The
Campaign Against Foreign Contropl of Aotearoa (CAFCA) welcomes the announcement
by Associate Finance Minister David Parker that a review of the Overseas
Investment Act "might" give Ministers "'full discretion' to
decide whether the purchase of assets worth more than $100 million by foreign
investors should be allowed, with an expectation they would decline any deals
that they did not think were in the national interest" (Stuff, 16/4/19).
But
CAFCA fears that's where the good news ends as far as this review is concerned.
It begs credulity that Parker should have said: "I don't think it will
change it (the Act) hugely. I think the big changes came when we banned foreign
buyers of existing New Zealand homes" (Stuff,
ibid.).
Really?
Talk about looking through the wrong end of the telescope. CAFCA has never got
terribly exercised about the whole subject of "foreign buyers of existing
New Zealand homes", precisely because it is such a small part of a much
bigger picture. It has actually got more to do with immigration - which is not
our issue - than foreign control, which definitely is. Such a ban was more about
securing votes for Labour than anything else. And it's a pretty threadbare sort
of a ban, as it is, riddled with loopholes and exemptions. For a start, NZ's
hands are tied by so-called "free trade" agreements, meaning that the
entire populations of Singapore and Australia are exempt from the foreign house
buyer "ban". The fact that Australia is the country of origin of the
single biggest number of foreign investors into NZ shows just how threadbare
the "ban" is.
Forget
about the rats and mice stuff, like foreign house buyers. This Government's
changes to the foreign land buyer regime are more significant but still
riddled with exemptions (all of forestry, for a start). The real guts of
foreign control of the New Zealand economy is that which involves transnational
corporations (TNCs) and their relentless takeover of businesses, assets
and land in all sectors, aided and abetted by both National and Labour
governments. In 2018 the Overseas Investment Office
(OIO) approved foreign investment totalling $12.5 billion. The average for the
decade 2009-2018 was $8.2 billion. So, a substantial increase in the first
full year of the Labour-led Government.
And Parker went on to say that the
review "will consider streamlining some 'pernickety' checks on foreign
investors to cut red tape, for example by reducing the 'hoops' faced by
existing 'long-term reputable investors' who were already paying tax here"
(Stuff, ibid). Conclusion: business as usual, despite
this Government saying it would take steps to deal with what it claims to
recognise as the problem of foreign control. Actions speak louder than words.
Let's see some action. Everything points to this review being intended to make
foreign "investment" easier, not harder, and that this Government
sees the TNCs as its priority, not the New Zealand people.
Any changes to the Act will only
apply to new applicants, not to those already well ensconced in NZ. For
example, what does the Government plan to do about the cosy cartel of Australian-owned
banks, who suck billions out of the NZ economy every year? In 2009, when it was
in Opposition, Labour was happy to take part in an inquiry into the banks. But,
now that it is the Government, it refuses to countenance an NZ equivalent of
the very recent Australian Royal Commission of Inquiry which uncovered
systemic criminal and unethical behaviour by those very same banks in their
home country.
Here's another specific example,
although much bigger, older and much more entrenched. What is the Government
going to do about the country's biggest bludger, the transnational owners of
the Bluff smelter? They have twisted NZ governments, both National and Labour,
around their little finger for 50 years. If Jacinda Ardern is serious that
climate change is her Government's nuclear free issue, then she will have to
confront and face down the smelter's owners. And do better than the Clark
Labour government which folded when the smelter owners threatened to leave the
country if Labour brought in an emissions trading scheme. Memo to Jacinda - if
they threaten to go, hold the door open for them and help them load their
suitcases into the airport shuttle. And make sure that they (those recipients
of corporate welfare par excellence), and not the NZ taxpayer, foot the bill
for cleaning up their mess. That would involve Labour facing up to the 2003 and
04 indemnities signed by Michael Cullen, Labour's Minister of Finance at the
time, accepting that the taxpayer, and not the smelter owners, would be
responsible for the cost of cleaning up toxic waste produced by the smelting
process.
Tackling the domination of the NZ
economy by already entrenched TNCs would involve Labour in putting the real
national interest ahead of its dread of upsetting "business
confidence". Business in this country is, more and more, foreign
business. What is needed is a Government prepared to tackle this transnational
corporate colonisation, not one that tinkers around the edges to mollify public
opinion while simultaneously making things even easier for the colonisers.
To see what a real review of the
Overseas Investment Act looks like, check out CAFCA's submission from when it was last amended (2005, also under Labour)
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