September 2, 2025 • 5 mins
The Prime Minister ponders the Act Party’s new position on the Paris Agreement. David Seymour is effectively siding with Winston Peters. How much heat/friction is this going to cause for the Coalition? We also discuss the latest Roy Morgan Poll, the Amazon deal and relaxing foreign investment. Are New Zealand farms next on the chopping block?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Kenny Loggins and danger zone the Prime minister kicking off
the country on a Wednesday. Are you now on appolling
danger zone, Chrystalpha Luxel, Actually, before you even answer that,
let's get to the real issue of the day. X
new position on the Paris Agreement. Is that going to
put you in a danger zone? Are you going to
get sandwiched in a pincer movement between Winston and Seymour?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Good afternoon, Well, good afternoon, Jamie, Goods to be with you. Look,
first thing I'd say on Paris is Look, as I've
said before, we are going hard on economic growth. It's
in our national interests to do so. And actually it's
in our national interest to stay in Paris. We're always
going to put keyes first, putting our farmers first. You've
seen that from our government. You've seen the National Party
and with the rural community right from the beginning when
(00:51):
I came to power an opposition and also now in government.
So you know it's pretty simple, right come out of Paris.
When you export eighty percent of your goods, you're going
to have major problems with countries that week, Pete Worthy
are going to have major problems with large multinationals who
often are of similar sights to New Zealander's an economy,
so they will replace our products on a heartbeat and
just go ask Fonterra what they think about that.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
So are you suggesting that your coalition partners using populist
politics here?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Well, look again, I'm not getting into the policies of
what act on New Zealand First may be talking about
within their party context. I'm just saying as a coalition government,
we've all agreed that is the New Zealand's national interest
at this time that ripping up international agreements would mean
we're not a trusted partner on Trey, would mean that
New Zealand is fundamentally poorer. We're going to be punishing
our farmers. I'm not going to punish our farmers. I
(01:39):
think that would be not a smart move.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Let's have a look at the relaxing of foreign investment rules.
Are farms next on the chopping block? Just remind me
what is your policy around foreign ownership of New Zealand farms?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yes, so I'm man in sensitive Land is still protected
completely onto the Overseas Investment Act. So that's not what
we're talking about here. What we're saying is, if you're
an overseas investor and you've got what's called this active
investor visa the media, you've called it the Golden visa,
you've got to come into New Zealand and you can't
just just invest in housing and buy houses and do
specuative property stuff. You've actually got to invest in a
(02:13):
proper business for five million dollars or ten million dollars. Now,
if you've put five or ten million dollars in under
that program, that doesn't mean that you're going to be
here for over half the year typically, which is the
criteria by which you need to. Then as an investor,
be abook. You can buy a house under the Act.
So in this case, what we're saying is, look, if
you's got five to ten million dollars into New Zealand
into a business, we're comforble. If you want to buy
(02:35):
a house of five million dollars or more, now just
give you a feel for it. That's about half of
one percent of all the home sold in New Zealand.
And you know there's about ten thousand houses in New
Zealand that are worth more than five million dollars. So
but here's the great story Jamie, This is incredible. I
was at this place called Seaflux earlier this week. They've
just raised three million dollars. That three million dollars has
(02:57):
come from these active investor visas that we put them.
Since April one, we've had almost two billion dollars come
into New Zealand, two billion dollars that we didn't have before.
They then put the money into that company that three
million dollars as investors and lo and behold, what's the
first thing that individuals doing that runs that company is
going off to hire more staff another company. I saw
(03:17):
they actually used the same money then to go off
of their investment money to go off and actually expand
their business in North America filling cleaning products. And of
course that creates export growth and revenue for us as well.
So that's the whole point is that if you're going
to come here and make a serious, productive investment in
a New Zealand business or a startup and actually be
prepared to put your money where your mouth is, then
(03:39):
we can get to a place.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Now. I get all that, but what differentiates a house
on a business from a.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Farm, Well, it's got to be a dwelling. It's got
to be a a house. It can't be a farm,
it can't be a apartment block, it can't be and
all our protections on farmland, sensitive land, all of that
stuff remains.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Final comment on a good news story that came out
this week, the Amazon deal. It is really good. But
are you guilty? And I know that you must get
sick of these sort of questions of cutting Jacinda and
Chippy's lunch because they're climbing glory for it.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, I don't know why the media went funny about
all of that. Go back and look at I don't
know whether you've read the transcript of my interview with Hosking.
He's the only guy I talked to about it when
he asked me what I was doing at Amazon, and
I just said to him, it's great that you know
there's a companies later seven and a half billion dollar
investment into New Zealand that it opened yesterday. It's an
incredible set of technology and tools. It's a big investment
from an international company. We've had a similar billion dollar
(04:33):
investment from Brookfield working with Kai Nui on a rukur
A super hub. We've got a number of big players
that came out of infrastructure investment something that want to
invest in big infrastructure projects here in New Zealand, which
we're working our way through. So all I'm just saying
to you is, you know, when you look at it,
we've got you know, quite a lot of good positive
signs that that investment is creating jobs and creating opportunity
(04:54):
for News Islanders. And so yeah, but I don't know
what the media is being on about you say about that,
because I just thought you actually on, come on, you know,
we've actually got a great set of a great story
here and yes, and you know it's fantastic, but it's
here and it's actually been followed through and it's been
delivered and it's you know, they're feeling confident about investing
in the Zealand. It's fantastic, a.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Great a good story for n zend and Prime Minister
Christoph Luxon, thanks as always for your time on the
country on a Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Great to be with you, Jamie. You have a great week.
