by Sue Bradford
My regular New Zealand Truth column this week focuses on changes to overseas investment rules, and their threat to our national sovereignty:
Finance Minister Bill English is dead set on making it easier for overseas investors to buy our land and assets, and last week announced a series of changes to rules around foreign investment.
More reforms are due shortly.
To aid the Government in this process, a ‘Technical Reference Group for the Review of the Overseas Investment Act 2005’ has been set up.
The members are all lawyers: Andrew Monteith (Minter Ellison Rudd Watts); Andrew Petersen (Bell Gully); Don Holborow (Simpson Grierson); Garth Sinclair (Russell McVeagh); and Tim Williams (Chapman Tripp).
The Government put together this bunch of little helpers because they reckon there are too many barriers to overseas investors buying up our land and assets, and that we need to find new ways to make it easier for them.
I don’t understand how this can be when the truth is that over 98% of applications to the Overseas Investment Commission are approved. That’s not much of a barrier.
Strange to say, all the people who make up the new body are lawyers who work for legal firms which are likely to be involved in the sale of NZ land and assets to overseas buyers.
An even stranger fact about this new ‘Technical Reference Group’ is that its terms of reference expressly say that it is not to produce any report or other documentation, and that its work will be done by email and phone.
Nor will these gentlemen receive any remuneration for the task, not even compensation for travel and other expenses. Quite unusual in their world, to put it mildly.
I am sure these measures are to reduce the likelihood of accusations of conflict of interest from those of us who perceive that law firms who act for foreign investors may well have a somewhat biased opinion on the easing up of controls.
The whole thing stinks.
We do not need any loosening up on foreign investment in New Zealand – we’ve sold off enough already.
Foreign companies siphon money out. According to CAFCA, between 1997 and 2006 transnational corporations made $50 billion profit in NZ. Only 32% of it was reinvested here.
Nor do they provide a vast number of jobs. Foreign companies employ just 19% of our workforce despite owning a large part of our economy.
And since NZ Governments started hocking off our assets and land to overseas buyers from 1984 onwards, our public and private debt has rocketed from $16b (1984) to $248b (December 2008). Most of this debt is from the corporate sector.
We should be very worried about what the Government is up to.
They are changing the rules so that it will be even easier for our media (think TVNZ), our core infrastructure (Auckland Airport anyone?), our land and our businesses can be bought by buyers from overseas.
We will not gain economic or employment advantage from this – simply the further loss of already eroded sovereignty and a heap more debt.
If we’re not careful, we’re going to wake up one morning without a country to call our own.
Published in Justice & Democracy by Sue Bradford on Wed, July 29th, 2009
Tags: Bill English, CAFCA, foreign investment, jobs, Overseas Investment Act, Technical Reference Group
More posts by Sue Bradford | more about Sue Bradford
on the trolls and those who are unable to keep on topic
Is already owned by private individuals, if the government was to block it sale again, it should buy out the mom and pop investors.
What you are saying is that you are curtailing the freedom of those investors who may want to sell their shares on the open market (stock exchange).
So you would gladly take the money from people to invest in what you deem a strategic asset, in order to save the tax payer from funding the asset, but want to limited the investors abiilty to freely trade their investments.
Sorry you cant have it both ways, either buy all the shares on the public stock exchange, or stay out of peoples private investments.
So are the Greens advocating nationalisation of Auckland Airport?
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[Labour] MPs’ rich friend arrested at airport
4:00AM Saturday Jul 04, 2009
By Jared Savage and Phil Taylor
Police arrested Yong Ming Yan last Saturday as he was about to board a plane to leave the country.
Police arrested Yong Ming Yan last Saturday as he was about to board a plane to leave the country.
Police have charged a multi-millionaire businessman, who was granted New Zealand citizenship in controversial circumstances, with making false declarations on immigration papers and using fake identities to obtain a passport.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10582518
somewhat selective in what’s an issue and what’s not aren’t we!
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Gerrit said: So are the Greens advocating nationalisation of Auckland Airport?
