Jones Shane: Crown Pastoral Land (Rent for Pastoral Leases) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Jones Shane: Crown Pastoral Land (Rent for Pastoral Leases) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:678;Page:1274] 
Hon SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Chair. I shall endeavour to bring some relevance back to the debate after those contributions. I come from an area where the tail of the fish is very narrow. We have only the sand dunes of Ninety Mile Beach to compare with these alpine majestic free-rider gifts that we are giving to a narrow caste of New Zealanders in the South Island. So naturally as my colleagues have said Labour does not support the Crown Pastoral Land (Rent for Pastoral Leases) Amendment Bill. 
I am going to direct Jacqui Dean and her colleagues to section 23J in clause 6. There are those who have been concerned about the elements that we are arguing for on our side of the Chamber which we think give a fair return in terms of the owner of the property right—i.e. the great unwashed otherwise known as the Crown; otherwise known as the rats and mice of New Zealand society—i.e. members of Parliament—we their proxies. We not only have been concerned about the inadequacy of that—and there are two areas that I want to focus on—but it is very difficult for an upset or jilted party to actually turn over the power policy underlying these decisions which actually gifts far too much of the public estate to this group of property rights- holders. That is our essential argument. 
We know that you can test—as the Government has learnt in the ill-fated Crafar farm transaction—the legitimacy of the process. You can test the robustness of the thinking in so far as whether you are sticking to the black-letter meaning of the law. That lies here. The High Court must determine in terms of a question of law but it cannot stray into those areas that Parliament this afternoon has the ability to fix up. Parliament has the ability to introduce something that gives a fairer return to the taxpayer who via the State via the Minister via the apparatus of the Commissioner of Crown Lands etc. is the owner. For as long as we are not going to do this we are gifting far too much. I can think of only one way that the public might recapture some of that value in the event that they do go and sell. As a consequence of this very generous level of calculation we will probably capture it in our capital gains tax policy after the next election. I can see that that is the only way that the public will enjoy the opportunity of recovering a small part of what has been gifted to this group of people. That unfortunately lies in the hands of the electors. They may or may not breathe life into that policy. We certainly are keeping it warm. 
Hon Member 
: They will. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: They will. The man is very prescient. The man behind me is very prescient. He can see well into the future. 
Given that this is a free-ranging debate kind of on Part 1 this piece of legislation as you would know—I am directing this to the great Taranaki farmer and inheritor of fine Mount Egmont intellect. He basks in the history of Inglewood New Plymouth; we of course think of Ngamotu Taranaki. But that is another matter. I direct his attention to section 23N in clause 6 where this bill—and this happens all the time—operationalises the ability of the Governor-General upon advice from the Minister through the Executive Council to pass regulation. That is why this side of the Committee is constantly reminding participants in the debate that that is where the real damage will be done: a level of subordinate legislation which we fear will not be subject to wide scrutiny. 
A consequence of a very cosy relationship and far too much focus—far too much focus—on a narrow range of interests sees this massive vista this fantastic part of our national identity and national estate disappearing out of public into private. That is a fair ideological debate to have and part of the machinery that makes that happen is not only regulation-making power but also the quality of our contributions this afternoon.