New migrant investor visa conditions risk turning billions of dollars away because Labour’s convoluted rules will make it harder to invest in New Zealand, National’s Immigration spokesperson Erica Stanford says.

“Stuart Nash and Michael Wood are risking billions of dollars in future investments that would benefit Kiwis based on a hunch that individuals just come to New Zealand and don't provide any investments in the wider economy.

“This is yet another example of Labour not understanding how migrants behave, and as a result, they will turn away crucial investment that New Zealand desperately needs.

“The new categories ask new arrivals to New Zealand to immediately invest directly in private companies, a high-risk investment in a market they would not yet understand.

“Productivity Commission research looking at the typical investor lifecycle found that high-risk investments generally follow low-risk investments, while overseas investors find their feet in New Zealand.

“This is backed up by research commissioned by Immigration NZ and conducted by BERL, which shows that individuals go on to make further active investments far exceeding the initial investment required to gain residence.

“The National Party understands that this research shows that for every dollar initially invested, individuals go on the make a further two to three dollars in active investments.

“Evidence doesn’t appear to have must standing with the Immigration Minister. Today’s investor visa category changes are no different to the claims the Government has made about migrant nurses leaving the profession – they are simply not based on evidence.

“Australia had a premium investor category that was set at $15 million which was scrapped in 2021 because it just didn’t attract applicants.

“The Government has a legal right to survey investor migrants on where they invest their money after their initial investment, and we know that MBIE has not undertaken this research to inform this policy.”

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