Haven’t sen that Gerrit, although I think it is a good idea.
Genuinely competitive entreprise should be in private ownership, where the market can keep the costs to consumers down.
Monopolies (and airports are effectively among them) should be in public ownership – if there is no competition private owners can charge what they like. Oh, unless you regulate, which is what right wingers like even less than public ownership, it seems.
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jh said:
Police have charged a multi-millionaire businessman, who was granted New Zealand citizenship in controversial circumstances
Police will have their hands full soon, jh, when National allows any rich foreigner, regardless of the paucity of their English, to buy their way into New Zealand citizenship. Those police will need to set up a permanant checkpoint at Auckland Airport (providing the new owners allow it) and will need a full time translator to be on hand at all times.
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Will they put it in containers? Where will they take it?
Evil private owners. Evil foreigners. Good lord, it’s started already! They own all of my street, leaving only a thin strip of harsh, desolate public land – called a road – in the middle!
Won’t someone think of the children?!?!
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‘Will they put it in containers? Where will they take it? ‘
As most of it is largely invisibles profit transmission that won’t require containers on the way out. They needn’t import barbed wuire to lock me out of my back country hiking spots or away from some favourite coastal zones– we already make enough barbed wire here. They may choose to force me sell some of my little share parcels- but local capital can take over and do that too.
There have always been upper class fat cats in neo-colonial countries who fully cooperate and share in the spoils of foreign exploitation. Frequently thay are quite indifferent to the poor sections of their own societies. No doubt that little drama will continue to play out here too. Which side of the curtain will you be on? If you are who I think you are…
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“Police will have their hands full soon, jh, when National allows any rich foreigner, regardless of the paucity of their English, to buy their way into New Zealand citizenship.”
” He was granted citizenship in a VIP ceremony in Wellington last year after lobbying from former Labour MP Dover Samuels, who regards him as a close friend.
Rick Barker, the then Internal Affairs Minister charged with approving citizenship applications, was also on the list of politicians who knew Yan. Because of this, he passed the file to another minister, Shane Jones.
Mr Jones overruled Internal Affairs advice that Liu – now Yan – did not meet character requirements and granted him citizenship.
Mr Jones, now the Opposition spokesman for economic development and the environment, last night declined to comment.”
and the deafening silence from the greens.
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toad
The surely there must be a socialist plan to buy up all the monopolies.
Mind you, the state owned electricity SOE are a paragon of providing value for money to their customers, NOT.
Will the reverse be true on something like the Cook Straight. Now that we have
that situation with Bluebridge, should the state get out of the ferry business and sell those assets?
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‘They own all of my street, leaving only a thin strip of harsh, desolate public land – called a road – in the middle! ‘
Wrong, wrong, wrong. They are working on the prisons, and want to buy the roads too. And the rubbish… and water and the .airport and ports and…..
Financial death by a thousand cuts.
‘Will they put it in containers? Where will they take it? ‘
Containers surplus to requirements.
As most of it is largely profit transmission it won’t require containers on the way out. They needn’t import barbed wire to lock me out of my back country hiking spots or away from some favourite coastal zones– we already make enough here.
They may choose to force me sell some of my little share parcels- but local capital can take over and do that ,too.
It seems to me that there have always been fat cats in neo-colonial countries who fully cooperate and share in the spoils of foreign ‘investment’ . Frequently they are quite indifferent to the large poor sections of their own societies. No doubt that little drama will continue to play out here too.
Which side of the curtain will you be on? If you are who I think you are… where do you stand on the manipulation or our dollar? on the diktat of S & P (who contributed so mightily to the bad debt crisis in the US) which leads to cutting rather than expanding the public works role in fighting unemployment? on the growing gulf between rich & poor? on the statistical ‘anomaly’ that places 1 in 5 NZ children below a notional poverty line?
It’s obviously a little game for you, a little more genteel than a pub debate, no doubt. Around my hood people are hurting.
So why don’t you address the real questions in the posting above? They were made quite explicit.
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Sorry about excess postings. The wonders of modern tech..
