PM says investment ad campaign goes too far

ONE News | 22 August 2010

The Prime Minister thinks calls for a complete ban on selling land to foreigners is going a bit far and says we need some foreign investment.

Nationwide advertisements have been placed in newspapers today, calling for an end to foreign ownership of New Zealand land.

The Save Our Farms campaign, costing around $150,000, is bankrolled by a group of Auckland businessmen, accountants and lawyers, including former police officer turned criminal lawyer Tony Bouchier.

The group is calling for government urgency on a review of the Overseas Investment Act and a moratorium on the sale of all agricultural land to foreigners.

Asked about the issue Prime Minister John Key repeated his concerns about large tracts of land being sold off.

"That is part of the economic power base and the economic growth story of New Zealand and I don't think we want to end up in the position where we are tenants in our own land," he told Newstalk ZB.

"I think foreign investment is welcome if it is building a new dairy plant or whatever it might be because I think that can add jobs or can add capital that we don't necessarily have."

While selling farms did not achieve a lot, he had problems with a total ban on sales.

"Why wouldn't it be no sales of beach houses and no sales of vineyards? So you can take this thing too an extreme position which I don't think the bulk of New Zealanders would support."

He said he doubts the majority of people would support an extreme stance.

Bouchier said he hoped the campaign would garner such a high level of support, that the government could not afford to overlook the issue.

He said his telephone had been ringing red hot with support for a campaign to stop New Zealand farms being sold to overseas owners.

He said the group's first priority would be to push through a moratorium on the sale of any farm land to foreigners.

"It's time to sit down, have a cup of tea and have a chinwag about this and that's what we want," said Save Our Farms' spokesperson Tony Bouchier told ONE News yesterday.

Bouchier said we must leave future generations with their country still intact.

The group said they had no political allegiances and had been spurred into action over the sale of the 16 Crafar farms.

That decision is still before the Overseas Investment Office, however the frontrunners in the deal, Hong Kong's Natural Dairy Holdings, launched a media offensive of their own last week, claiming their investment

would boost export earnings by tens of millions.

Overseas Investment Office figures on the Save Our Farms website show there have been 235 consents for foreign investment in agricultural land in the past five years, accumulating to around 15,000 hectares.

However only a handful of those investors have been Asian based, like Natural Dairy.

Most investors, such as Ashburton dairy and crop farmer Willy Leferink, come from the UK, US or Europe.

"I think it's important that we realise we all came to these shores and probably we're only five or six generations of New Zealanders for a start, so who are we to say this is all ours," Leferink told ONE News yesterday.

However, he too welcomes public debate.

"I think it's a discussion to be had."

Finance Minister Bill English is expected to consider the land sale issue in his review of the overseas investment rules.