zealand to continue to prosper we need capital. Throughout the course of this debate I have given numerous examples where foreign capital has created infrastructure and jobs for hard-working New Zealanders. I do not think that people listening to Mr Jones talk about the people who have risked their capital to create jobs will agree with his argument that foreign investors do not create any value in New Zealand. That is an absolute nonsense. I know that when Mr Jones was saying it he had a smile on his face but unfortunately people listening across New Zealand cannot see the smile on his face and some—a very small number admittedly—might in fact take him seriously which would be a travesty. 
The other thing that has been noted throughout the course of the debate is that a number of investors have come here and bought high-country stations. Well that is a crime is it not? That is an absolute crime. The hysteria is that they will close all the roads up.