Latest / Best of Business / Kerre Woodham: Surely this visa can only be good for New Zealand?

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Kerre Woodham: Surely this visa can only be good for New Zealand? · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News talksed be follow
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  Speaker 2: I Knew visa to attract business people to New Zealand
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  Speaker 2: has been established by the government as really it's only
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  Speaker 2: a matter of days, perhaps weeks before a loosening on
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  Speaker 2: restrictions for foreigners being able to purchase residential property here
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  Speaker 2: is announced. Christopher Luxen, the Prime Minister, when he was
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  Speaker 2: in with me, how many weeks ago was that? Helen?
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  Speaker 2: About a month ago? He first said, oh, yes, no,
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  Speaker 2: very shortly will be announcing I you'll never get that
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  Speaker 2: past Winston Peters and he said, oh, watch this space.
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  Speaker 2: So he's been dropping very heavy hints for some time
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  Speaker 2: now that the restrictions on foreigners being able to buy
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  Speaker 2: property here we're about to be lifted. In the meantime,
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  Speaker 2: the government's announced the Business Investor Visa, and that will
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  Speaker 2: give foreign business people investing two million dollars into an
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  Speaker 2: exist business here a fast track to residency in New Zealand.
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  Speaker 2: A one million dollar investment comes with a three year
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  Speaker 2: work to residency pathway. It also comes with conditions, as
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  Speaker 2: Immigration Minister Ericus Stanford told Mike Cosking this morning.
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  Speaker 3: This is more about people who have got business experience
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  Speaker 3: of running businesses. We will check that investing in a
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  Speaker 3: business that they have to be here at least one
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  Speaker 3: hundred and eighty four days a year, be a tax
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  Speaker 3: resident and actively run the business. They have to speak
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  Speaker 3: be able to speak English, there's an age limit, whereas
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  Speaker 3: the active investor plus is more about their capital and
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  Speaker 3: their business connections and they only have to speak spend
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  Speaker 3: a week a year here in order to get their
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  Speaker 3: residents are very very different here. We're not talking huge numbers.
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  Speaker 3: This is not like an OPRAH style everyone gets a visa,
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  Speaker 3: as I think you mentioned this morning. I mean we're
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  Speaker 3: thinking probably the first year between of one hundred and
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  Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty potentially.
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  Speaker 2: As the Minister mentioned. So there are conditions associated with
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  Speaker 2: this particular such as requiring applicants to meet English language
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  Speaker 2: and that's something that I know concerned a number of
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  Speaker 2: you when we were talking about schools and primary schools
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  Speaker 2: and the changes to the curriculum and education. When we've
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  Speaker 2: had discussions about that, a number of you have been
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  Speaker 2: really concerned about the number of young kids arriving here
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  Speaker 2: who don't speak English. And the challenges that puts on
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  Speaker 2: a classroom and more specifically a teacher. So hopefully they
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  Speaker 2: are policing that English language criteria quite strictly. There are
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  Speaker 2: also conditions to meet alongside of health, character and business experience,
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  Speaker 2: and certain businesses are excluded, such as adult entertainment, convenience stores,
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  Speaker 2: and fast food outlets. Now I know that a number
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  Speaker 2: of you are dead against having more people coming into
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  Speaker 2: the country. You've told me that, and you've certainly sent
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  Speaker 2: me plenty of text messages about having more people coming
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  Speaker 2: into the country. We haven't got enough houses for the
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  Speaker 2: existing people. We've got weight lists up the wazoo. It's
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  Speaker 2: just going to put more pressure on our health system.
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  Speaker 2: It's going to drive house prices up. I think we
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  Speaker 2: have seen that the biggest drive at a house prices
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  Speaker 2: was locking people into inside their own country and lowering
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  Speaker 2: interest rates and allowing speculation to boom. That did more
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  Speaker 2: damage to the housing and the property market than any
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  Speaker 2: migrant business person could ever do. So we're building more houses.
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  Speaker 2: We're opening up pathways for consent so that even more
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  Speaker 2: houses can be built. To clear up the waiting lists.
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  Speaker 2: We do need to bring in doctors, nurses, we didn't
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  Speaker 2: have enough at the time. We didn't have enough workers
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  Speaker 2: at the time, and even in a time of high unemployment,
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  Speaker 2: businesses still aren't finding the people that they need to
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  Speaker 2: make their businesses more productive. So I'm for it. I
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  Speaker 2: mean a million dollars. As we heard yesterday when we
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  Speaker 2: were talking about how much you need to retire, a
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  Speaker 2: million dollars doesn't sound like a lot of money. A
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  Speaker 2: million dollars to become a kiwi doesn't sound like a
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  Speaker 2: lot of money, does it, especially when you open it
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  Speaker 2: up to the global market. But if there are conditions there,
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  Speaker 2: if they're required to live in New Zealand for much
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  Speaker 2: of the year, to pay their taxes, to be working
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  Speaker 2: in the business, to be growing the business, if certain
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  Speaker 2: businesses are excluded so that we're looking at trying to
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  Speaker 2: steer people into productive businesses, surely it can only be
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  Speaker 2: good for New Zealand.
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