It’s Just So Easy to Buy NZ Land
Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First
Leader
14 JANUARY 2015
It’s Just So Easy to Buy NZ Land
All applications for overseas ownership of New Zealand land have been approved in the past two years.
“This just proves the Overseas Investment Office is a rubber stamping machine and applications are a pointless exercise,” says New Zealand First Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters. “It’s all a charade.”
“The fact is we are lagging behind in the stewardship of our land as we become a target for foreign investment gobbling up our best productive land.
“Other countries guard land ownership to benefit their country and their citizens but in New Zealand the Overseas Investment Office keeps ticking off sales to foreigners, with 189 applications for freehold land approved in the past two years.
“The latest includes a $9 million sale of Southland land to an Irish company to add to its extensive farmland in New Zealand.
“Creeping foreign ownership is turning New Zealand into someone else’s farm, pricing ownership out of reach and profits are pouring overseas.
“In New Zealand nothing stopped Shanghai Pengxin from buying up blocks of farms – the 16 Crafar farms and 13 Synlait farms and German company Aquila Agrainvest’s buy-up of numerous farms.
“New Zealand First wants ownership of land, housing and business for New Zealand residents and we have a bill for a foreign ownership register awaiting introduction to Parliament.
“We don’t want to shut out foreign investment altogether, but we want to recover national control of our destiny. That has long been New Zealand First’s policy.
“Profits from foreign-owned businesses in New Zealand benefit mainly overseas interests, yet the National Government does nothing. We have to question where National’s loyalties lie.”
ENDS