NICOLA WILLIS (National): I find it richly ironic that here we are in the Chamber debating a bill that is supposed to be about improving the Overseas Investment Act framework, and it does some good steps in that regard, but the Minister in the chair refuses to acknowledge the significant issue we have emerging in rural communities throughout New Zealand in relation to forestry. The premise of the Overseas Investment Act is that investment in New Zealand should occur where it can be demonstrated that it is of benefit to New Zealand, and there are a series of rather complex steps that overseas investors must go through in order to demonstrate that benefit. The counterfactual test is to compare what will this investment mean versus the status quo, and yet with that set of rules—that set of ground rules—there is also an exemption for one class of investment. The playing field is tipped very heavily toward forestry investment by exempting overseas investors who wish to invest in exotic forests—in pine trees—from those same tests. 