Coleman Jonathan: Urgent Debates — Overseas Investment Rules—Sale of Crafar Farms 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Coleman Jonathan: Urgent Debates — Overseas Investment Rules—Sale of Crafar Farms 
[Sitting date: 14 August 2012. Volume:682;Page:4326. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Defence) 
: 
 It is great to be able to take a call in this debate. What a revelation this has been this afternoon. It has been really quite fascinating to hear the views across the Parliament on foreign ownership of farmland in New Zealand. I mean we have had the unreconstructed Marxists from the Green Party telling us about the ways that we are going to turn round New Zealand. They say it is sell assets or borrow more but they never actually talk about selling more overseas. The focus is very myopic from the Green Party. I just had this vision there of Russel Norman standing there with a pitchfork in medieval garb taking us back in a very Luddite fashion to the days of peasant farming. 
Then of course we had New Zealand First. Boy did we have some crackers from Mr O’Rourke—a few “O’Rourke-isms”. He told us that farm prices cause an inexorable rise in farm prices. He then went on to say that we are in danger of losing sovereignty over our destiny. He told us that the land is being alienated and he finished up—we wanted just one more “O’Rourke-ism”—by saying that you can put the hands of assets into the hands of foreigners. I do not know what that means but what I can say is that Mr O’Rourke does not seem to be in favour of a big vision for growing New Zealand for looking outwards for engaging in the world and for actually earning our income by raising export levels. That is what this Government is about. It is looking out to the rest of the world. It is saying that hey our future is out there. Our future is selling things to Asia. It is about partnerships. It is actually about producing more. It is about looking strategically. It is not about having that myopic “little New Zealander” vision that we have heard expressed by the Greens and by New Zealand First. 
I can tell you that the real doozy and it is great to have him back is having David Cunliffe here. I think it is just fantastic that he is here to add to this melting pot of Parliament once again. He is clean-shaven ready for the leadership challenge. He has just delivered that leadership-challenging speech and you can tell by the look on the faces of his colleagues over there that they are very unhappy to see that man back. What it means is trouble. It means trouble for David Shearer. It means trouble for their caucus. It means more self-hatred and more tearing each other apart. It means more distraction and more talking about issues that mean nothing to New Zealanders. It means bad news for the Labour Party. But of course that is great news for the Government. So Mr Cunliffe welcome back. But what was really interesting about his speech was that he has been a convert to that “little New Zealander” view expressed by the Greens and New Zealand First. I do not know what has happened in the last few years but David Cunliffe has completely turned his view round. He was part of a Cabinet that over 9 years approved 665000— 
Scott Simpson 
: How much? 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: I cannot believe it—665000 hectares of land to be sold into foreign hands. Now he is saying that is a bad idea. It is a bad idea according to David Cunliffe. Well there is a word for that. We know that word. I do not know how he can get up and say that with a straight face because we know David Cunliffe does not believe that stuff. [ 
Interruption 
] Yes. His heart is not in it. But what he does believe in is causing trouble in the Labour Party caucus. We know already that he has got no mates there. In the Labour Party you can choose your friends but you cannot choose your colleagues and they are stuck with David Cunliffe. 
But what was even more interesting was having to listen to David Parker. He was the Minister for Land Information for most of those 9 terrible years of the Labour Government—yes David Cunliffe has given me the wink. He knows that we are right on the button. He is happy because his name is up in lights. But back to David Parker who was the Minister who approved the sale of hundreds of thousands of hectares of land to foreign interests. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: Did he? 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Well Maurice Williamson said “Look it’s only 1.5 percent of all arable land in New Zealand.” David Parker today came out so strongly I just could not believe it. When I looked at his record— 
Mark Mitchell 
: What did he say? 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Well he was saying that it is a very bad idea you know and that we are never going to get ahead by selling foreign land. And he was very critical about the 7000 hectares—7000 hectares—of land that Maurice Williamson and I approved the sale of. So I thought I had better go and have a look at his record. It was absolutely incredible because David Parker had been talking about how the forestry industry was being gutted by sales of land to foreigners. I thought that this was pretty interesting. I looked at this and would you believe it David Parker was the Minister who approved the sale of 240000 hectares of freehold forestry land to Hancock Natural Resource Group. 
Scott Simpson 
: How much? 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: It was 240000 hectares. I think that must be 240000 hectares in one transaction. The purchase price was more than $1.5 billion. Now Andrew—the guy from Taranaki—is having a smile there because of course he is not a big fan of David Parker. So they will be able to get back and do some more backbiting and bitching in the caucus room about this. That was amazing but that was just one transaction. That was on 18 October 2006. That was not all. We then go on to the second one—and this is frankly only five transactions we are going through out of dozens and dozens that David Parker approved. Ernslaw One Ltd a Malaysian company on 31 March 2008 purchased 13955 hectares of land for $117 million. It is incredible. David Parker signed that one off as well. But it gets worse. [ 
Interruption 
] No look it just keeps on getting worse. He then went and approved the sale of 78000 hectares of freehold forestry land. As he told us— 
Scott Simpson 
: How much? 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: —78000—he is very very opposed to the gutting of the forestry industry through the sale of land to foreign interests yet that was sold for $130 million on 29 June 2006 to AMP in Australia. Anyway he did not stop there—he did not stop there—because he was just warming up. Otamatapaio Station which was a 5568 hectares freehold sheep and beef station—well that is actually a small transaction by David Parker standards but he flogged that off. It was actually purchased for a price of just $1. For $1—would you believe it—it was purchased from the Crown and signed off by David Parker. So when Labour is talking about getting value for money well I think he had better come down and maybe take that final Labour call. 
Then there is another one here. Well this is not so bad but you know it is just in keeping with the rest. Dairy Farms Partnership was sold to Americans with 589 hectares of freehold sheep and beef farm for $5.3 million. Really when you look at it I would say that Labour’s approach on this stuff is about as coherent as a David Shearer statement. If you want to know what I mean— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Oh that’s deep! 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Well yes it is actually because this is what David Shearer said today after caucus. David Shearer was asked today whether he is connecting with the electorate. He said: “I do not believe I am not not connecting.” That is a “Shearerism”. He said: “I do not believe I am not not connecting.” That is what David Shearer had to say today. If you look at it these guys have got big problems because when it comes to this issue Labour members have no credibility. Clayton Cosgrove knows this. He is absolutely appalled because basically someone like Clayton Cosgrove—a good centre-right sensible person who joined the wrong party—knows that his people are on the wrong track with this. All they can do now is laugh because they know that fundamentally they have lost the debate. 
We were absolutely astonished that these people would want to seek an urgent debate on the Crafar Farms here today because when you look at their record they clearly did one thing while in Government and then when they were in Opposition when they could not get anything to grasp hold of they tried to grasp the greasy slippery pole of farmland sales and overseas investment. They miscalculated. They thought they could get some traction with this. Well I can tell you that this is yesterday’s issue. But that is what goes with these Opposition members. They are so far behind the play that it is quite clear David Shearer—look if he was in charge of that caucus he would have sat down today and said: “Look we’re not doing this debate. No one cares about this. You know let us do something the public are fired up on.” The public has forgotten this. We have won the debate. Those guys opposite used to be on the winning side of the debate. They lost the election and now they have consciously chosen the losing side of the debate and in the end New Zealand is going to say: “Why would you want to be run by a bunch of losers who always get on the wrong side of every argument?”. Labour will be teamed up with the Green Luddites who will have us back with pitchforks old straw hats and an oxen plough taking us back to medieval times. Quite frankly I reckon it would be great if we could move an extension of time and have this debate every Tuesday afternoon. Kia ora.