Prime Minister John Key has met with the Auckland-based Save the Farms group to discuss their concerns around farm sales to foreigners and says their proposed controls are "pretty hardcore" and more suited to North Korea than New Zealand.
Mr Key yesterday addressed Federated Farmers National Council meeting in Wellingtonwhere president Don Nicolson had earlier given a speech railing against Save The Farms.
Save The Farms last month ran a campaign including expensive full-page advertisements in daily newspapers and a series of billboards in main cities seeking a moratorium on farm sales to foreigners.
Mr Nicolson said the group's stance "reeks of hypocrisy" given the residential sector carried $192 billion in debt, whereas the agriculture sector's debt was just $47 billion.
"So I ask why just save our farms and not save our homes too?"
"When I see a Remuera property developer part of this group, I have my doubts about the purity of their motives."
Later Mr Key told the meeting he had met with the Save The Farms group at their request and he believed it was not well understood what they were proposing.
The group wanted a ban on all sales and leases of farmland, orchards and vineyards to foreigners and constraints on forest ownership.
"It is pretty hardcore. Putting it bluntly I don't think any country has that level of prohibition - maybe North Korea."
While John McKearney who was backing Save Our Farms was "probably well intentioned" Mr Key noted he was a a property developer who had prospered by selling buildings to foreigners.
In his speech to the meeting, Mr Key underlined his belief the Government's recent review of overseas investment rules struck the right balance between allowing and encouraging investment which benefited New Zealanders, and protecting the country's economic interests.
"We don't want to see every farm in New Zealand sold overseas we don't want to be the people who are pouring the lattes and milking the cows and not enjoying any of the benefits of investment.
"On the other side of the coin to have a blanket ban on absolutely any investment at all other than from New Zealanders I think is quite radical and would have quite an impact on farm prices."
