Regardless of whether it is National or Labour in Government, they share a bipartisan agreement that foreign investment is A Good Thing. They only compete about the details of how to make things easier, efficient and more attractive for the foreign investors (the great majority of which are transnational corporations - TNCs). Both parties love tinkering with the Overseas Investment Act (which dates back to the 1970s' Bill Rowling Labour government). So, in the 1990s, National, spearheaded by Bill Birch, amended the Act (on that occasion CAFCA actually had an alliance of convenience with New Zealand First and hosted a Christchurch public meeting with both Winston Peters and Jim Anderton as speakers). In the 2000s it was Labour's turn, spearheaded by Michael Cullen.

The 2017-20 first term of the Ardern Labour government saw the Act amended again. Rather than go over all the details again, I refer you to my series of articles on the subject in Watchdog during those years, concluding with "Must Try Harder. CAFCA's Report Card On Government & Foreign Control" (issue 153, April 2020).

There was one unique feature to that period. To quote from my 2020 article: "For a start, the Government has actually sought out CAFCA's views, which had never happened before. Very soon after she came into office, in 2017, I had a meeting with Eugenie Sage, the Minister of Land Information (i.e. the Minister in charge of the Overseas Investment Office [OIO])".

"In late 2018 I was consulted, by phone, by Treasury's foreign investment team, as part of the Government's review of the Overseas Investment Act. And, in the first half of 2019, I and fellow CAFCA Committee member, James Ayers, attended a Treasury public consultation session in Christchurch about the review. Treasury had never previously contacted CAFCA about anything since we were founded, back in the 1970s".

Changing OIA Once Again

Needless to say, talking to CAFCA has never happened since, not under Labour's 2020-23 one-party Government, and certainly not under the present National/New Zealand First/Act government. And now this Government plans to change the foreign investment regime yet again. Amending the Overseas Investment Act (OIA) was part of Act's 2023 coalition deal with National. In October 2024, David Seymour, the Associate Minister of Finance, and Act Leader, announced that the Government is going to "flip the burden of proof" to encourage foreign investment.

"The Overseas Investment Act states that it is 'a privilege for overseas persons to own or control sensitive New Zealand assets'. But the Cabinet has agreed to 'reverse that presumption that investing in New Zealand is a privilege and that investors must justify their transaction to the Government', David Seymour said. 'The new starting point is that investment can proceed unless there is an identified risk to New Zealand's interests'" (Stuff, 12/10/24). In February 2025 Seymour duly announced an overhaul of the Overseas Investment Act, saying that the new regime is expected be enacted by the end of 2025. The Overseas Investment Office summarised the proposed changes as including:

• "better acknowledging the benefits investment can provide to New Zealand's economy,
• for all investments aside from residential land, farmland and fishing quota, making decisions in just 15 days, unless the application could be contrary to New Zealand's national interest,
• strengthening the Government's ability to intervene on the rare occasion that a transaction is not in the national interest,
• giving LINZ* more powers to grant consent without involving Ministers".

The OIO went on to say: "These reforms build on the suite of improvements introduced over the past year, including delegation changes allowing LINZ to make more decisions on applications, and a new Ministerial Directive Letter that has helped speed up decision-making. The changes will allow LINZ to move even faster by reducing the administrative burden on investors and allowing the overseas investment team to focus resources on only the most sensitive and high-risk investments" (Panui, OIO, 24/2/25). *LINZ = Land Information New Zealand, of which the OIO is part.

Bill Rosenberg, CAFCA founder and economist, wrote to me (24/2/25): "I haven't analysed it fully but it looks like it could be worse - it retains significant powers, and ministerial discretion on what is in the national interest (for better or worse). ...The main problem will be the majority of applications which will be fast-tracked. Of course, as usual, it breaks the principles of Seymour's own Regulatory Standards Bill - no consultation, rushed process giving officials insufficient time to consider alternatives, etc" (see elsewhere in this issue for Bill's article on the Regulatory Standards Bill).

