Is Labour against this foreign purchase?
Seamus Boyer at Stuff reports:
Hollywood movie mogul James Cameron is coming to live in Wairarapa – and he is bringing his family with him.
The director of blockbuster films Titanic and Avatar has purchased two large plots of land along Western Lake Rd in south Wairarapa, where he is expected to arrive and live later this year.
Records released today from the Overseas Investment Office show that James F Cameron, of Canada, was given consent in December to purchase two separate properties, one 817 hectares and the other nearly 250 hectares.
That’s around 15% the size of the Crafar farms. where are the howls of outrage from Labour? I mean Cameron is a foreigner.
But the documents show that Cameron’s New Zealand connection will be more than just a working one.
”James F Cameron and his family intend to reside indefinitely in New Zealand and are acquiring the property to reside on and operate as a working farm,” it notes.
But but but what expertise do they have in farming?
Under Labour’s election policy on foreign investment, Mr Cameron’s application would be declined as they said all sales will be declined unless the purchaser “will also invest in significant further processing of related primary products and related jobs”.
So I look forward to Labour MPs forming a picket line at the airport waving “Cameron go home” placards.
Of course I think it is a good thing Cameron has been allowed to purchase land here. There are numerous way we may benefit from his presence in New Zealand.
Just as when Julian Robertson purchased rural land up north. Who would have thought that he would come to love this country so much (despite not being a citizen) that he would donate over $100 million of art to New Zealand galleries.
That is why I think the current test of “in the national interest” is the appropriate one rather than Labour’s highly restrictive criteria.
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February 1st, 2012 at 8:55 pm
So I look forward to Labour MPs forming a picket line at the airport waving “Cameron go home” placards.
I would gladly picket Cameron if the placard said “Hire a decent writer for the Avatar sequel”
February 1st, 2012 at 9:39 pm
Good job it was James Cameron and not Jackie Chan…..
February 1st, 2012 at 9:56 pm
Canadian not Chinese
Labour an dtheir ilk are racist and obnoxious
February 1st, 2012 at 9:58 pm
The issue isn’t whether labour is for or against in this particular case but whether Labour puts the interests of New Zealanders First. National doesn’t, these days National is “InterNational” and a Kiwi is anyone who can buy residency (preferably a capital gains mining smuck from the real estate industry).
February 1st, 2012 at 10:02 pm
Since when did the realestate industry become so virtuous: when A$ian$ became wealthy.
February 1st, 2012 at 10:08 pm
…. just so long as he doesn’t make any of his stupid mindless films here….
February 1st, 2012 at 10:12 pm
So if Labour say nothing, does that mean they just a bunch of Xenophobic asshats after all?
February 1st, 2012 at 10:20 pm
Not xenophobic. Canadians are foreigners too. Sinophobic.
February 1st, 2012 at 10:58 pm
Do we need this blow hard warmist science denier here spouting his “thee not me” socialist world Government shit…?
February 1st, 2012 at 10:58 pm
I have reservations about foreigners buying up New Zealand land.
However, this apparently has been going on for decades and I see this protest as a cynical (and hypocritical) political ploy by both Labour and Maori to stir up trouble. Land was sold under Labour and Maori have sold land to foreigners (So much for land being a taonga that can’t be sold) so why is this suddenly a problem when it happens under National?
And in the case of the Crafer farms, it is OK to be against the sale of land to foreigners but you can’t change the law retrospectively.
Maybe the sale of land needs to stop (Have a moratorium) and have a rational debate about it.
At the moment Labour and Maori are just rabble rousing and trying to score political points.
February 1st, 2012 at 11:19 pm
Well TV3 went to the leader of the opposition for comment and he was agaisnt the sale- I’m talking about Winston Peters of course.
February 1st, 2012 at 11:34 pm
Dave Mann (10:08pm) + The Scorned (10:58pm) – hear hear!
February 2nd, 2012 at 6:48 am
Regrettably it shows another of the policies of Labour as not thought out. If these are the issues immediately apparent with this, I shudder to think of the complications arising from their much more complex policies like the CGT.
February 2nd, 2012 at 7:25 am
Dave Mann & The Scorned.
He is making his films here, and thousands of creative and hard working Kiwis are damned grateful for it. If you don’t like him or his movies, then don’t go and see them. The message sent to the world by Cameron’s actions mean that a billion dollar industry will continue in NZ, and this is an industry which requires little further infrastructure investment, and needs no drilling, mining or otherwise. The greens should be trumpeting this as the sort of investment we need.
Labour and Winston have latched onto something that they think will give them traction. Having come out against the Crafer farm sale, they have to come out against this, or be shown up as racist.
