But it's about time people started getting upset about these issues, considering that since 1972 the public's share of ownership in NZ Inc has plummeted from 74 per cent to something under 10 per cent - best estimate is about 7 per cent - now.
That's two-thirds of everything sold off in 40 years, mostly to overseas (including ex-pat) buyers. Have you seen the money? Thought not.
And since many of these deals are partly or entirely opaque, outrageously, all details of one 2011 purchase approved by the Overseas Investment Office and worth $1.3 billion remain suppressed - no one knows exactly how much of what has been sold to whom.
Best estimate is that since being allowed in 1988, sales of residential, lifestyle and farm properties has seen between 5 and 7 per cent of our land purchased by individuals and companies based overseas.
Despite Prime Minister John Key publicly worrying about Kiwis becoming tenants in their own country, such sales are accelerating. Since 2004, 526,000 hectares have been sold into foreign ownership.
Last year's 84,900ha sold overseas was 2.5 times more than for each of the previous three years and nearly five times more than 2007.
Three reviews of investment policy have made applications easier, despite Finance Minister Bill English claiming 2010's altered regulations would help prevent "the undue aggregation of farmland by foreign investors".
Yet when announcing the Crafar Farms sale to the Shanghai Pengxin Group last week, Key claimed the Government's hands were tied - even though there were several reasonable avenues for ministerial veto.
Double standards? Yes, of course. This is National, after all.
Now they're in deep because they want to remove reference to section 9 of the State Owned Enterprises Act - which specifies the Crown should not act in a manner that is inconsistent with the principles of the Treaty - from any legislation allowing partial sale of our power companies (and the water resource they "farm", note) to private investors. National argues such an umbrella clause is unsuitable as it cannot bind private sector shareholders. But as the Maori Party points out, the Crown will retain majority ownership.
This transparent chicanery to obtain a better price - like a tart-up coat of paint to cover the rot - merely demonstrates National's inherent contempt for Te Tiriti. Ironically many who oppose asset sales yet worry about Maori aspirations find themselves secretly glad the Treaty may come to our collective rescue.
Meanwhile reaction in support of the Crafar deal invariably painted opponents as racist, but that's simplistic and beside the point. Which is, surely, that productive farmland should, as much as practicable, be kept in New Zealand hands - or at least, residents' hands. US film director James Cameron's purchase of two Wairarapa farms is fine because he plans to live here. Jiang Zhaobai, who owns Pengxin, does not - and leasing the management to Landcorp doesn't add the value ostensibly required.
Fittingly, Governor-General Jerry Mataparae is celebrating today by granting some new residents citizenship.
Unless they've bought their way in like Kim Dotcom yet (perversely) have a criminal history that prevents them buying land, they'll be welcome to own a slice of their new country. Which is how it should be.
But as it stands, no one can say for sure which owner of what company from where has a valid title to which bit. That, at least, must change - before anything else gets sold.
That's the right of it.
