NBR staff
Maori party maverick MP Hone Harawira wants to ban the sale of land to foreigners.
Mr Harawira said today he was seriously considering writing a bill to outlaw the sale of New Zealand land to overseas interests.
“The Maori land march to Wellington 35 years ago had as its slogan, ‘not one acre more’ because Maori were scared about how much Maori land was being gobbled up by the Crown,” he said.
“The funny thing is that if government has passed legislation back in 1975 to keep that land forever in Maori hands, we wouldn’t be moaning so much about the sale of New Zealand lands to foreigners today.”
Mr Harawira said the Crafar farms deal, which has a high profile bid from Hong Kong-based buyers, and a Marlborough Sounds farm which recently received approval to be sold to Americans, were highly visible examples of the problem.
“If foreigners want to do business or have a holiday house here, that’s fine – let them lease or pay rent,” he said.
Mr Harawira said about 27 million hectares had been sold to foreign interests under both National and Labour parties.
