GUEST BLOG: Bryan Bruce – Why are we still selling land to foreign buyers?

1. … ” If we are determined to have foreign investment in forestry then why are we not leasing the land for, say, 99 years to overseas interests? Why are we selling it outright? Yes we should welcome overseas investors if we must , but as GUESTS and PARTNERS . Not financial invaders ” …

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   I have said this exact same thing time and time again. About the leasing , NOT the selling. And clauses that if the relationship turns out unworkable from our perspective , then we are the premier decision makers and leases can then be revoked at OUR discretion . NZ is not a bloody free for all for every Tom Dick or Harry foreigner OR NZ neo liberal to sell off and get rich off.

   We are the stewards and caretakers for OUR future generations, – not some overseas corporate’s kids. OUR future generations.

   This is NZ , – WE are the people of NZ and WE are the stewards of it and WE make the decisions about it . Not the politicians, – they are merely the executors of OUR WILL. And certainly not any foreigner. The NZ public have shown they are against asset and land sales .

   End of story.

   This sort of bloody shit brasses me right the hell off.

   • Wild Katipo – Agree 100%. It brasses everyone off, except for politicians incapable of thinking beyond the immediate future, and their own immediate futures.

     We, and they, as you say, are stewards of the future. Trotting out a PM’s cute toddler for photo ops is a little sickening when the children of the future are being tossed to the winds in such a morally reprehensible way, for dubious short term gain.

     Labour is worse than National here, as they pretend to have a caring face, when they do not, but hey, at least we can tell tomorrow’s children how they hugged everybody – and then they hugged them all again.
     Hypercritical little ratbags.

     • Bankers control govts. They don’t want land prices to fall.

2. We are selling our land we are selling our water, we are selling our citizenship. Can anyone tell me anything we aren’t selling? Time to honour our TOW and realise this document can save our country from going down the proverbial toilet.

   • Michelle ?… I’ve always liked your posts. And your comment on the TOW is something I always said back in the day. Collectively? , – the Maori people have a tremendous edge to be used in this regard. But they are fractured , some opportunists, others,… more traditional in thinking.

     I support the traditionalists.

     I support the traditionalists because they are more inline with the way humanity is supposed to live. The opportunists, … are more in sync with modern ( I call ) grabastic thinking. However , when it comes to the worldview of those opportunists that believe it creates opportunity’s and jobs for their people, its hard to deny them that. We see examples of hard nosed Native Americans and First Nations people who are solely pragmatic.

     And they are fierce and they are formidable in oratory.

     But one recurring theme I notice is the repetitive theme of tribal / national sovereignty. I fully support that. It serves both the indigenous people and the latter day colonialist settlers equally as well. It protects all of us from modern day take over by modern foreign interests.

     Please do keep posting.

     I enjoy reading the heart felt posts you make.

     Do not stop.

     • Michelle usually supports a different view to me but I agree you can feel her passion in her comments and they always make you stop and think.

3. “One day our grand children will look around and discover they are strangers in their own land and ask why we allowed this to happen”

   One day Bryan? That day is already here. We live on Auckland’s North Shore in Browns Bay. The balance is all wrong. I went into the ASB branch last week. Six staff on duty. All six were Chinese.

   Every house that has gone on the market in our street over the last six years has been purchased by a Chinese buyer. Nearby schools are now dominated by Chinese students. Spoke to an ex Plunket nurse before Christmas. She told me 17 out of 20 new baby cases she dealt with were Chinese.

   The bird has already well and truly flown in our neck of the woods.

   • +1 Jacindafan

     Reminds me of Cuckoo’s that get other birds to provide for their young. (and old in NZ).

     At the end of the day, the new forests/farms/land/businesses purchased will probably be run by the Chinese children of the future, although what is the government’s plan for the rest of the population. Re-education camps?

