BRANCHING OUT: Mangakahia Rd, pictured on the Whangarei and Far North districts’ border at Twin Bridges, last month became part of the new State Highway 15.
BRANCHING OUT: Mangakahia Rd, pictured on the Whangarei and Far North districts’ border at Twin Bridges, last month became part of the new State Highway 15.
Ruling on land register listing foreign ownership cops heavy criticism
The Attorney-General's finding that a register of land owned by foreigners will breach New Zealand's Bill of Rights is balderdash, says Northland MP and NZ First leader Winston Peters.
"The Attorney-General thinks having such registrar will breach the privacy of foreign buyers. What about the right of New Zealanders to know what is going on in their own country?" he asked.
"There was no mention our transtasman cousins have successfully put in place a land register of their own. If National can upend our health and safety by slavishly copying Australian legislation, then why can't it accept logic and work with us on our intelligently written legislation?"
Mr Peters said New Zealand First's Land Transfer (Foreign Ownership of Land Register) Amendment Bill was not only timely, but represented common sense.
"The Australians have discovered, with some consternation, that land equivalent to two New Zealands is foreign owned," he said.
"It is also alarming to read that Australia's foreign-ownership not only grew by 2.5 million hectares over the past three years, but that 13 per cent of Australia's farmland is in foreign hands. If that is the rate of growth there, it seems odd indeed if New Zealand suddenly proved to be an exception."
New Zealand's Overseas Investment Office (OIO) was nothing more than a "sheep in sheep's clothing", Mr Peters said.
"The OIO does not police any of the conditions it may set but relies upon the community to undertake that vital function.
"This is proving to be an incredibly hard thing to do if you cannot find out who owns the land in the first place.
•OIO records show that from 2001-13, a total 1.6 million hectares of freehold land changed hands in transactions requiring overseas investment approval. That's more than 10 per cent of the country's estimated 14.5 million hectares of productive rural land.
"In denying the right of New Zealanders to know what land is foreign-owned and what land is not, Messrs Key, Joyce and English are all subscribing to Donald Rumsfeld's view that could be straight from Yes Minister: 'There are known knowns and unknown unknowns.'"
Mr Peters said that, in contrast, NZ First was crystal clear.
WINSTON PETERS: "If William the Conqueror could do it with parchment and horse power in 1086, tech-based 21st century New Zealand can figure out what land is owned by foreigners."
"A publicly searchable land register means Kiwis will finally know if they are becoming tenants in their own land, or not," he said.
The Northland MP said it was also rot to suggest such a register would prove to be too difficult or expensive to implement.
"For heaven's sake, 930 years ago William the Conqueror undertook a massive stocktake of medieval England that became the famous Domesday Book," he said.
"If Norman England could go into much more detail than what we propose with nothing but parchment and horse power, then a supposedly tech-based 21st century New Zealand can figure out what land is owned by foreigners."
Earlier this month, Attorney-General Christopher Finlayson reported the Land Transfer (Foreign Ownership of Land Register) Amendment Bill appeared inconsistent with the right to be free from discrimination affirmed in section 19(1) of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.
The private member's bill was introduced by NZ First MP Mahesh Bindra.
In a report to the House of Representatives, Mr Finlayson said it drew a distinction based on a person's citizenship.
The bill appeared to create a material disadvantage for non-New Zealand citizens because overseas people were required to provide more information when presenting an instrument for registration than New Zealand citizens who were not resident in New Zealand, he said.
The bill also proposes a public register, which would require the landowner caught by it to make public their name, their country of origin and the value of their land purchase in New Zealand.
"The loss of privacy in publicising this information is sufficient to constitute a material disadvantage," Mr Finlayson said.
