Lochinver Station sale deal-breaker for Peters

  • Breaking
  • 02/08/2014

New Zealand First Party leader Winston Peters would block the sale of the Lochinver Station to a Chinese company, making the issue a deal-breaker for any potential coalition partners.

Speaking on The Nation this morning, Mr Peters said he would not allow the land near Taupo to be sold to Shanghai Pengxin.

Conservative Party leader Colin Craig's leak has sparked the election campaign into life, with National and Labour trading insults over the sale.

The gloves are off. Both Labour's Grant Robertson and National's Stephen Joyce came out swinging over the sale of Lochinver today.

Mr Joyce denies it's about New Zealanders becoming tenants in their own country.

"No look, it's a tiny amount of land," he says. "It's actually a ridiculously smaller amount of land than under Labour."

Mr Joyce says in fact Labour sold twice as much land as National in its last five years in office, but Mr Peters says it's a big deal.

"He doesn't know anything about the station obviously or the size, or [won't] admit the fact that since he and [Prime Minister John] Key came to power they have sold over a million hectares," says Mr Peters. "That's six times the size of Stewart Island."

The Lochinver Station is 14,000 hectares. That's about 28,000 rugby fields or six times the size of Rangitoto. Members the Ngati Tuwharetoa 3 News spoke to say the $70 million price tag was well out of the local iwi's reach.

Lochinver has changed the post-election landscape too, with Mr Peters directly addressing voters on The Nation this morning.

"Every New Zealander out there that's looking at this programme can trust my word on this now, not because I say it now but because I've done it. We would not allow this deal."

Mr Key started the week leaving the coalition door open to Mr Peters. But now the New Zealand First leader will slam it shut if Lochinver or any other assets are sold offshore.

"We are not selling our soul or this country's soul, and we are against this sale. We will not be going into any arrangement with any party that think they can go on doing this."

The election's still seven weeks away and the vehemence of the debate has changed the tone of the campaign. National now knows the fight's well and truly on.

3 News

source: newshub archive