     What is worse is that there is a self censorship that Chinese Nationals have from being in a dictatorship and their history, which has spread faster than the coronavirus to NZ commentators, because nobody mentions anything bad being caused by Chinese Nationals! Even their crimes are dismissed in the courts

     Queen St money remitter discharged after laundering Polish and Russian crime syndicate’s cash
     https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12260326

     Chinese man who ‘tweaked’ boy’s penis blames ‘cultural mistake’, escapes criminal conviction
     https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12250317

     Don’t mention the war (and Chinese)

     Name suppression for laughable ‘hardship’ when millions is found in cash in paper bags and one of them trying to catch a plane to China once caught.
     https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/115014183/cigarette-smuggling-case-defendants-keep-names-secret-to-protect-children-employees

     With a mandarin translator now needed in the courts ,https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/114976886/west-auckland-stabbing-man-remanded-in-custody-after-been-charged-with-murder it is not hard to guess that it’s an arrest of another upstanding (sarcasm) newly minted near retirement NZ passport holder who like more of more people coming before the NZ courts has somehow got into the country without speaking the language and now before the courts. he gets name suppression too…

   • Did you check the passports of the 6 tellers?
     Are did they just “look” Chinese which satisfies your Xenophobic sensibilities?

     • I heard there were two Chinese and two Indians and maybe a Filipino or two. I couldn’t decide which was best.

       • Simonm, it’s not whose best, it’s whose most ‘valuable’ under neoliberalism to decide hierarchy!

     • Gordo,

       How dare people have the audacity to offer anecdotal evidence of what we now live with 24/7. If we do we are described as xenophobes/racists by online warriors.

       45 properties have been sold on our street over the last six years. Every buyer was Chinese. No need to check passports to confirm this.

       No, I didn’t check with the six bank tellers on duty at the ASB on Clyde Road Browns Bay to see passport activity. Blind Freddy could see they were unmistakable “Chinese New Zealanders”. Does that satisfy your trolling sensibilities?

       The ex Plunket nurse I spoke to in December had retired three months earlier. She described how 17 out of every 20 newborn baby cases she dealt in the area were of Chinese descent. Staggering numbers. Many spoke very limited English and an interpreter was often required. Even someone with your obvious limitations can do the maths and work out the tidal wave we are already living with is only going to grow.

       School rolls in the Albany / Browns Bay / Mairangi Bay areas are now dominated by Chinese students.

       Go to the A n E at North Shore Hospital and look at the waiting room. It looks and feels like you have arrived in a country other than NZ.

       Should people just ignore what they are seeing all day every day with their own eyes in case some online troll throws fluff at them?

       Wang, Li, Chen and Liu are now the most common surnames in Auckland. Migration expert from Massey university described how old Anglo-Saxon family names in Auckland have been “swamped”. Much more of the same to come.

       • You miss the point- you you have made a judgement on on someones origin based solely on how they look. A generalisation that judges a person of certain ethnicity in the exact same way regards of their ties to this country – it’s possible that those six individuals could range from multi generational NZers to recently arrived migrants- yet to you they are simply “Chinese”.

         • With comments like that Gordo I wonder if you are able to dress yourself in morning or does your (Chinese) mother come over in the morning to give you a hand?

         • You know what they say about assumption James Brown? I’m very much in the stale white male category- no chance of me being maligned by the likes of Jacindafan if he saw me in my place of work.

         • So what do you gain from all this?

           Do you have Chinese students paying rent somewhere’s?

           Of course you don’t want the gravy train to end,- your comfort funds in your retirement would end.

           Got nice place in Australia you have picked out to spend your golden years in?

           F@ck off you drooling coont.

         • None of the above actually. Your anger is fuelled by a number of incorrect assumptions.

           My comment did not imply mass immigration like we have seen in recent years is okay- to the contrary I believe we need to close the gates.

           It was intended to point out that simple generalisations are dangerous. Yes the Chinese population percentage wise has increased in recent years- but so have have migrants form many other countries- some of those just happen to look more like white “NZers” (i.e. South Africans, Australians, Brits) so don’t generate the same us/them casual generalisations that Jacindafan has made.

         • Gordo,

           I don’t feel I’ve missed the point at all. I do however feel you’ve missed it.

           I’ve lived in Browns Bay for 30 years. Why would you think that on the day I visited the ASB on the main street of Browns Bay, 100% of the staff were at least “Chinese” in appearance? I would assume the bank believes the staff should reflect the demographic in the community or they want to attract customers that are at least Chinese in appearance, or both. You can tie yourself up in knots attempting to explore how long these folk have been in NZ bla bla bla but that will achieve very little apart from people not unlike yourself feeling justified in saying nothing while this tidal wave continues.