Fishing Quota For Sale

Reading those OIO bullet points (above) might lead people to think that "residential land, farmland and fishing quota" are somehow protected under the proposed new Bill. Not so, applications to buy them are only exempt from being processed "in just 15 days". They are certainly not protected. Fishing quota is a highly sensitive issue and rarely appears in the OIO's monthly Decision summaries. But it does happen: for example, in December 2024, the OIO gave permission to the New Zealand subsidiary "owned 100% by Maruha Nichiro Corporation, a publicly listed Japanese owned company which heads one of the world's largest seafood group of companies", to buy fishing quota over a ten-year period.

Just how sensitive an issue it is can be shown by the fact that, in March 2020, an identical application by Maruha to buy fishing quota over a ten-year period was declined - not by the OIO but by Ministers in the previous Government. "Both Minister Clark and Minister Nash were not satisfied that the granting of consent was in the national interest". What a difference a change of Government makes, eh.

New Agency To Attract Foreign Investors

The Government has made a number of moves to attract foreign investors. In January 2025 it announced the creation of a new agency, Invest New Zealand, which is separate from, and in addition to, the OIO. To quote the official press release (23/1/25): "Invest New Zealand will incubate within New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) and then transition to a new Autonomous Crown Entity, which operates with a clear mandate to attract international capital, infrastructure investment, ideas, and expertise".

This announcement led to me being invited to do my first TVNZ 1News at 6 interview for years, to get CAFCA's reaction. I gave them the sound bite they wanted, saying that the best response to our current National PM is to quote his immediate predecessor as National PM, namely John Key, who said (in 2010, in relation to the particularly controversial issue of the sale of the Crafar farms):

"Prime Minister John Key recently said he could not comment directly on the Crafar farms issue while it was before the Overseas Investment Office. However, he said New Zealanders should be concerned if 'huge tracts of our productive land' were sold. 'Now, that's a challenging issue given the state of the current law and quite clearly, it's evidentially possible and has been achieved that individual farms can be sold".

"Looking four, five, ten years into the future I'd hate to see New Zealanders as tenants in their own country and that is a risk I think if we sell out our entire productive base, so that's something the Government will have to consider" (Press, 26/7/10,).

And: "The concern, I guess, is that there is so much wealth out there that they could literally buy New Zealand's productive base. It's not impossible. That's the question - what do we want to be? Do we want to be tenants in our own country or do we want to own our own destiny?" (Press, 28/7/10, Martin Kay and John Hartevelt). "I'd hate to see New Zealanders as tenants in their own country" - CAFCA couldn't have put it better.

Global Investment Summit

The flashiest feature of Luxon's sale pitch to the big boys of the money world was his hosting of the March 2025 global investment summit. One of the key attendees at that was BlackRock Investments. "BlackRock, one of the world's largest fund managers, drew headlines late last year (2024) when it abandoned its investment in rooftop solar electricity provider Solar Zero, citing unsustainable losses. BlackRock has yet to establish a $2 billion fund targeting sustainable investments in NZ, which it announced before the 2023 election" (BusinessDesk, 12/2/25).

So, isn't that a great precedent for the type of foreign investors Luxon wants to attract. Solar Zero's 2024 collapse, caused by BlackRock pulling the plug with immediate effect, left the Government on the hook for $115m which it had put in through the Green Investment Fund (created by the previous Labour government).

The Kim Dotcom Factor

Luxon also announced, in February 2025, that rich foreigners could - once again - buy their way into the country. A minimum of $5m gets them a "Growth" category visa; a minimum of $10m gets a "Balanced" category visa. We've been here before. In response to this I put out CAFCA's shortest ever press release, consisting of two words: Kim Dotcom. Former CAFCA Committee member Joe Hendren made it the subject of one of his regular blogs ("Remember Kiddies, The National Party Bought You Kim Dotcom. New Zealand's Investor Visa Shift: A Lucrative Path For The Wealthy, But At What Cost?", 10/2/25). Dotcom was allowed into NZ in the first decade of this century.