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that you write in truth kinda cracks me up..
..tho’ i can see the value in sticking the messages in front of people who would never seek it out/the average truth reader..
u were effective/on yr game in yr questioning of bennett..today..b.t.w..
phil(whoar.co.nz)
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Bradfords Truth is delusional and utter bollocks, as she is a disgrace to the integrity of every sane New Zealander.
No wonder this country is a bitch fight with wimmin trying to spin social engineering madness.
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“Wake up without a country to call our own” It is almost like that now I live in the high country, Lake Coleridge in the South Island and all the farms except one in this basin is owned by foreign investors.
You would have to be extremely evil to be rejected by the Oversease Investment Office. Even Tommey Suharto, his sister and brother in law own property (one is Lillybank) in the south Island, the bro inlaw was responsible for the massacre in East Timor!!!
Isn’t that a wholesome bunch of solid citizens!!!! This is just what the founders of ACT/Nat have introduced to our country as well as flogging off our heritage.
It could be well worth keeping an eye on this legislation because I don’t think that the OIC act could be liberalised more, there has to be another angle on this.
I have a nagging suspicion that the neo-cons are going dig up a re-hash of the infamous Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) that the Shipley government tried to pass behind closed doors in the late 1990′s.
MAI is where a foreign corporation under the auspices of the World Trade Organisation can bring in cheap labour into this country. Also such trans-nats can only conform to WTO rules with regard to the environment, and ignore local and national law.
This is where capitalism/imperialism has gone global in order to destroy national and local economies in order to consolidate their monopolies.
This is treachery of the very worst kind.
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Gerrit said: The surely there must be a socialist plan to buy up all the monopolies.
Would be a good idea Gerrit, but unfortunately not enough money in the Government coffers to do it at the moment.
So, short term, just hang onto the existing ones.
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d4j said: No wonder this country is a bitch fight with wimmin trying to spin social engineering madness.
Piss off, you mysogynist prick. You add nothing to the debate because you just hurl abuse and never raise an argument.
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>>our media (think TVNZ),
Dear God, sell it off!
Tonight, their second story – live from the scene – was about how a contractor was seen measuring up a money machine! The horror! A builder, doing some work! In Northland! Locals were interviewed, statements were requested.
It couldn’t get any worse than it is now. The only problem is that no one in their right mind would buy it, as it is worthless.
>>So why don’t you address the real questions in the posting above?
Suggest you visit the BNP site. Your policies are almost exactly the same.
Where is this rampant xenophobia coming from?
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Toad, our Stock Exchange is already puny enough as it is; if we took away all the formerly state owned entities, then it simply would not have the depth to make it attractive.
What you fail to realise is that the depth of a Stock Exchange often influences whether or not business decide to use it for IPOs, something that we have had a lack of for a long time.
It was the headline piece in yesterday morning’s Herald though.
Fundamentally, what the issue is is that New Zealanders are not willing enough to do what is necessary. Ultimately, these foreigners are only buying these assets because New Zealanders are not willing to buy these assets – we should get over the 1987 crash, and start putting our money in the Stock Exchange again; own stakes in those companies and stop the tide.
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The depth, or lack thereof, in the stock exchange is IMO related more to the encouragement and support given to property as an investment. We will never have a Capital Gains tax, we will never ringfence the LAQC.
The passive investments in houses that are worshiped by the natlabs COST us investment capital everywhere else.
respectfully
BJ
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Since the foreign money also follows the pattern Galeandra is making sense. “Investment” in NZ means that my rent goes to pay interest to some foreign bank. One of the other “benefits” is inflation. We can’t even afford our own houses.
This isn’t xenophobia, it is the natural reaction to catching someone with their hand in my pocket. I want it gone. NatLabs have a more perverted response to the manipulation.
BJ
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[deleted by Frog - d4j cut the abuse or you'll be sent to the naughty bin]
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toad said,
There would be heaps if the government sold any stake in enterprises where there was competition.
TVNZ, Cook Straight Ferries, Railway, Electricity, Hospitals, Museums, etc., etc.
