Should we legislate against overseas land sales?

By Debbie

I agree with the greens No, prevent all foreign from buying our land for the simple reason crown land, maori land, How much farm land is leased to Government for certain reasons? conservation land to crown land to sold land for mining or what ever else Government has in mind to sell out???

By Chris

Easy Rider, most of the consumers of our dairy products are overseas and unlike the NZ public care about quality, environmental effects and other things like how the animals are treated. Various actions by large numbers of farmers are putting both themselves and other sectors of our economy by not keeping up with the times. What will sophisticated Euros think if they see the scale of animal abuse in our agricultural sector, what if they see just how many toxic chemicals were used to produce the product. A huge sector of our economy runs on our international image, farmers are putting that image at risk each day. harry, the dairy industry is not a golden goose, where did you get that crap. The dairy sector produces huge levels of pollution, ruins our landscape, and produces little revenue when compared to other industry, an average of $3,500 per hectare compared with an average $175,000 per hectare for mining in NZ. I wouldn't call 3,500 a Hectare, a golden goose.

By Tony

The fat Aussie banks are still flush with money even after all this - much of it is our money and we should get some of it back!
Chinese run farms will probably amalgamate more and employ less people. The profits will go to China, not NZ. There is no upside for NZ in selling farms to China.

By Easy Rider

the problem lies with the consumer chris...untill we the consumer puts enough pressure in the right place there will not be movement from the sector.
Farmers are not lazy chris...the average day starts at 4-5am and ends sometimes around 6-8pm...there is alot of work involved in running a productive farm and like any bussiness(which farming is)issues need to be kept on top of and in a farm there is many.
i have worked on modern farms with 80bale rotary sheds milking 3 herds of 400 and worked on yesteryear farms with 6bale walk through milking 100 head herds and the work is relitave...the industary is very proffit driven now and as any corparate bussines will know the less you have to put in to be productive the more you can draw out in proffit...so is it there fault that the market they deal in dictate that commerical fert works out to be the cheepest form of pasture care?
Ive also worked on a demeter(Bio Organic)stock farm where the work was much more manual and was not so proffit driven...the issue lies with the consumer WE have to ask for change...if we all stopped buying commercial milk and only brought organic milk then of course the producers would change to meet market demand...saddly in nz we like to think were all green and enviromentaly friendly but our own actions dont meet our ideals.

By kane

That is if they hire normal kiwis Harry.. Their is no law stating they have to.... And after all we do have crappy farmers says chris... .. And tax with free trade to their own country their wont be much tax going on... And for them to send it to china to produce then sell it back to us at a cost... It would also be better for them to pay their workers here with the yen rather than the dollar to??? Maybe

By harry

tony
the golden goose for the public is an expanding dairy industry that pay tax and provide work for ordanary kiwis, both of which can be provided by Chinese run farms, they will be more productive simply because they have more funds. this healthy competion will also decrease some food prices. at the moment you are suggesting some how when banks lose profit kiwis will benefit? I dont know where u keep your money but mine is in a bank. at the moment among this UNCERTAIN economic future NO kiwis are able to make an offer, at the moment its NOT a "golden goose" its a dead one. the sale of a small percentage in the big NZ dairy industry creates more benefits to the general public.

By harry

tony
the golden goose for the public is an expanding dairy industry that pay tax and provide work for ordanary kiwis, both of which can be provided by run farms, they will be more productive simply because they have more funds. this healthy competion will also decrease some food prices. at the moment you are suggesting some how when banks lose profit kiwis will benefit? I dont know where u keep your money but mine is in a bank. at the moment among this UNCERTAIN economic future NO kiwis are able to make an offer, at the moment its NOT a "golden goose" its a dead one. the sale of a small percentage in the big NZ dairy industry creates more benefits to the general public.

By Chris

Easy Rider; I agree the wording I uesed in regards to phosphate use was inpropper. The point is, why don't farmers look at farming in such a way that they don't need to add all these extra chemicals to their crops? Are they too lazy or do they simply not realise that better quality product means more money per Kg? Why waste my time on a farm when I can become successful in the corporate sector? Our economy is heavily dependent on our "clean green" (false) image. The actions of many of our farmers is seriously threatening that image. @ all the detractors of selling stuff to foreigners. If we won't sell stuff to foreigners, who will buy the businesses? NZ'ers are far to busy buying goods, services and extra homes to invest in businesses. So which of you are willing to put up the billions and billions of dollars every year.