INDEPENDENT NEWS

National Wants Kiwis Kept in Dark Over Foreign Buyers

Published: Tue 21 Mar 2017 03:30 PM
Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
Member of Parliament for Northland
21 MARCH 2017
National Wants Kiwis Kept in Dark Over Foreign Buyers of Land
The Prime Minister and government are doing their best to shroud the issue of foreign ownership of New Zealand land with smoke and mirrors, says New Zealand First Leader and Northland Member of Parliament Rt Hon Winston Peters.
“Journalists and local residents attempting to find conditions placed on buyers of New Zealand land are getting refusals from the Overseas Investment Office on such spurious grounds as ‘substantial collation’ or ‘privacy.’
“When questioned in Parliament about this today Prime Minister Bill English completely sidestepped the issue.
“Land Information New Zealand has stated 465,863ha in gross terms was proposed to be transferred into foreign ownership in 2016 or the equivalent of 3.24 percent of New Zealand’s farmland.
“Again Mr English, despite giving evasive answers, then called into question the confidence of the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) saying some land had been counted twice.
“He failed to produce any evidence of that.
“Mr English and the National Government want to keep New Zealanders floundering around in the dark when they are trying to find out the full extent of foreign ownership of our land.
“This explains why they resist every attempt to have a register of foreign ownership of land and homes in New Zealand.
“Many commentators now suspect this level of ownership is now about 10 percent and higher,” says Mr Peters.
ENDS

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