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Howdy Sue, it is clear that you and your ilk are genuinely benevolent, and committed to some very worthwhile work.
I am confident these efforts will be remembered with fondness and be met with a grateful sigh of relief that there indeed were those who fought the just fight, not only for their contemporaries, but for all those who were to follow onward. Thanks for caring!!
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How dare Paula Bennett embarrass the system by revealing the beneficiaries get more than working people.
Upper Class
Middle Class
Beneficiary Class (Social Welfare Gentry)
Working Class
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jh – the numbers of New Zealanders receiving a benefit is rapidly climbing under this National government.
There’s the embarrassment you talk about.
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Nothing to do with a recession, then.
And Labour killed the growth rate.
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You sound defensive BluePeter and seem anxious to pass the buck.
Your team is in power now and it’s THEIR job to sort it.
They are failing miserably.
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greenfly,
Wont be for long, the country is basically broke and living beyond the means for the people to fund to welfare system as we know it today.
So expect some serious cut backs to welfare.
Why would anyone bother to invest in New Zealand when productivity is poor, business taxes are high, and the economy is fast becoming a third world status.
We may mock Fiji, but we are not far from that situation.
However there are bright minds at work across the Tasman that may well see significant changes in the tax system here.
Read Brian Fallows review
More personal taxation, less business taxation.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=10587454
Now that is worth discussing, and may well solve BJ’s concern with the housing situation.
Though no doubt the turkeys (voting public) wont go for it but will instead have another bout of rogernomics forced on them when we are dead stoney broke.
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>>Your team is in power now and it’s THEIR job to sort it.
That’s right. But you can’t turn a ship around in five minutes.
There are years of choking socialism to unwind.
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>>However there are bright minds at work across the Tasman that may well see significant changes in the tax system here.
I suspect we’ll see a flatter tax system, following an Australian lead.
WFF will go, and welfare will be scaled back.
It will take some time to get this economy moving again. I wonder if it ever will. I think the Fiji scenario is not far off. We’re at a cross-raods – be like h Australia, or be like Fiji.
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Blue said:
That’s right. But you can’t turn a ship around in five minutes.
How long has it been since the election… 5 minutes?
Pffffftt.
It is right, it’s NActs responsibility and their performance over jobs has been abysmal, to put it mildly.
How many jobs have been created by these ‘Flash Harrys’ Peter?
How many have been lost under their guard?
You’d almost think that keeping ordinary people in work is not a prioroty of theirs, wouldn’t you.
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Government can’t create jobs. Well, they if they’re running deficits.
Where’s the money going to come from? Have you got the pixies working overtime?
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Pathetic response Peter and if that’s the way right wingers like yourself and those in the government think, then you and they are doing the public of New Zealand a grave misservice. Do you really believe that voters accept that the NActional government is not able to keep New Zealanders in work? How defeatist. Key pretended that the Jobs Summit was about creating jobs – was he misleading the public? It seems to be the case. Stuff all has come of it and that which has, has come at glacial speed. This is, as I said at the beginning of my post, PATHETIC.
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Was “Pathetic” the new word on Sesame Street today?
Your pixies must be working overtime. I’m sure the Unions will put a stop to that. Go talk to Whack It On The Bill Phil, he’ll tell you just what you want to hear.
I know it’s a trifling matter, but there’s this unsustainablity issue. You know all about that topic, huh. It’s when you use up stuff faster than you can replace it.
We spend more than we earn. What happens to you house if you do that?
The best thing the government could do is make it easier for business to prosper. Low tax rates, make employing people easier, and make investment easier to come by. They’re working on all that, which is good to see.
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greenfly,
So where will the money come from to support welfare?
Instead of again playing the man and not the ball, could you direct some thinking along the economic line.
Does not matter if you think if BP is pathetic or not, some thoughts on what the Greens would do in regards providing AFFORDABLE and SUSTAINABLE welfare would be interesting.