Kenny Loggins and danger zone the Prime minister kicking off
the country on a Wednesday. Are you now on appolling
danger zone, Chrystalpha Luxel, Actually, before you even answer that,
let's get to the real issue of the day. X
new position on the Paris Agreement. Is that going to
put you in a danger zone? Are you going to
get sandwiched in a pincer movement between Winston and Seymour?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Good afternoon, Well, good afternoon, Jamie, Goods to be with you. Look,
first thing I'd say on Paris is Look, as I've
said before, we are going hard on economic growth. It's
in our national interests to do so. And actually it's
in our national interest to stay in Paris. We're always
going to put keyes first, putting our farmers first. You've
seen that from our government. You've seen the National Party
and with the rural community right from the beginning when
(00:51):
I came to power an opposition and also now in government.
So you know it's pretty simple, right come out of Paris.
When you export eighty percent of your goods, you're going
to have major problems with countries that week, Pete Worthy
are going to have major problems with large multinationals who
often are of similar sights to New Zealander's an economy,
so they will replace our products on a heartbeat and
just go ask Fonterra what they think about that.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
So are you suggesting that your coalition partners using populist
politics here?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
Well, look again, I'm not getting into the policies of
what act on New Zealand First may be talking about
within their party context. I'm just saying as a coalition government,
we've all agreed that is the New Zealand's national interest
at this time that ripping up international agreements would mean
we're not a trusted partner on Trey, would mean that
New Zealand is fundamentally poorer. We're going to be punishing
our farmers. I'm not going to punish our farmers. I
(01:39):
think that would be not a smart move.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Let's have a look at the relaxing of foreign investment rules.
Are farms next on the chopping block? Just remind me
what is your policy around foreign ownership of New Zealand farms?
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Yes, so I'm man in sensitive Land is still protected
completely onto the Overseas Investment Act. So that's not what
we're talking about here. What we're saying is, if you're
an overseas investor and you've got what's called this active
investor visa the media, you've called it the Golden visa,
you've got to come into New Zealand and you can't
just just invest in housing and buy houses and do
specuative property stuff. You've actually got to invest in a
(02:13):
proper business for five million dollars or ten million dollars. Now,
if you've put five or ten million dollars in under
that program, that doesn't mean that you're going to be
here for over half the year typically, which is the
criteria by which you need to. Then as an investor,
be abook. You can buy a house under the Act.
So in this case, what we're saying is, look, if
you's got five to ten million dollars into New Zealand
into a business, we're comforble. If you want to buy
(02:35):
a house of five million dollars or more, now just
give you a feel for it. That's about half of
one percent of all the home sold in New Zealand.
And you know there's about ten thousand houses in New
Zealand that are worth more than five million dollars. So
but here's the great story Jamie, This is incredible. I
was at this place called Seaflux earlier this week. They've
just raised three million dollars. That three million dollars has
(02:57):
come from these active investor visas that we put them.
Since April one, we've had almost two billion dollars come
into New Zealand, two billion dollars that we didn't have before.
They then put the money into that company that three
million dollars as investors and lo and behold, what's the
first thing that individuals doing that runs that company is
going off to hire more staff another company. I saw
(03:17):
they actually used the same money then to go off
of their investment money to go off and actually expand
their business in North America filling cleaning products. And of
course that creates export growth and revenue for us as well.
So that's the whole point is that if you're going
to come here and make a serious, productive investment in
a New Zealand business or a startup and actually be
prepared to put your money where your mouth is, then
(03:39):
we can get to a place.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Now. I get all that, but what differentiates a house
on a business from a.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Farm, Well, it's got to be a dwelling. It's got
to be a a house. It can't be a farm,
it can't be a apartment block, it can't be and
all our protections on farmland, sensitive land, all of that
stuff remains.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Final comment on a good news story that came out
this week, the Amazon deal. It is really good. But
are you guilty? And I know that you must get
sick of these sort of questions of cutting Jacinda and
Chippy's lunch because they're climbing glory for it.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, I don't know why the media went funny about
all of that. Go back and look at I don't
know whether you've read the transcript of my interview with Hosking.
He's the only guy I talked to about it when
he asked me what I was doing at Amazon, and
I just said to him, it's great that you know
there's a companies later seven and a half billion dollar
investment into New Zealand that it opened yesterday. It's an
incredible set of technology and tools. It's a big investment
from an international company. We've had a similar billion dollar
(04:33):
investment from Brookfield working with Kai Nui on a rukur
A super hub. We've got a number of big players
that came out of infrastructure investment something that want to
invest in big infrastructure projects here in New Zealand, which
we're working our way through. So all I'm just saying
to you is, you know, when you look at it,
we've got you know, quite a lot of good positive
signs that that investment is creating jobs and creating opportunity
(04:54):
for News Islanders. And so yeah, but I don't know
what the media is being on about you say about that,
because I just thought you actually on, come on, you know,
we've actually got a great set of a great story
here and yes, and you know it's fantastic, but it's
here and it's actually been followed through and it's been
delivered and it's you know, they're feeling confident about investing
in the Zealand. It's fantastic, a.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Great a good story for n zend and Prime Minister
Christoph Luxon, thanks as always for your time on the
country on a Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Great to be with you, Jamie. You have a great week.
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