Sage Eugenie; Tolley AnneHon EUGENIE SAGE (Minister for Land Information): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. Shouty Dr Smith encapsulates the negativity of the National Party in relation to anything about housing. He's so negative and he's so shouty because National said this couldn't be done and this Government has gone and done it because we are committed to improving the affordability of housing in New Zealand through KiwiBuild through this initiative to ensure that we're not pushing up house prices through allowing foreign speculators to buy homes in New Zealand. I commend the work of Ministers Twyford and Parker and I strongly oppose the National Party's efforts to try and smear—personally attack—politicians and put aspersions on their integrity. It is the lowest form of debate Dr Smith.The select committee's work on this bill—the 213 submissions on the bill and their careful consideration by the Finance and Expenditure Committee ably chaired by Michael Wood—has improved the bill. There have been some significant and well-considered changes which focus on quite specific aspects of the bill making it simpler for example to acquire residential land for commercial purposes such as supermarkets and hotels.I also take issue with Dr Smith's comments about the way this bill will be implemented. As Minister for Land Information I have responsibility for the Overseas Investment Office (OIO). There is a major investment of time energy and resource going into ensuring that the office is well equipped to implement the bill once it becomes law. Budget 2018 saw an extra $7 million available to the office for monitoring and enforcement. There is money available for education for ensuring that the professionals who will be dealing with this bill—the real-estate professionals the lawyers the accountants and others—understand the bill and can ensure that their clients can easily comply with it. There is a lot of work being done about simplifying and ensuring that there are plain-English processes. So Dr Smith's claims about lack of transparency and leading to corruption are utter nonsense.Hamish Walker: You watch!Hon Dr Nick Smith: Tell us about the water-bottling plant.Hon EUGENIE SAGE: We will watch Dr Smith. And it will be a major improvement on the regime that we had under your Government because your Government did absolutely nothing to control overseas speculation. The first steps towards this bill happened last year when the Government issued a new ministerial directive which ensured that the sales of rural land had to provide a substantial and identifiable benefit to New Zealand. That same ethos informs this bill. Under National you had only the Overseas Investment Office having oversight of the sale of large farms; that has now changed. Similarly with this bill it is aiming to ensure that New Zealanders can afford to buy a home and that we get rid of those property speculators who were a factor in pushing up prices and pushing Kiwi buyers out of the market.We know that capital is coming into New Zealand from many different countries. We are seen as a safe a stable and a secure country—a good place to invest. But while we encourage investment that brings substantial and identifiable benefits to our country and our economy purchases that are speculative help push up prices. They contribute to making housing unaffordable to New Zealanders and that's one of the key reasons that this bill has been introduced. We want to encourage investment by some of the bigger developers where they can make a substantial difference in providing a large number of homes. That's what the bill will help to do. It will also help ensure that we get the forestry investment that we need to meet the billion trees target by making the screening regime much more coherent much simpler than exists under the current law. We're also closing the loophole around profits à prendre—those long-term usage rights that effectively created a loophole in the overseas investment regime. This is a bill which is about ensuring that we recognise that it is a privilege for overseas investors to buy land and property in New Zealand and that they must deliver a benefit to our country for that. So the rest of the world has placed a high value on owning a home in New Zealand; we're saying with this bill that that privilege belongs to New Zealanders and those who live here permanently and who bring benefit to our economy.Mr Walker as the MP for Clutha-Southland was suggesting that there be exemptions for regions like Queenstown and for things like luxury homes. I'm pleased that the select committee has rejected that because what that would've seen is investment drifting to those parts of New Zealand. It would have seen additional pressure on already high house prices in areas like Queenstown which are shutting locals out of the market because houses are unaffordable. It would've seen additional competition for resources in the construction sector. So the bill as it's being reported back from select committee is a coherent regime. There is a lot of effort being put into ensuring that the OIO is ready to implement it and in terms of the streamlined test for forestry that will help us meet our billion trees target. The National Government said this couldn't be done; once again this Government is showing that it can be to protect New Zealanders and make housing more affordable for Kiwis. Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. Ian McKelvie: Madam Deputy Speaker—Ian McKelvie Rangitīkei.DEPUTY SPEAKER: I'd actually written your name down. I call Ian McKelvie.