Bakshi Kanwaljit Singh: Overseas Investment (Owning our Own Rural Land) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBakshi Kanwaljit Singh: Overseas Investment (Owning our Own Rural Land) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 22 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5245. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI (National): Thank you for the opportunity to speak on the first reading of the Overseas Investment (Owning our Own Rural Land) Amendment Bill under the name of the Hon Phil Goff which we are opposing. We want our economy to grow to be productive and to be internationally competitive. All this bill does is suppress all our plans.As my colleague Melissa Lee mentioned the Hon Phil Goff is well recognised in the ethnic community. We see him on a number of occasions and we attend a number of events together every weekend. I do not understand how Mr Phil Goff is going to face the ethnic community tomorrow if I have to believe the rumours that he is going to stand for the mayor-ship. What this bill is doing is that—Hon Member: His worship.KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI: His worship yes. How is he going to convince the ethnic community that he is not stopping them bringing in overseas investment? It is very important for us to have overseas investment—direct investment—so that we can have greater economic benefits for this country which will help with the growth of jobs will increase wages and will increase our GDP.This bill is unfair to the foreign investors. According to this bill they will be required to show that they would bring more benefits than the New Zealand buyer. We have already ensured that New Zealand’s sensitive assets are adequately protected and in fact we are already restrictive when it comes to foreign investment in land.Each year the amount of rural land approved for sale to foreign investors is less than half of what it was under the previous Labour Government. Let me highlight some of the important benefits that foreign direct investment brings to our country. First it drives the growth in wages employment and output. Profits generated by foreign direct investment contribute to corporate tax revenues in the host country. It allows the transfer of technology and it helps to promote competition in the domestic input market. Foreign direct investment is a source of capital to supplement New Zealand’s domestic savings. We are looking at ways to embrace foreign investors and this bill is going to drive our valuable investors away which we do not want.Labour itself was responsible for the sale of some of the main big chunks of land during its regime. Just now when my colleague was speaking the Hon David Parker was trying to say that Labour rejected many such proposals during its regime but he could not number them. In fact it was zero.National knows the importance of balancing the benefits of international investment with protecting the New Zealanders’ estate for the current as well as future generations. We already some have of the strictest criteria when it comes to approving the applicant and we do not believe in rejecting the potential investor on the basis of the country he or she belongs to.One more thing needs to be clarified which is that any investment done in any land in New Zealand does not mean that they will pack up the land and take it with them to their own home country. Overseas investors need to apply to the Overseas Investment Office for consent to purchase sensitive New Zealand assets. According to this bill if there is no New Zealand buyer who wants to buy the particular asset the foreign investor still needs to show how much benefit they are going to bring to the country. How is our economy going to grow if we are going to put such restrictions on foreign investors?This bill risks preventing the sale of some of the rural land to foreigners that would create jobs and would benefit New Zealand. We have been able to strike a balance between ensuring New Zealand remains open to business with the rest of the world in order to support jobs and higher incomes and tightening the rules for overseas investment in sensitive land. I oppose this bill.