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Speaker 1: In fact to this new deal for entry to the

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Speaker 1: country is wealth. Have you got five million, you can

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Speaker 1: buy a residency. It's the Golden Visaas of April one,

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Speaker 1: the Active Investor plus scheme will change its drop its language.

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Speaker 1: Test entries five million over three years for growth, ideas

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Speaker 1: ten million over five years for more conservative plans. The

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Speaker 1: Economic growth Minister Nikola Willis is Willis good morning. The specifics,

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Speaker 1: what delineates growth from conservative and who decides.

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Speaker 2: So growth is the five million And that's for direct

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Speaker 2: investments straight into a Kiwi business or into a New

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Speaker 2: Zealand managed fund that is investing into New Zealand businesses

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Speaker 2: via managed funds.

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Speaker 3: So that's direct investment.

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Speaker 1: But a man fund is also a superannuation fund. It's passive,

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Speaker 1: It creates nothing, does nothing other than eventually and somehow

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Speaker 1: feeds it through to the market generally.

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Speaker 2: Well, well, no, we have a list of approved funds

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Speaker 2: that MZTE have approved that are making investments into New

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Speaker 2: Zealand ventures and businesses. So those are funds that yes,

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Speaker 2: they're more passive than a direct investment, but the ruler

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Speaker 2: is seventy percent of that cash has to be flowing

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Speaker 2: directly into New Zealand ventures. So that is pretty direct investment.

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Speaker 2: And you talk to those fundholders, they'll tell you they

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Speaker 2: are always keen for more capital because they know lots

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Speaker 2: of startups, they know lots of businesses that need to

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Speaker 2: grow and they're trying.

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Speaker 3: To source capital for them. So that's the growth category.

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Speaker 1: Could buy, I could buy Shears and Fisher and Pikel

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Speaker 1: or Briscoes.

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Speaker 3: No, it can't be for listed equities.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so it's got to be a fund like the

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Speaker 1: superannuation fund, superannuation.

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Speaker 2: Fund, well, like the Angel Investor fund, like funds like

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Speaker 2: the Movak Fund. There's a range of funds. There's dozens

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Speaker 2: of them on the NZTE site, and in fact we

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Speaker 2: expect fundholders will set up funds specifically to take advantage

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Speaker 2: of this FEZA because there are clear rules that the

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Speaker 2: money needs to be going to active New Zealand investments,

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Speaker 2: but there are also people very interested in making those investments.

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Speaker 1: The numbers he gave the Prime Minster in the speech yesterday,

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Speaker 1: I thought we were alarming what used to come into

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Speaker 1: the country versus what comes in now. How much of

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Speaker 1: that were the settings or how much of that was

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Speaker 1: the English language test?

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Speaker 2: Look, it was the settings, including the English language test.

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Speaker 2: And you're right, Mike, we've been leading billions on the table.

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Speaker 2: So we know that in the two years prior to

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Speaker 2: Labour's changes, New Zealand took in more than two billion

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Speaker 2: dollars an investment through these golden visas. Labor went and

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Speaker 2: fiddled with things and that shrunk to just seventeen million,

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Speaker 2: which I just think is criminal because all of that

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Speaker 2: money could have been helping our economy, creating New Zealand jobs,

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Speaker 2: helping grow New Zealand businesses and the wealth of our economy.

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Speaker 2: So this is a putting right and it's important that

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Speaker 2: we do it.

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Speaker 1: Did you have to move now because Dunton maywell win

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Speaker 1: the election He's going to do exactly the same thing

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Speaker 1: in Australia.

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Speaker 2: This was about us being competitive in the foreign investment space.

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Speaker 2: We've had a very messy immigration system. We've inherited. First

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Speaker 2: thing was to clean up the house, fixing up those

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Speaker 2: employer work visas, ensuring that we had the regional seasonal

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Speaker 2: employer scheme working, and this was always firmly on our agenda.

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Speaker 2: It is an area where we had to consult pretty

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Speaker 2: widely because the details do matter. No point in setting

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Speaker 2: up visas that no one wants to take up.

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Speaker 3: So we did a lot of engagement to ensure that

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Speaker 3: this will work.

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Speaker 1: Is that your answer to my next question, which is

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Speaker 1: why didn't you do it sooner?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Look, basically, as I said, the immigration system when we

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Speaker 2: came in was out of control. We were getting huge

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Speaker 2: flows of very unskilled people. We had migrant exploitation opening up.

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Speaker 2: We had a regional seasonal employer scheme that wasn't working.

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Speaker 3: So first moves were to fix that up.