February 2nd, 2012 at 8:00 am
@Dave Mann and the Scorned
I am sure his movies don’t rate with your Rialto set of chums but shit….. a lot of people liked them. Just not you.
The Hurt Locker vs Avitar …. fuck that’s a hard choice. BTW did anybody actually watch the Hurt Locker?
February 2nd, 2012 at 8:15 am
“BTW did anybody actually watch the Hurt Locker?”
Yes. It sucked. But so did Avatar. District 9 should have won the Oscar.
February 2nd, 2012 at 8:15 am
A question I’d like ‘the media’ to address
Who did Cameron purchase the land from?
February 2nd, 2012 at 8:23 am
‘I mean Cameron is a foreigner’
Stuff is reporting that he has New Zealand residency and plans to live here indefinitely. Not really the same as the Crafar farm purchase as they are a foreign company buying land and sending all the profits back off shore.
It seems likely that with Cameron living in New Zealand that there will be gains for our film industry and that is what any foreign investment should represent a win-win for the purchaser and for the country.
And yes Lance I saw the Hurt Locker, good movie but I’m not sure it deserved the best picture Oscar.
February 2nd, 2012 at 8:23 am
I have been crying with joy, at all the closet racists I know that have been excited by the JC purchase, but then when questioned can’t explain why this is fine, while the Crafer purchase was not… (yeah we both know, but you won’t admit you’ve been caught out).
At least old Winston is being consistent, and being against both.
February 2nd, 2012 at 8:45 am
I don’t recall any bleats and moans from the left when the sale of land to ‘foreign investors’ was proceeding at pace during the reign of dear leader.
DPF has already posted the numbers – they are self evident. http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2012/01/land_sales.html
Memo to the leftards: Pot. Kettle. Black.
February 2nd, 2012 at 9:04 am
No-one seems to be too upset by our Real Estate companies opening offices in Asia specifically for the purpose of flogging overpriced NZ real estate to furriners.
February 2nd, 2012 at 9:21 am
It’s not a very comparable situation.
1) A foreign company buys land, intends to remain foreign domiciled, and hires a NZ manager to produce milk powder for the foreign company to export to the foreign country in its entirety.
2) A foreign individual buys land, moves to NZ with his family, and hires a manager to run the productive side of the farm in the same way that all NZ domiciled farmers run their farms.
What James Camerson is doing is exactly the same as a third generation NZ farmer who has no sons or daughters who want to run the farm, and who has become so old he can’t do it himself. So he hires a manager.
What Shanghai Pengxin is doing is what initially happened in the Niger Delta. I’m sure the locals were assured that everything was going to be sweet for them too. It isn’t so much anymore.
My concern with foreign company buyups of productive land, is that they have no skin in the game. What do they care about whether nitrogen runoff fucks up the river systems in the area? None. How a Chinese company might treat New Zealand can be drawn from how Chinese companies treat China.
That’s my concern on the matter.
February 2nd, 2012 at 9:44 am
I’m surprised by this news.
I mean, sure it’s quite pretty up there, but I wouldn’t have thought it would be the choice of a guy who could be anywhere in the world that he wanted…
February 2nd, 2012 at 10:08 am
RRM:
He’s near Peter Jackson, and Weta workshop. He’s going to make a fortune working from that base.
Wide open spaces, no needs for body guards or gated residence. However I agree his kids are going to find it hardest. Technology is going to quite constrained for them over there… School the size of one classroom in LA…
February 2nd, 2012 at 11:49 am
He would have been allowed in under labour. He would have just thrown a cocktail party and those morons would have turned up in their ill fitting suits and rubber stamped whatever he wanted.
February 2nd, 2012 at 3:16 pm
Rouppe wrote
My concern with foreign company buyups of productive land, is that they have no skin in the game. What do they care about whether nitrogen runoff fucks up the river systems in the area?
As I understand it Shanghai Pengxin as a condition of purchase have to invest NZ$14 million in the properties, and have Landcorp as managers. Given that Landcorp is an SOE, one would presume the farms will be managed in accord with best practice so the nitogen issue would possibly be mere imagining on your part, especially as I seem to recall that the Crafar family were not very good in this area, so Chinese ownershp might be an improvement.
Furthermore, Shanghai Pengxin are investing some NZ$100 million to build markets for high end NZ dairy product in Asia, this implies value add rather than just shipping milk powder which is largely what Fonterra does. So SP do have skin in the game, plus a desire to make money on their very considerable investment.
So I think your comment reflects your prejudice, not fact