Key to rich mates: NZ for sale

Written By: - Date published: 11:38 am, November 17th, 2009 - 33 comments
Categories: john key, overseas investment - Tags:

John Key’s residency for the rich scheme has attracted the interest of 12,000 people thus far. Yes, NZ residency is for sale at the measly investment of NZ$500,000 and a few low-paid jobs. The Herald notes:

Thousands of wealthy foreigners are lining up to move here, just weeks out from the introduction of business migration laws that will grant them residency almost immediately…

About 12,000 people have registered their interest in the scheme through the service’s website, with 189 looking to invest $1.5 million or more – a total potential investment of at least $283 million.

Actually, the last thing New Zealand needs is 12,000 more wealthy property high-countrydevelopers (property was one of the most popular investment options). All that will do is put land prices even further out of reach for middle New Zealand.

Also, it’s unethical that Key is happy to sell residency to his rich Wall Street and City mates, while the truly needy struggle to get here. We should dispense with the Key “wealth for residency scheme”, and take 12,000 refugees instead – people who are actually in dire need of decent living conditions and liberty.

33 comments on “Key to rich mates: NZ for sale ”

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  1. gitmo 1
    17 November 2009 at 11:46 am

    Amazing I read the article and read it completely differently.

    “PREVIOUS POLICY Investment capital: None. Job-creation requirement: None. Length of time to residency: Available after two years.

    NEW POLICY Investment capital: $500,000. Job-creation requirement: Minimum three fulltimers. Length of time to residency: Conditional as soon as requirements met.

    EARLY INTEREST * 12,000 looking to invest at least $500,000. * 189 want to invest $1.5 million or more.”

    I suggest posts like this do little for your credibility.

    • Roger Anderson 1.1
      17 November 2009 at 10:12 pm

      gitmo, you are so easily fooled by the Herald, a quick look at the current requirements suggests that an applicant wishing to set up a business needs to provide a solid business plan based on credible analysis. They have to provide history or qualifications to prove that they have experience at running a business with no failures in the last five years, no evidence of fraud or other white collar crime, and the the allowed timeframe to set up the business to plan is nine months from arriving. This isn’t the stroll into the country that you and the herald suggest it is. Your post is more damaging to your credibility rather than that of The Standard.

  2. vidiot 2
    17 November 2009 at 11:50 am

    wtf, you want us to take 12,000 refugees on board ?

    We haven’t finished paying for the last lot – why the hell would we want to load another 12000 on to the system ?

    Is this a piss take thread ? Compared to the existing policy, at least these changes should encourage some growth in NZ industry.

  3. Boris Clarkov 3
    17 November 2009 at 11:55 am

    Wonderful news.

    This is a sensible change to the immigration policies of the Clark regime, which favoured the illiterate, the unskilled and the diseased of the third world over those that might actually make a contribution to our society.

    The question now is how to encourage those burdens that Labour imported over the last decade to leave.

  4. Pat 4
    17 November 2009 at 12:09 pm

    The existing business visa model was fatally flawed, because having no guarantee of permanent residency or of having their business visa renewed, meant Banks do not want to lend to them for their businesses.

    The new system will allow successful businesses to expand quicker by having access to Bank finance because the business owner will have permanent residency. This will lead to the creation of more jobs.

  5. Bill 5
    17 November 2009 at 12:13 pm

    I’d have thought that in a world brought to it’s knees by the ‘monetise anything and everything at any cost’ brigade ( the speculation, the wars, the terrorism as well as the environmental collapses), that they would be the very last type of person that any sane society would seek to attract through inducements and preferential treatments.

    In fact, I’d have thought that any sane society would instead open it’s doors to victims of the ‘monetise anything and everything at any cost’ brigade, not because they are victims per se, but because the wealth of experience and humanity they are likely to have accumulated through their refugee experiences are surely beyond measure and could well contribute to creating a society rich in so many diverse ways beyond the paltry imagination of the typical business types.

    sigh how mad of me to think of society in measures of sanity and humanity rather than dollars.

    • gitmo 5.1
      17 November 2009 at 12:17 pm

      Yes we should throw our doors open to all the refugees in the world ……..gosh won’t we bask in our own self satisfaction and it’ll be brilliant because our population explosion will mean we meet our Kyoto obligations without having to do anything…..Yes yes we’re saved we’re saved hallelujah.

      PS someone’s playing games with the captcha Lynn ??

      [lprent: Not as far as I’m aware. There is a simple list of words that it picks up from – english dictionary words within a smallish size range . Seems to be working correctly as far as I can see.
      And it is a *lot* easier than the simplified chinese path names that I’m coding for at present. ]

      • Quoth the Raven 5.1.1
        18 November 2009 at 12:45 am

        Here’s something for you to think about gitmo – maybe sow a bit of conservative cognitive dissonance:

        When you own property, that means you may do with that property what you wish so long as you are not violating the rights of others. If a person sits at my dinner table with me, occupying space on my property at my invitation and of his own volition, neither he nor I are violating anyone else’s rights. It is my right as the property owner to decide whether or not he is allowed to be there. It is neither your right, nor any voter’s, nor any government agent’s right to decide otherwise for us. The same holds true regarding who I may employ on my property and to whom I may sell my property. As far as I am concerned, the discussion should be over right here. My property, my choice. Your property, your choice. We have no problem recognizing this in other relationships between peaceful and consenting adults, and this should be no exception.

        But maybe you’re anti-private property?

