Land Information Spokesperson

17 August 2015

Foreign investment must add real value

New Zealanders must be told what value foreign investors are creating when they buy our productive land, Labour’s spokesperson on the Overseas Investment Office Stuart Nash says.

“Today’s KPMG report into foreign investment is notable for one glaring omission: what is the quality of the investment to New Zealanders and the New Zealand economy?

“It is not enough for the Government to simply report on the quantity of our land that is being sold offshore: investors are required to add value over and above what a Kiwi investor would, in the form of additional jobs and exports. But the OIO is failing to report on whether these promises are being kept.

“Labour is pro-foreign investment when it offers more value – more jobs and more export dollars. But we are being failed by a scheme which seems to value quantity over quality.

“Since 2005, 716 investors were given the right to purchase sensitive land (5ha or more) and had to quantify what the additional value is that they would offer. But we have no idea whether these promises are being kept or whether the international investment is adding real value to our economy.

“Quality investments will add significant value in terms of high value employment, new skills, increased trade access and export receipts. Low value ones will add nothing to our economy and communities.

“The fact that the OIO does not collate data on the value added by overseas investors is a travesty and must be fixed immediately. New Zealanders need to know that overseas investment in our land is good for the country and not just turning rural and provincial communities into tenants in our own land,” says Stuart Nash.

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