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Speaker 2: You know, you clean the house and do the dishes first,

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Speaker 2: and now we've moved to this very important setting, which

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Speaker 2: is about attracting investment into the country.

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Speaker 1: You must be at a point now where you're getting

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Speaker 1: sick of being asked you, the Prime Minister and everybody

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Speaker 1: else about Peter's and his fascination with foreigners buying houses.

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Speaker 1: When's the announcement coming that changes that blockage.

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Speaker 2: Well, the first thing to note is that if people

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Speaker 2: become New Zealand permanent tax residents, then they are able

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Speaker 2: to buy homes and New yae So there is a

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Speaker 2: pathway for people coming in at the moment. But you're

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Speaker 2: pointing to the National Party policy going into the election

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Speaker 2: in which we said we'd like to see more people

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Speaker 2: from overseas being able to buy a house here because

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Speaker 2: we see that as a contribution. And look, there are

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Speaker 2: discussions about what the conditions might be to meet that,

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Speaker 2: and I have learned Mike that it's best not to

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Speaker 2: get ahead of Winston Peters, best to let him speak

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Speaker 2: for himself.

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Speaker 1: He did on this program on Friday where he seemed

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Speaker 1: to indicate that he was kind of across the line,

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Speaker 1: and the word is it's fireble six million dollars by

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Speaker 1: way of a house, not your policy of two million,

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Speaker 1: and we're sort of there is that kind of about right.

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Speaker 2: I think his position is that he sees value that

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Speaker 2: if people are genuinely going to contribute to New Zealand,

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Speaker 2: they're investing their cash here, they're creating key we jobs,

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Speaker 2: they're contributing to New Zealand communities, then actually there is

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Speaker 2: a case for them buying a home. And the details

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Speaker 2: of that are all things that we're working.

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Speaker 1: Through exactly in a matter of days or weeks, because

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Speaker 1: what you've announced doesn't make sense unless you follow through

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Speaker 1: with the logical conclusion, and that is that we need

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Speaker 1: to move on with a housing thing. So can we

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Speaker 1: say that's close or not?

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Speaker 2: As I say, Mike, I'm not going to get here

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Speaker 2: to Winston Peters. As you know, this was an issue

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Speaker 2: that we campaigned very strongly on New Zealand. First have

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Speaker 2: had their position. It's up to them to decide we're

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Speaker 2: going to come to the table on this one. And

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Speaker 2: as I say, they're at the table and I hope

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Speaker 2: that we get.

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Speaker 1: Also on economic growth. And I couldn't get a decent

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Speaker 1: answer out of the Prime Minister the last week and

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Speaker 1: we went to Stanford's office and she didn't gave us

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Speaker 1: nothing but flannel. How is it that the Chinese will

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Speaker 1: allow us into China visa free and we won't reciprocate

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Speaker 1: when we're desperate for tourists.

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Speaker 2: Well, you'll find that a lot of countries around the

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Speaker 2: world take the same approach. While we do have visa

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Speaker 2: free travel for people from Canada, the UK, the US,

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Speaker 2: we do have a screening requirement for those coming from China,

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Speaker 2: and that puts US in the same place as Australia

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Speaker 2: and other countries, and that's just about protecting our national interests.

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Speaker 1: Well, are we suspicious of the Chinese look?

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Speaker 2: Immigration officials have looked at the pattern of where it

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Speaker 2: is that we get asylum seekers from, where there are

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Speaker 2: problems with expatriation, and all of those factors are taken

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Speaker 2: into account when they're deciding when visas are needed and

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Speaker 2: when they're not. But the bottom line is this, we

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Speaker 2: want more Chinese tourists. We've worked really hard to speed

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Speaker 2: up the processing of those visas that will come down dramatically.

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Speaker 1: Ours of paperwork and all that sort of stuff. It's

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Speaker 1: just it seems, I mean, you've answered it better than

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Speaker 1: they did, so I get the problem. But if we

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Speaker 1: can't get the Chinese back and we're at eighty seven percent,

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Speaker 1: where are we going to get them from.

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Speaker 2: Look, those numbers are continuing to grow. We are getting

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Speaker 2: them back off those big COVID lows, and I want

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Speaker 2: to see more of them. So we are working both

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Speaker 2: on a marketing planned ractually to potential Chinese tourists, as

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Speaker 2: I say, speeding up those visa processing times, making that

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Speaker 2: visa processing as easy as possible. At the moment, we

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Speaker 2: can see that there is more that we can do

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Speaker 2: there and we.

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Speaker 1: Should all right appreciate your time. As always. Nicola Willsues,

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Speaker 1: the Economic Growth Minister.

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Speaker 3: For more from the My Asking Breakfast.

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