"Mr Dotcom came in under the Investor Plus category that allows people to gain residency if they invest $10 million in Government bonds. This was despite Mr Dotcom disclosing criminal convictions, including one for fraud in Germany. Dotcom also applied to buy a number of properties in New Zealand, including a Coatesville mansion. This required the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) to consider whether Dotcom was of 'good character' under the Overseas Investment Act".

"Dotcom submitted a statutory declaration in support of his own good character, witnessed by a Hong Kong Lawyer, Fee Chung Ming Johnny. Another lawyer working for Dotcom, Greg Towers of Simpson Grierson, extolled the 'significant on-going financial benefit to the economy of New Zealand, especially Auckland's North Shore' should the application be approved, and suggested Dotcom could reconsider his investment intentions should any single application be declined".

"As James Ayers noted in "Kim Dotcom And The Good Character Test. Money Versus Power" (Watchdog 130, August 2012). the OIO was keen to conclude Dotcom was of good character. "The OIO stated: 'Mr Dotcom has been convicted of a number of offences in both Germany and Hong Kong. However, despite some of these offences being serious, our view is that provide relatively little insight into Mr Dotcom's character'. So criminal convictions don't provide the OIO with much insight as to a person's character?"

"'The OIO went on to state:'There are some discrepancies between the information provided by Mr Dotcom (and his German legal advisor) and certain media reports. Our view is that nothing turns on the discrepancies. The offences are serious regardless of whether Mr Dotcom's version of events or the media's version of the events is most accurate'. So, the OIO considered them serious regardless of who was telling the truth but this didn't reflect on Mr Dotcom's character?'"

"Despite this, the Minister of Land Information, Maurice Williamson, at first, agreed with the OIO that Dotcom was of good character. It wasn't until the Associate Minister of Finance, Simon Power, intervened and took the opposing view that Dotcom's applications were declined. Good call Mr Power". Governments, both National and Labour, have been stuck with the Dotcom tar baby ever since - but that's a whole other story. All that needs to be said is that Kim Dotcom is still in NZ.

Special Economic Zones

These are only some of the measures being introduced to facilitate the wholesale flogging off of NZ. Others include the fast-track approval regime and proposed company tax rate cuts. But wait, there's more. "The Government is considering turning Marsden Point into a special economic zone where investors, including overseas investors, would receive special benefits. The decision comes after the Government effectively abandoned the idea of reopening an oil refinery on the site. The zone would be relatively free of planning regulations, and the benefits could include 'business-friendly regulations, infrastructure and facilities, investment support, and customs and trade facilitation'".

"Resources Minister Shane Jones first outlined the concept at a recent industry event describing a 'royal circle' around the site with its own bespoke planning powers where businesses could invest in energy projects and 'not be stuck with Whangarei District Council' or the Northland Regional Council. Other special economic zones could be set up elsewhere 'in any strategically important areas of the country where infrastructure, ease of doing business and investment are critical' and would not necessarily be limited to encouraging energy-related investments, he said" (Post, 25/2/25).

I've seen how these things work in the Philippines, where they are called export processing zones, and are effectively enclaves within the country, where the transnational corporations and local big capitalists are free of impediments to making money, such as taxes, unions, health and safety and environmental protection.

Asset Sales

Luxon has foreshadowed that more asset sales will be in the Government's 2026 election campaign. That drew this reaction from John Key, who knows a thing or two about flogging things off:

"Frankly, there is not a hell of a lot to sell" (New Zealand Herald, 29/1/25). But have no doubt that Luxon will give it a good go. So, this is the road that the Government wants to set New Zealand onto. Of course, it's one we've been on for a long time but now they want to speed things up, so they've cut the brakes and put a brick on the accelerator. Everything must go!

Watchdog - 168 April 2025