Shearer's foreign land sales plan fails to cover long-term leasing

Long term leasing - suggested in some quarters as an alternative to selling land to foreigners - is not included in a new member’s Bill proposed by Labour leader David Shearer.

While leasing land is an option, current legislation does not offer foreign investors long- term leasing options because these are regarded as controlled sales and this is not covered in Mr Shearer's bill.

Overseas investors are able to lease land for a short period but are not allowed to lease land beyond a certain point.

The Overseas Investment (Owning Our Own Rural Land) bill, which is expected to be put forward for ballot on Wednesday, is aimed at preventing foreign investors from buying rural land unless they can prove it would bring “substantial benefits” to New Zealand.

“A clean, clever and job-rich future is not going to be achieved by selling off our productive assets. Kiwis are overwhelmingly opposed to the sale of prime rural land, like the Crafar farms, to overseas investors. We are listening to them and are prepared to act in their best interests,” Mr Shearer said.

“There is already a place in point in which a long term lease is treated as a purchase. A lease beyond a certain point needs to be registered,” Labour’s David Parker said, saying that because it was already in law, it did not need to be covered by the bill.

If successful the bill would require ministerial satisfaction that the overseas investment would result in the creation of a substantial number of additional jobs in New Zealand or a substantial increase in exports from new technology or products associated with the purchase before approving the purchase.
 
“The government already has discretion to turn down farm sales to overseas buyers but it is not being properly exercised. We would be happy for them to take up this Bill as their own and progress it through Parliament as soon as possible to ensure there is no longer any doubt about the limits on the overseas purchase of rural land,” said Shearer.
 
Labour is arguing that New Zealand “could not afford” to lose control of income-producing assets, including farmland.

“All of our economic decisions should be made in the best interests of New Zealanders. Cutting jobs and services and selling our assets is not the way to secure a better future,” he said.