           PS…when I witnessed the staff demographic at the ASB, I went next door to the Westpac bank out of curiosity. They had two staff on. Both were Chinese in appearance.

           I could very easily relay hundreds of negative experiences in our community involving extremely arrogant people that are Chinese in appearance but things to do, people to see.

         • @Jacindafan, Gordo is part of the stale, male self suppression movement to stop freedom of speech about the issue and anybody questioning ethnic displacement in NZ towns and businesses is shut down by ‘racist’ and xenophobic. Most of these people don’t have a clue what is going on because they don’t live in the community. While the reality continues…

           OIO consents Chinese-owned company’s 175-unit Auckland apartment development

           https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/119172631/oio-consents-chinese-developers-75unit-auckland-apartment-block

           (They might also like to do an analysis of how many state homes in the area are now in new migrants hands)…

           Or the pollution levels of the neighbouring beaches (including Long Bay marine reserve) from the rampant developments in that area, that nobody is allowed to talk about and the council ignores.

         • Not sure you are going to save anything- let alone NZ with the conclusions you are jumping to there champ.

           I have no interest in shouting down or anyones freedom of speech- everyone is entitled to their beliefs and has the right to express them (within reason)- which also enables me to express my views that mass generalisations of a xenophobic nature are dangerous, misinformed and don’t help anyone.

           Sadly I’m not part of any movement, I prefer to think for myself rather than blindly follow others.

     • Gordo, I think it’s the bankers than get to check the passports, not the other way around…

       I don’t think China would be as stupid as to allow overseas nationals to populate Chinese cities and towns and be on Chinese super and welfare and free health and education.. they tend to work it the other away around, think Tibet, (another Xenophobic country to you no doubt, Palestine (more xenophobes)…

       NZ has to support more aged asian migrants than Maori and Pacific Islander migrants and our immigration was supposed to be to support Kiwi taxpayers retiring, not the new comers parents! Another trickle down lie strikes again… Don’t forget Gen X paid for and are indebted with user payer education, paid eye watering interest rates on student loans and many boomers lost their jobs in the 1980’s and were paying 22% mortgage rates.

       There is a difference between multinationalism and displacement and downright stupidity… in NZ in many areas around Auckland it is displacement not multiculturalism due to stupidity because Maori and Pacific Islanders and beneficiaries and the working poor are being displaced our of where they used to live, and not by choice.

       I don’t blame migrants for coming here, why would you not when you get a much better deal than in your own country which has little social welfare and our government is ok with giving hospital beds and benefits to new arrivals who don’t have to have paid any taxes here.

       I blame government stupidity and greed agenda, for the most part and woke thinking. People like Jenny Shipley are well looked after by the Chinese on their boards etc, giving away ‘loans’ and bankrupting small contractors here when Mainzeal goes bankrupt. Those at fault that can escape to China, ain’t gonna pay the money back! https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12271022

     • To be honest they probably were all Chinese . . good try but it is clear that we are literally being flooded by Chinese immigrants and trying to suggest otherwise is ridiculous.

       • Business NZ wants more consumers and banksters want higher house prices so bigger mortgages.

         These thugs control govt policy behind closed doors.
         It takes a strong leader to work past this stuff. Kirk was the last of these in NZ.
         Read the policy of the Kirk Govt in this link.
         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Labour_Government_of_New_Zealand

   • What’s wrong with that? “Imagine there’s no countries.”

     • Yeah well , … John Lennon got shot for speaking against national sovereignty and endorsing the ‘ brotherhood of man’… but what he didn’t factor in , … in that simplistic concept was also the abuse of the ‘brotherhood of man’ such as is practiced under the modern day Communist Party of China ( CCP).

       Do we really have to go there?

       I think you know what I mean.

       You are not that stupid or cryptic.

       So lets drop the pretense.

4. One of the best articles of the year.

   Selling massive amounts of NZ land, is very foolhardy when leasing is a better option.

