Collins JudithHon JUDITH COLLINS (National—Papakura): Madam Deputy Speaker thank you for the opportunity to speak in this debate the third reading of the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill. The National Party opposes the bill and we oppose the bill because we don't believe that it actually fixes any problem. It is in fact nothing more than an attempt to justify some of the policies of the incoming Government and some of their decisions.The bill and the purpose of the bill which amends the Overseas Investment Act 2005 is to extend the definition of what's known as sensitive land in the Overseas Investment Act to include residential property. Of course a lot of land is already considered sensitive particularly large tracts of land land around particular waterways and all sorts of other areas where it is important that there is an oversight by the Overseas Investment Office. So this bill in many ways is like using a hammer to try and crush a teeny-weeny little nut because it is about saying that every residential house is now apparently sensitive land". It's a nonsense.Of course it's been brought in to be able to deal with the coalition agreement between New Zealand First and Labour. It has no more principle than the pursuit of power. It is something which a Labour-led Government a decade ago would never have done—this would never have happened under the Rt Hon Helen Clark. It would never have happened under a Government that valued foreign investment. It would never have happened under the Rt Hon David Lange. As someone who did some work with David Lange back in the 1980s and knew him I think that this is the sort of bill that he would be absolutely appalled by because he was never someone who would ever have taken up a stance of attacking people based on foreign-sounding names which is exactly what this bill comes from.This is a bill without principle. It is a bill to try and cynically blame foreigners—particularly those with Chinese-sounding names—for a Government that has no other policy in which to actually improve and increase house ownership in New Zealand. When I look at some of the things that were said in the last two or three years when we were in Government—and these things were said by the then Opposition now the Government—some of those comments that were made about people: that there were 30 percent of houses in New Zealand being bought by foreigners when all of the statistics that we received in Government showed that the level was about 3 percent and then to find out that this gross abuse of statistics by the then Opposition has been continued on to now with Mr Twyford now having to concede that yes the level of foreign ownership and purchases of housing in New Zealand is strangely enough 3 percent—the same as it was under National.What has been the result of this attack on people with foreign-sounding names—well apparently only some people with foreign-sounding names. What's actually happened is that there is now a stop on apartment blocks being built in Auckland's central business district. We all know that Auckland has a lot of people—not that many when you consider it really but all wanting to live in the same place. We need to have more apartment blocks built. What's happened with this ban—before the law's even come into place this message against people with foreign-sounding names—is that foreign-sounding people have decided they're not going to buy apartments in New Zealand. Strangely enough people who do build these apartment blocks or in the past have have said to me and to my colleagues and to anyone who would listen—even apparently the Government—that they can't get any of these buildings built because they can't get the finance and they can't get the finance because they can't get the pre-sales.If a developer's going to try and build an apartment block—of six stories 10 stories whatever—in an area in the CBD of Auckland or Wellington or any other place they're going to have to get around 70 percent pre-sales before they can actually get the financing to start the building. That is a huge ask. In the past New Zealanders have been very loath to buy off the plans in an apartment block—that's the issue. The people who have been generally willing to take a risk on buying an apartment block off the plans have been people with foreign-sounding names often foreigners. They're not buying the land; they're buying an apartment.So this bill was amended at the insistence of the Government in the Finance and Expenditure Committee. It was amended to allow for foreign people to buy apartments off the plans. That's an admission by this Government that the policy based on loathing and scare tactics around people with foreign-sounding names was a failure. It was a failure because it stopped new apartment buildings being built. So that's why there's no new apartment buildings being built in Auckland's central business district. It's not that there are not people who would like to have an apartment there; it's that developers have to have the pre-sales off the plans before they can get the financing. It's not easy to sell off the plans in an apartment block in a building that no one's actually seen other than on plans. It's tough and our developers need to have help with this.So this new concession from the Government—is that going to fix it? They're going to now allow foreigners to buy in pre-sales off the plans in apartment blocks and only apartment blocks. Is it going to fix it? Well my answer to you in this House is that no it's not going to fix it because even when these foreign people are now allowed to buy off the plans they're apparently not allowed to live in them. They can rent them out to their foreigner mate who happens to be coming to visit or they can rent them out to a New Zealander or they can leave them vacant but they just can't live in them. What a ridiculous nonsense that is—what a ridiculous nonsense.There is a whole section in part of this bill that is all around enforcement. Well who's going to check no one's living in it? Who's going to check that it's not this particular person with a foreign-sounding name living in it and not another person with a foreign-sounding name living in it? This bill is something I believe is—if this was a National-led Government bringing through this bill I would resign.Hon Member: Everybody would be very sad.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: I would resign because I'd be ashamed of a National Party that did this. And I see the new member sitting there going "Oh oh." Well actually this is the best job that that women's ever had.Hon Member: Yeah. It's the best job she'll ever have.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: It will be the best job she's ever had. And I congratulate her for coming in on the list from Labour but let me tell that member this—Willow-Jean Prime: Which one?Hon Member: The whole lot of them.Hon JUDITH COLLINS: The whole lot of them. They're all "listies" from Labour. What I say to them is this. Understand this: David Lange would have been turning in his grave at this. I worked with David Lange in his Māngere electorate office and I worked with him on the Housing New Zealand board. He's a decent man. He had his foibles as everyone does but he was a man of principle and he would have been appalled at people who attacked someone else just on the basis of their name. That is what these MPs are signing up to. They're signing up to "You look a bit different from us so you're foreign and we don't like you. Don't buy from us. Don't come to New Zealand. Don't invest—oh except when we want to kick you out." That's the message that the Labour - Green - New Zealand First Government is sending to New Zealanders: "If you're not one of us you're the other." That's the damage they've done to New Zealand and that's the damage they're doing to our economy. Well they're at fault."