Kerre Woodham: Surely this visa can only be good for New Zealand?

A new visa to attract businesspeople to New Zealand has been established by the Government, and really, it's only a matter of days, perhaps weeks, before a loosening on restrictions for foreigners being able to purchase residential property here is announced. Christopher Luxon, the Prime Minister, when he was last in-studio with me, said we’ll be announcing that shortly. I said you’ll never get that past Winston Peters, but he said watch this space. So, he's been dropping very heavy hints for some time now that the restrictions on foreigners being able to buy property here were about to be lifted.  

In the meantime, the Government’s announced the Business Investor Visa, and that will give foreign businesspeople investing $2 million into an existing business here a fast track to residency in New Zealand. A $1 million investment comes with a three-year work to residency pathway. It also comes with conditions, as Immigration Minister Erica Stanford told Mike Hosking this morning.  

“This is more about people who have got business experience of running businesses –we will check that. Investing in a business, that they have to be here at least 184 days a year, be a tax resident, and actively run the business. They have to be able to speak English, there's an age limit. Whereas the Active Investor Plus is more about their capital and their business connections and they only have to spend a week a year here in order to get their residence – so very, very different. We're not talking huge numbers. This is not like an Oprah-style everyone gets a visa as I think you mentioned this morning, we're thinking probably in the first year between sort of 100 and 150 potentially.” 

So there are conditions associated with this particular visa such as requiring applicants to speak English, and that's something that I know concerned a number of you when we were talking about schools and the changes to the curriculum in education. When we've had discussions about that, a number of you have been really concerned about the number of young kids arriving here who don't speak English and the challenges that puts on a classroom, and more specifically, a teacher. So hopefully they are policing that English language criteria quite strictly. There are also conditions to meet alongside of health, character, and business experience, and certain businesses are excluded, such as adult entertainment, convenience stores, and fast-food outlets.  

Now I know that a number of people are dead against having more people coming into the country. You've told me that, and you've certainly sent me plenty of text messages about having more people coming into the country. We haven't got enough houses for the existing people. We've got wait lists up the wazoo. It's just going to put more pressure on our health system. It's going to drive house prices up. I think we have seen that the biggest driver of house prices was locking people inside their own country, lowering interest rates, and allowing speculation to boom. That did more damage to the housing and the property market than any migrant businessperson could ever do.  

So, we're building more houses, we’re opening up pathways for consent so that even more houses can be built. To clear up the waiting lists, we do need to bring in doctors, nurses. We didn't have enough at the time. We didn't have enough workers at the time, and even in a time of high unemployment, businesses still aren't finding the people that they need to make their businesses more productive.  

I'm for it. I mean $1 million, as we heard yesterday when we were talking about how much you need to retire, $1 million to become a Kiwi doesn't sound like a lot of money, does it? Especially when you open it up to the global market. But if there are conditions there, it they're required to live in New Zealand for much of the year, to pay their taxes to be working in the business, to be growing the business, if certain businesses are excluded so that we steer people into productive businesses, surely it can only be good for New Zealand. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Carrywood and Morning's podcast from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
He'd be a new visa to attract business people to
New Zealand has been established by the government as really
it's only a matter of days, perhaps weeks before a
loosening on restrictions for foreigners being able to purchase residential
property here is announced. Christopher Luxen, the Prime Minister, when

(00:30):
he was in with me, how many weeks ago was that? Helen?
About a month ago? He first said, oh, yes, no,
very shortly, we'll be announcing I you'll never get that
past Winston Peters and he said, oh, watch this space.
So he's been dropping very heavy hints for some time
now that the restrictions on foreigners being able to buy

(00:51):
property here were about to be lifted. In the meantime,
the government's announced the Business Investor Visa, and that will
give foreign business people investing two million dollars into an
existing business here a fast track to residency in New Zealand.
A one million dollar investment comes with a three year
work to residency pathway. It also comes with conditions, As

(01:15):
Immigration Minister Ericus Stanford told Mike Cosking this morning.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
This is more about people who have got business experience
of running businesses. We will check that investing in a
business that they have to be here at least one
hundred and eighty four days a year, be a tax
resident and actively run the business. They have to speak
be able to speak English, there's an age limit, whereas
the active investor plus is more about their capital and
their business connections and they only have to speak spend

(01:43):
a week a year here in order to get their
residents are very very different here. We're not talking huge numbers.
This is not like an OPRAH style everyone gets a visa,
as I think you mentioned this morning. I mean we're
thinking probably the first year between of one hundred and
one hundred and fifty potentially.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
As the Minister mentioned, so, there are conditions associated with
this particular visa, such as requiring Apple to meet English
language and that's something that I know concerned a number
of you when we were talking about schools and primary
schools and the changes to the curriculum and education. When

(02:19):
we've had discussions about that, a number of you have
been really concerned about the number of young kids arriving
here who don't speak English and the challenges that puts
on a classroom and more specifically a teacher, so hopefully
they are policing that English language criteria quite strictly. There

(02:40):
are also conditions to meet alongside of health, character and
business experience, and certain businesses are excluded, such as adult entertainment,
convenience stores, and fast food outlets. Now I know that
a number of you are dead against having more people

(03:01):
coming into the country. You've told me that, and you've
certainly sent me plenty of text messages about having more
people coming into the country. We haven't got enough houses
for the existing people. We've got weightless up the wazoo.
That's just going to put more pressure on our health system.
That's going to drive house prices up. I think we

(03:22):
have seen that the biggest drive out of house prices
was locking people into inside their own country and lowering
interest rates and allowing speculation to boom. That did more
damage to the housing and the property market than any

(03:44):
migrant business person could ever do. So we're building more houses.
We're opening up pathways for consent so that even more
houses can be built. To clear up the waiting lists.
We do need to bring in doctors, nurses. We didn't

(04:05):
have enough at the time. We didn't have enough workers
at the time, and even in a time of high unemployment,
businesses still aren't finding the people that they need to
make their businesses more productive. So I'm for it. I
mean a million dollars. As we heard yesterday when we

(04:27):
were talking about how much you need to retire, a
million dollars doesn't sound like a lot of money. A
million dollars to become a kiwi doesn't sound like a
lot of money, does it, especially when you open it
up to the global market. But if there are conditions there,
if they're required to live in New Zealand for much

(04:49):
of the year, to pay their taxes, to be working
in the business, to be growing the business, if certain
businesses are excluded so that we're looking at trying to
steer people into productive businesses, surely it can only be
good for New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
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