   Land sales are also driving up the prices for locals who pay taxes here who can’t afford to buy their own land, anymore on our driven down wages and business opportunities.

   It makes it even worse when the taxes are introduced that make it even harder for locals to be able to afford their own land, while international taxes are full of loop holes and not an even playing field!

   • Actually 99 year leases (with an end to all freehold purchases) for foreigners wanting the privilege of using New Zealand land was a Maori Party policy at the last election. Of course by then most of the Maori population had had enough of them propping up the ponytail puller and his merry band of kleptocrats and booted them out.

5. Kia ora Bryan
   Legally, the land sold was not “your” land. If it had been your land that was sold, then you would never have written this post. You would be on your way to bank your cheque.
   I have known many who rage against the alienation of “our” land, but who, when it comes to the point, will sell their land – be it a farm, forest, or residence – to the highest bidder who as often as not is a “foreigner”. And you would be a fool not to, because if you sell to a “New Zealander” at below market price, then he or she will almost certainly sell to a “foreigner” at full market price when the time comes.
   People argue, logically enough, that the government should ban sales to foreigners. The problem there is that hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders are heavily indebted, some have very little equity left in their farms, forests or homes, and if they can’t sell to foreigners then they will have to suffer having their wealthier New Zealander neighbours benefit from their misfortune (or if one chooses to be harsh, from their financial misjudgment).
   The colonial chickens are coming home to roost for European New Zealanders, and some of them are most unhappy about it.
   They have to learn, as Maori have, that the only thing you can do in a colonial system is to hold on to your own land, by which I mean quite literally, your own land, and not to worry about what happens to the land of others who happen to call themselves New Zealand citizens.
   Most of all, do not imagine that a colonialist parliament, or any of the parties which constitute that parliament, can ever advance the national interest of the people of Aotearoa.
   If you give sovereignty to a foreign monarch, how are you going to argue that foreigners should not gain title to the land?
   Remember the fateful words attributed to Nopera Panekareao “Ko te atarau o te whenua i riro i a te kuini, ko te tinana o te whenua i waiho ki ngā Māori” followed a year later by “Ko te atarau o te whenua ka waiho ki nga Maori, ko te tinana o te whenua ka riro i a te kuini”.

6. Why indeed Bryan. Its another example of the hypocrisy and lack of integrity of government in NZ. On the one hand blaming private property speculators for the housing shortage whilst still allowing foreign ownership of land and property. Its two faced nonsense that demonstrates, yet again, that big business, the wealthy and banks are the core focus of government in NZ and have been for the last 30+ years.

   Joe average Kiwi is the scape goat to be blamed when thing inevitably turn sour. To be taxed into the ground and even have any private assets they accumulate through sheer hard work over a lifetime come under attack from these characters.

   Time to face facts and stop voting for the same bad actors. To do less is to let ourselves down.

7. Why are we still selling land to foreign buyers?
   For the same reason building supplies, and NZ produced food is cheaper overseas than it is here.
   It’s the (often) unintended consequences of MM and the Fish and Chip Brigade having drunk the cool aid of ‘the market the market’ unrestrained, and then stacking various institutions with disciples of the grand neo-liberal religion.
   NZ Pinus Radiata cheaper to buy offshore than within NZ; Pig farmers (the producer) getting $3 per kilo at the gate – check out the markup at a supermarket; NZ Salmon cheaper in every outlet between Sydney and Brisbane than it is in ‘lil ‘ole NuZull that punches above its weight. It’s all very efficient and effective.
   It’s my belief that it’ll probably take the big crash before many (possibly most) realise TINA was the biggest bullshit artist the planet has ever known and that there is, and always was an alternative – and it doesn’t involve the likes of Overseas Investment Commissions or a variety of other stacked agencies, who, over a generation, have come to know nothing else, other than what they’re almost robotically accustomed to.
   And btw……no point in now blaming the immigrant. WE DID IT TO OURSELVES and the worst part is we keep on doing it.

   • It is not cheaper overseas, it is that in NZ our companies are allowed to rip people off here and many well known former NZ companies like Wrightons are majority owned by overseas and most NZ companies and institutions are run by overseas born CEO’s and staff.