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BluePeter says:
but there’s this unsustainablity issue
Oh yes? Key is finding money for anything that suits him. He’s conning the working people of New Zealand by fobbing them off, weaving and dodging and ‘being unable’ to keep people in work. You are an apologist for a government that is letting its people fall into unemployment at an appalling rate. It’s a dirty business and you are grimy with it.
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BP
IF WFF is scaled back then there will have to be an additional tax bracket or two added on, because the current tax brackets and benefits package (less WFF) results in a marginal tax (on people in the 60-85k incomes with kids) of about 90%, while people on 100K and up pay 39% if they did it straight up, and 33% if they have a half-decent accountant or own investment property… and if you think that THAT isn’t a big reason people were shifting to Oz (or anywhere with sane rates of tax), you’ve lost what little is left of your mind.
I don’t care if WFF stays or goes, but I want the problem it was addressing solved. I don’t mind paying a hefty tax if the guy who has and gets more than me is also paying more than me. That doesn’t happen. I have NEVER seen it, and when the right takes control of things the inequity is invariably made worse.
Unlike some here I don’t reckon that National could have done a lot with the way the jobs market collapsed within months of their taking control. The planetwide recession is not their fault, though they may be more closely related to the people who caused it than Labour, it really doesn’t matter. I don’t think they did as much as they might have, but I doubt that there is anything conventional that would do much at all. We are slaves to our monetary system, chained to all the others, in the service of Goldman-Sacks-The-Planet and Just Pay Morgan. We won’t break loose with the bankers wandering the halls of power.
respectfully
BJ
(Turns out the Nile was holding Gareth’s book while waiting for another to arrive. Had been holding it for a week and expected to hold it another 2 weeks }}:-0!!! I pushed them and they shipped yesterday)
BJ
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Gerrit – I said (repeatedly) that BluePeter’s response is pathetic. It is. So are Key’s efforts for the many, many New Zealanders that are losing their jobs. Employment is high priority for New Zealanders. Your harping about welfare is an attempt to avoid the issue of JOBS FOR NEW ZEALANDERS. How’s that going, the jobs thing?
The Greens have presented meaningful, affordable and sustainable ideas TO CREATE REAL JOBS.
Key and his rightwing government have failed miserably to do the same.
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If it’s pathetic to believe in sustainability, then I’m guilty as charged.
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BTW:
Lifestyles of the rich and famous:
http://big-news.blogspot.com/2009/07/claims-that-fuller-was-getting-winz.html
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Seems you believe in pixies Peter and that is kinda pathetic.
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Owen
For macrons, you might like to try:
http://www.tetaurawhiri.govt.nz/english/resources_e/download/keyboard.shtml
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“MAI is where a foreign corporation under the auspices of the World Trade Organisation can bring in cheap labour into this country.”
The China-NZ FTA already put a clause in allowing companies to bring in labour employed according to Chinese law and conditions for up to three months. It was made to look like it was covering management, but can include technicians doing sevice and installation work.
I suppose BP is going to start going on about xenophobia again – which seems to be the knee jerk response to anyone who suggests that we shouldn’t run our economy for the benefit of people overseas. What nice little fairies right-wingers are with their sudden discovery of international alturism.
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The other thing that the LabNats could do and won’t is add a Capital Gains tax into the mix.
The problem BP is that the wealth party is still in power here. “LabNats” means the folks with means who get to set the agenda. The expressions of frustration from the Central Bank fall on ears that are blocked by the flappers provided by the commercial banks and damned if they’ll let anything meaningful happen.
So the wealth party remains in power, protecting its wealth AND preventing any change to the system that might allow other people to actually get into the game. Which is their real agenda, and you should be careful about who you associate with and admire, because they and their friends have caused more trouble globally than any number of mere socialists.
BJ
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Taaaaaax it! Ban it!!!!!!!
It’s so predictable….
We can grow the pie. Do you know why I and many other entrepreneurs stay at bach-n-BMW level? Do you know why growing small business sell out to overseas investors early? Want to know why I employ Americans and not kiwis?
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Not at all.
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In that case, I’ll tell you.
