Govt is aiming to get things done faster – including the sales of Kiwi land to foreign investors
Our government has been busy shaping new initiatives to ensure the improvement of our general wellbeing. Essentially it’s a matter of buying more of this and that and having things done faster, including the selling of land to foreigners.
It is gratifying to find that in two cases of getting more and/or having things done faster, no dollar signs can be found in the press statements. This suggests taxpayers will not be called on to do whatever is being done to improve our wellbeing in those cases.
Mind you, it may be that the ministers haven’t bothered to mention the costs.
On the other hand, Health Minister Shane Reti has given us the costs of the “free” medical services he is proudly announcing.
We are talking about many millions of dollars.
The Ministers who have declared no public costs in their statements are:
On the other hand, Health Minister Shane Reti has given us the costs of the “free” medical services he is proudly announcing.
We are talking about many millions of dollars.
The Ministers who have declared no public costs in their statements are:
- David Seymour, Associate Minister of Finance. He tells us he is making it easier to invest in New Zealand. and has issued a new Ministerial directive letter to Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) to make consent processing timeframes faster under the Overseas Investment Act. He didn’t mention the whopping current account deficit and the increasing pressure it heaps on us to sell our assets (among other things) to pay our way in the world.
- Shane Jones, Associate Minister of Energy. He has been working on “fuel resilience” – or rather, he has asked the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to halt work on procuring reserve diesel stock and explore other ways to bolster New Zealand’s diesel resilience.
- Strengthening our COVID-19 preparedness. More particularly, he is assuring us Health New Zealand will be buying a further 9.25 million rapid antigen tests (RATs). That’s enough to provide free public access to RATs until 30 September.
- Investing $30m (maybe “spending” is abetter word) in providing faster access to radiology services. This will result in faster diagnosis and improved health outcomes.
Latest from the Beehive
6 JUNE 2024
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment will halt work on procuring reserve diesel stock and explore other ways to bolster New Zealand’s diesel resilience.
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says additional supplies of COVID-19 rapid antigen tests (RATs) will enable New Zealanders to continue testing this winter.
The Associate Minister of Finance David Seymour has issued a new Ministerial directive letter to Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) to make consent processing timeframes faster under the Overseas Investment Act
New Zealanders will now benefit from free access to radiology services referred directly by their general practitioner, resulting in faster diagnosis and improved health outcomes.
David Seymour’s Ministerial directive letter to Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) sets out an expectation that LINZ, the regulator for the Overseas Investment Act, will process 80 per cent of consent applications in half the statutory timeframes for decisions.
LINZ will have the full statutory timeframe to process the remaining 20 per cent of consent applications to manage complex and higher-risk applications.
The directive letter directs LINZ to take a risk-based approach to verifying information and streamlining consent processes. This recognises that the majority of consent applications are low-risk and should be processed more efficiently.
It is part of a three-part process to better enable overseas investment.
First, fewer decisions be made by Ministers than before however, some high-risk decisions, including all national interest and national security transactions, will still be decided by Ministers.
Second, the new letter has been introduced.
The next step will be to rewrite the Overseas Investment Act.
Seymour said:
“New Zealand is currently rated as having the most restrictive foreign direct investment policy out of the OECD countries in the OECD Foreign Direct Investment Regulatory Restrictiveness Index.
“Processing times are currently too long, and this poses a barrier for investors. Budget 2024 started to get wasteful spending under control, but in order to have a strong growing economy New Zealand needs to be more welcoming to investment,” says Seymour.
“Decisions on consent applications under the general benefit test take 89 days on average. This creates uncertainty and impacts the attractiveness of investing in New Zealand. This affects New Zealand businesses that rely on overseas investment for capital or for liquidity. With the new directive letter, we’re making things faster and removing bureaucracy.”
The government is introducing a principle that it welcomes investment.
“In order for New Zealand to retain world class public services New Zealand needs to be the preferred destination for ideas, investment, talent.
“Reduced barriers to investment from people and businesses means greater prosperity for Kiwis. If we want world-leading businesses and public services, we need the money to pay for them. Today’s announcement is part of making this happen.
“These changes also bring balance to how applications are assessed by removing duplication across different parts of government. There’s no reason for LINZ to be assessing matters already covered by other domestic regulation, such as whether mergers will decrease competition, which is already assessed by the Commerce Commission.
“With the new letter, we’re removing bureaucracy to help make things faster. And with LINZ processing low-risk transactions more quickly, it can focus effort and resources on assessing higher-risk applications.”
The new directive letter replaces the previous Government’s directive letter dated November 2021.
Seymour has delighted in noting that Grant Robertson’s letter was 12 pages. His is five pages.
He’s saving on paper, obviously.
“We’re getting out of the way.”
The letter is in force from today, and all applications assessed by LINZ from this date will be subject to the updated directive letter.
The Overseas Investment Regulations 2005 will be updated to include a new reporting requirement on the extent to which LINZ meets this new objective for timeframes.
The directive letter is available on the LINZ website: https://www.linz.govt.nz/our-work/overseas-investment-regulation/legislation-ministers-and-delegated-powers/new-ministerial-directives
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
2 comments:
"including the sales of Kiwi land to foreign investors"
So more 'food production land' reverts to pine trees then? What could possibly go wrong. Oh wait, you can't eat wood?
So anonymous not sure of the connection between the article and your comment but where is this valuable food producing land that business people are falling over themselves to acquire for even better food production purposes? Or is it that you are just using this as an opportunity to express your bigoted views about pine forests?
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