     NZ people did not do it to ourselves at all, we were shat on 40 years ago and it’s continuing, which is why the neoliberals need to bring in so many new foreign people to vote and control things here and not give a damn about NZ, aka foreign business, CEO’s and Universities Vice Chancellors “educating the next generation”, now foreign MP’s buying list seats, so the neoliberal experiment can continue.

8. @Mark, I also have no issue with students and Chinese coming to NZ.

   The issue I have is the voting and welfare rights like DPB, super, benefits being given out on the back of student and work visas for all foreign nationals of which Chinese have been big users of (now India), and the purchasing of our businesses by multinationals who couldn’t give a stuff about NZ and then use it to manipulate the naive NZ government, do work scams, or rip us off (Cadbury) as their power grows here.

   UK & European foreign nationals seem to have somewhere to go back to if things do not work out in NZ. They have social welfare, decent health and education so they leave NZ if it does not work out here.

   Now that the NZ government is determined to get people in from countries that do not have social welfare systems in their own countries, the temp people refuse to leave and commit frauds to stay here like pretending they have a job. Even when they are committing crimes, NZ can’t seem to get rid of them as our systems rely on honesty which is sadly absent in many cases of potential new citizens!

   It did not use to be too bad with OZ buying our companies, because their wages were higher than NZ’s so they used NZ people to staff their businesses in NZ.

   Now that we have hundreds of thousands of temp visas, multinationals use the cheapest people from overseas and standards are dropping, while wiping out local businesses. Our low wage economy underpinned by NZ residence Ponzis , mean multinationals are refusing to hire Kiwis at appropriate rates of pay, and don’t have to, as they can now access the cheapest of the cheap, many of whom don’t even speak the language competently, but want visa points, and thus standards are dropping, everywhere!

   English is a very hard language to learn. Increasingly NZ passports holders and citizens can’t even speak it while becoming a citizen. Previously you had to pass a language test to get a permit to come here, the government need to urgently bring that back ASAP. Courts and social services now need translators for everything. Students graduate NZ universities without competent English but a NZ degree. It’s crazy.

9. @Mark, also Kiwis have always travelled overseas and were considered hard and expert workers. But post 1990, before becoming in debt with student loans, they practically always came back to have kids in NZ and look after their parents.

   Now many can’t because our wages are too low to realistically support paying back student debts or buying a house or having job security to get a mortgage, in most cases.

   In a crazy turn of events, migrants get free tertiary study here and interest free loans in many cases while studying, (parents just need to get that permanent residency stamp) while Gen X highly skilled NZ born citizens are still paying back students debts at eyewatering 10%+ compounding daily interest rates when they were first introduced and instead of government writing them off, as being wrong, they give free study to other nationals kids. They do nothing to attract them back while pandering to the low skilled. It’s bizarre discrimination.

   There are also very few innovative or high paid jobs in NZ, because our government in the last decades has been obsessed with low wage, sunset industries and helping industries that mostly pay minimum wages. It has now become the norm for Kiwis to be passed over in better paid jobs. NZ also tend to attract a toxic management culture and parachute in overseas management without knowing much about NZ, which don’t seem to work out productivity and economic wise, aka Mainzeal, Fonterra under Spieling. Or foreign banks ripping us off with the governments blessing.

   The other issue is, that NZ has very easy redundancy so it is highly unlikely anybody innovative can get through to top management because sadly every year there is a ‘restructure’ to remove people that the current management don’t like or are paid too much through their expertise or are on better employment conditions and thus must be removed.

   So doing what you are told, sitting on your arse, and saving money off your wages bill by making other people redundant instead of growing your business and hiring more people , has become one way of surviving the constant redundancy culture of NZ.

   The other is to buy a house.

   John Key, made his name in being so expert at enjoying making people redundant he was named ‘the ‘smiling assassin’. That’s our arsehole management philosophy right there!

   Kiwis are a threat to nobody, we just seem to have become a country that other people nationals are repopulating while being aggressive towards us, (From Tarrent murdering 51 people in cold blood to numerous headlines from fraud, drugs crimes, murder, money laundering) and our government just says, keep coming! We don’t care who you are, live here and shit on this country!

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