Risk vs reward.
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Let’s risk the lives of the Maui dolphins because there might be reward for the fishermen?
That’s your driving philosophy? No wonder your contributions sometimes go down like a cup of cold sick.
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Tax what, ban what BP?
Hard to tell what you are talking about sometimes, your response is the same tired rhetoric accusing someone (who?) of wanting to tax and ban (what?).
You want to grow the pie? You have to grow the middle class not the wealthy class.
BJ
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“Monopolies (and airports are effectively among them) should be in public ownership -”
Hows that worked out so far Toad?
“The study has found find that the country’s main electricity generators, state-owned Meridian Energy, Genesis and Mighty River Power and privately owned Contact Energy, effectively used their market power to maximise profits, including withholding power at peak times.”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10573622
“Ultimately, these foreigners are only buying these assets because New Zealanders are not willing to buy these assets – we should get over the 1987 crash, and start putting our money in the Stock Exchange again; own stakes in those companies and stop the tide.”
You’re seriously advocating that people vest their savings in the Stock Exchange in the most volatile trading environment since the Great Depression and in the wake of the collapse of at leaset 17 Finance Companies in the space of 18 months where investors lost billions? Particularly when this gem of a statement sums up the attitude of the NZ regulatory authorities.
“We are at the cusp of a new global adventure into new realms of mutual recognition and consistent standards around the world. We live in exciting times!”
http://www.seccom.govt.nz/speeches/2007/jds011107.shtml
And whilst this illustrative and furthermore accurate summation of the attitude of the nation’s legislature.
“Does our belief in aloof, theoretical application of antiseptic laws and regulations overcome the need for real, workable solutions?”
http://www.chrislee.co.nz/index.php?page=3rd-august-2006-nz-finance-sector-under-helen-clark
I think at least in the near future the investing public willl ascribe to this idiom, Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me and invest their money in the property market where they know that if they make a loss, they can have it deducted from their income taxes. And who can blame them?
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Yes I am, because if we don’t start doing so, then we will have no Stock Exchange, which will mean that businesses will only be able to get finance either by borrowing, or by moving overseas.
In terms of the volatile trading environment, this is no less volatile than what we experienced with the recession of 1997-98; during that period, the NZSE 40 plunged from a high of 2635 through to 1668; a near 40% drop in one year. In spite of that, two highly successful listings occurred around that time; of Auckland Airport and of Contact Energy.
A Capital Gains Tax will not fix the problem, since there are other fundamental issues at play (also, since a Capital Gains Tax would apply to share investments, it might discourage those as well). One of the big issues is that of Kiwis being sissies and not being able to get over the 1987 Crash – that happened over twenty years ago; every other country recovered from it, so can we. A further issue to that is that even with inflation only increases in the value of land, you can get up to 30% returns each year on real estate investment – that is of course because you can utilise leverage and increase your returns, while someone else is paying off the mortgage. Only in recent years have I seen similar returns on the Stock Exchange.
Fundamentally, if we freed up all the companies that are held by the government and listed them on the New Zealand Stock Exchange, that would probably increase the market capitalisation from $50 billion up to $70 billion overnight; and we wouldn’t even have to sell all the shares, selling 10% would do, 5% even.
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People who invest their lifes savings in the stock exchange now are fools. may as well go to the casino.
If one wishes to plow money into the above institutions then let it be disposeable income
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>>People who invest their lifes savings in the stock exchange now are fools
Only if they don’t know what they’re doing.
There are always winners and losers. We’ve just moved out of recession in the past week. Assets have been seriously undervalued in the past 18 months.
The only fools are those still on the sidelines. Or trying to sell those ten over-leveraged properties.
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Those who do know what they are doing have bought gold not shares and gold is still around the $935.00 an oz.
At that price I would say we are still in the recession.
Anyway why should one expect most of society to be speculators? as you seem to imply BP.
Can you paint a masterpiece or write a symphony? Why can’t genuine talent and trade be rewarded with pride and leave the winners and losers to the gaming tables?
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