National minister's husband linked to farm bidder

Ethnic Affairs Minister Pansy Wong. Photo / Richard Robinson

One of the key people behind the Chinese bid for the Crafar dairy farms has links with a National Party minister's husband as well as a former prime minister.

Jack Chen, who has called himself "the driving force" behind the plan to buy the farms, set up a company in 2004 with Sammy Wong, husband of Ethnic Affairs Minister Pansy Wong, and former PM Dame Jenny Shipley.

Mr Chen quit as a director of the company, New Zealand Pure & Natural, a year later, but Companies Office records show he was a shareholder until just five weeks ago.

It is still unclear whether the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) will approve the bid from Natural Dairy, a Hong Kong company associated with Mr Chen and Auckland businesswoman May Wang.

A Herald investigation has revealed the OIO has serious concerns about several of the Chinese businesspeople associated with the bid.

Yesterday, Mrs Wong said that as a member of the Chinese community she knew of Mr Chen and Mrs Wang but did not know them well. As such she did not have a view on their credibility as business people or of their offer for the Crafar farms.

Meanwhile, former Labour Agriculture Minister Jim Sutton has revealed he was once offered a job by Chinese officials to buy dairy farms.

Mr Sutton says he turned down the job - but only because he didn't think the Chinese would make any money from the venture. He recommended they instead invest in milk-processing plants in New Zealand.

Mr Sutton is now chairman of Landcorp, a state-owned enterprise that owns more than 100 dairy farms in New Zealand. Landcorp has confirmed it put in a bid last month for 16 dairy farms formerly owned by the Crafar family, and which the Chinese interests are also vying to buy.

So far, receivership firm KordaMentha has ruled out the Landcorp bid.

Last week, the Government announced it was extending a review of foreign ownership laws, saying the issues had become more complex.

The review was initially intended to make it easier for foreign investors to spend their money here. However, it appears to have got bogged down by a public outcry over the sale of the Crafar farms, and the proposal by Natural Dairy to spend up to $1.5 billion establishing a new business in New Zealand exporting UHT milk to Hong Kong and China.

Prime Minister John Key has since claimed he doesn't want to see New Zealanders become "tenants in our own country".

Mr Sutton told the Herald New Zealand could not afford to upset China over the issue: "The China relationship is absolutely critical to New Zealand's economic future and we can't afford to damage that by indulging in xenophobic impulses."

But Fonterra chairman Sir Henry van der Heyden has hit back at claims that the debate is racist.

He said Fonterra did not want to see any dairy farms being sold to foreign owners, whether they were "Chinese, Middle Eastern or American".

"It's an NZ Inc discussion and I'm bloody keen on New Zealand. It is around what are our strategic assets, and it is around competitive advantage and what is our advantage globally ... The Government has to make it clear - these are our strategic assets and they're not for sale."