The ACT Party's David Seymour refused to congratulate New Zealand's Winter Olympians in Parliament today.

He said Parliament's priorities are "warped" after New Zealand First and Labour said they would veto his proposed motion to condemn South Africa's decision to allow land owned by white farmers to be confiscated without compensation.

South Africa's parliament voted in favour of allowing land to be confiscated from white farmers, after decades of racial grievances in the formerly apartheid state.

"We must ensure that we restore the dignity of our people without compensating the criminals who stole our land," The bill's frontman and opposition leader Julius Malema said.

A 2017 government audit found white people own 72 percent of farmland - something Mr Malema has long-promised to reform.

In 2016 he told supporters he was "not calling for the slaughter of white people - at least for now".

Mr Seymour says South Africa's law change could cause "a flood of refugees to New Zealand" following a "Zimbabwe-style total collapse into poverty".

"I'm as proud of our Olympians as any Kiwi, but all New Zealanders need a Parliament that has its priorities straight," David Seymour said.

"New Zealand has strong cultural ties with South Africa. The country is our fifth largest source of immigrants. 80,000 South Africans live here."

On Tuesday, neither of the Winter Olympic medallists Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Nico Porteous recognised Mr Seymour when he asked them a question on Three's The Project.

Newshub.