Former Green MP Sue Bradford says party is betraying its members and is Labour's handmaiden

Land Information Minister Eugenie Sage has approved 99 per cent of foreign applications to buy sensitive land from November last year to July this year. Photo / Duncan Brown

Green Party members are being betrayed by its party and minister Eugenie Sage after she approved 99 per cent of foreign applications to buy sensitive land, former Green MP Sue Bradford says.

But Sage, who is Land Information Minister and approves sensitive land sales along with the Finance Minister, says she is bound by the law and most of the land sold was in one transaction to a man with permanent residence.

In written parliamentary answers to questions filed by the National Party, Sage said she and Finance Minister Grant Robertson approved 21 applications to buy sensitive land between November 2017 and the end of July 2018.

This amounted to about 56,000ha - including freehold land and interests in Crown pastoral leases - worth just under $1 billion.

Two applications totalling just over 30ha of sensitive land and worth $3.49 million were declined.

National's land information spokesman David Bennett welcomed signs that Sage was backing away from her party's anti-foreign investor rhetoric.

"Attracting quality international investment plays a vital role in our economy and is crucial to creating jobs for Kiwis across the country.

"This is just another flip-flop for a minister who has struggled to represent the Greens' position while holding down her portfolios."

Bradford, who was a Green MP for a decade and has been an outspoken critic of her former party, said Sage and the party were being "wimpy".

"After all this time, there's little sign that Eugenie Sage or the party has any will to stand up to what's been traditional Labour and National position on this.

"It's a really wimpy way to go when the party policy says that the Green Party wishes to end this laissez faire approach to foreign investment."

She said party members had been outraged at Sage's approval of the expansion of Otakiri Springs, a Chinese-owned water bottling plant near Whakatāne, as well as the party's support for the waka-jumping law.

Sage said that her hands were tied by the Overseas Investment Act, which had also restricted what she could do about the Otakiri Springs decision.

"I'm bound by the law, and as a minister, I implement the law," she told Radio NZ.

Most of approved land - about 40,000ha - related to the sale of a sheep and beef farm to a Czech buyer who had permanent residency and whose wife and children were New Zealand citizens.

Many of the other applications related to forestry, Sage said.

"We need more investment in forestry to meet the billion trees' commitment to ensure that we are sequestering enough carbon to meet our climate change objectives."

The Government is reviewing the Overseas Investment Act, with changes expected by 2020.

The Greens have secured a commitment that water extraction, particularly for overseas bottling companies, would be looked at in the review.

But Bradford said while NZ First was doing a much better job at distinguishing itself as its own party, the Greens were simply being "Labour's handmaiden".

"It's hard to imagine why they put Sage into that position in the first place if they weren't going to fight it and ended up rubber-stamping foreign investment.

"If she was a NZ First minister, I'm sure she would be taking a far stronger stand. It appears she is just going along quietly with Labour and the voters will end up asking, 'Why vote Green?"