    • Pat 5.2
      17 November 2009 at 12:21 pm

      Refugees don’t want a coffee group. They want an opportunity to make a better life for their family. That includes making money, in a free market capitalist system.

    • Bored 5.3
      17 November 2009 at 12:21 pm

      You are right, and of course the idiots who propose this ridiculousness have that blind faith that the moneyed immigrants will so easily be parted from their wealth…..

    • Bill 5.4
      17 November 2009 at 12:30 pm

      12 000 doctors, teachers, nurses, engineers, etc, etc, etc are not people who will necessarily have $500 000 lying around.

      But you’d rather have 12 000 Key clones?

  6. Bill 6
    17 November 2009 at 12:26 pm

    On a different tack.

    Did John perhaps look in the mirror and feeling rather enamoured with himself think aloud ‘If only NZ was populated with heaps of wonderfully biege people just like me’ as his daily ritual of simultaneously disappearing up and popping out from up his own arse unfolded?

  7. ghostwhowalksnz 7
    17 November 2009 at 12:26 pm

    Its only a NZ passport they are after. They will continue to operate from overseas.

    The price of a hamburger bar will rise to meet the ceiling

  8. BLiP 8
    17 November 2009 at 1:11 pm

    Not happy with the existing level of economic inequality in New Zealand, John Key and National Ltd® decide to import more. Thanks, I’m lovin’ it.

  9. JD 9
    17 November 2009 at 3:48 pm

    I sincerely hope that Labour takes your suggestion of taking in 12,000 refugees. and adopts it as policy. Helllo second term for National.

  10. Al 10
    17 November 2009 at 3:50 pm

    $500,000 isn’t much.Just about anyone from Britain could get in- this is just an excuse to open the immigration floodgates. I know a few people who emigrated from the UK to fill skill shortages. None of them are now doing what they supposedly came here to do. We make it much too easy for people to immigrate here.

    Importing people provides a short term boost to growth and also keeps the insane property prices from returning to a reasonable level. Our exchange rate means that people coming here from other countries can afford to outbid native born NZers. Is this fair? I don’t think so. Some time down the line we will pay for policy like this with social unrest.

  11. vto 11
    17 November 2009 at 7:30 pm

    anything which makes our society more likely a tenant society should be shunned.

  12. Herodotus 12
    17 November 2009 at 8:13 pm

    Where is the immigration discussion that everyone avoids. Why do we need immigrants and what is the optimum population level that “we” want or can cope with. Manukau Citys ex mayor Sir Barry wanted Manukau to be the largest pop city in NZ, why ? for ego prehaps. Would/did MCC residents benefit from this , I would say no. The infrastructure has to be upsized (McDs way), rates are increasing,debt is increasing, we are paying more for less (This sounds familiar) Why because MCC has an ideal pop that the city can cope with. Perhaps NZ is the same, that there is an optimum pop level we should be managing towards (If we are not already there). I think the Greens had some prelim discussion on this but nothing major as I could ascertain.

  13. Deus ex Machina 13
    17 November 2009 at 8:57 pm

    “We should dispense with the Key “wealth for residency scheme’, and take 12,000 refugees instead people who are actually in dire need of decent living conditions and liberty.

    And where are those 12,000 going to live? Even at 6 to a house that’s two thousand houses to be found while there are people already here who can’t find/afford decent housing. And what jobs are they going to do when there are already folk here who want to work but can’t get a job? What are they going to do for health care when most GP’s surgeries are already bursting at the seams and the Health Care is struggling to cope with present demands?

    Why not concentrate on getting them decent living conditions and liberty where they are?

  14. Roger Anderson 14
    17 November 2009 at 10:21 pm

    Did anybody else notice further into section A of the very same Herald that any immigrant here on a skills shortages work permit and earns less that $33,675 per annum will have to pay international student prices for their children to go to school? This happens while $500,000 will get you into the country. Is this just a wonderful illustration of what this government is really like or just a small part of the race to the bottom by states to gain access to capital? If it is the former, we need to vote National out at the next election. If it is the latter, it shows that states really are just tools for the rich and there is a class war, and it is the poor and working poor that are losing. One start to finding a solution involves making our state less of a lapdog for the rich by voting National out at the next election.

  15. deemac 15
    18 November 2009 at 12:15 am

    gitmo is presumably not aware that the reason so few immigrants use the Long Term Business Visa is that there is no guarantee of residency after 2 years. Unsurprisingly few people are willing to up sticks and start a new business in a new country with no certainty about the outcome.
    The number of refugees admitted is not an either or, surely – NZ needs a variety of immigrants.

  16. Cactus Kate 16
    18 November 2009 at 4:18 am

    Excellent policy only it should be NZ wide as well.

    Send everyone in NZ with less than this pre-set $500,000 in investment capital to live in the South Island (Queenstown and Wanaka fenced off as a tax haven) and give the South Island to the Maori Party in coalition negotiations to keep Turia and Sharples on the light.

    Don’t laugh. I’m sure Nick Smith has thought of it.

  17. travellerev 17
    18 November 2009 at 6:30 am

    So you “invest” $ 500.000 in one of our many almost bankrupt property developments and hire a butler, chauffeur and a gardener for your holiday batch and you’re in.

    And when the shit hits the fan and the great unwashed over there doesn’t take it any more you take your private plane and wait it out here.

    Brilliant.

    Let me guess who’s at the top of the list….. How about lord Ashcroft? I hear they are getting pretty sick of him over in Belize.