6. DAVID CLENDON (Green) Link to this
to the Minister of Finance
Is a lawyer working for Hong Kong - listed Natural Dairy NZ on the technical reference group advising the Government on the review of the overseas investment rules; if so, when was he alerted to this?
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) Link to this
I understand that technical reference group member Andrew Petersen of Bell Gully is working on behalf of Natural Dairy in New Zealand. I am not aware of any other members of the technical reference group acting on behalf of the company. The technical reference group is made up of senior practitioners with expertise in applying the Act. When we considered improving the Act we decided to talk to people who know how the Act works. They know how it works because they handle applications. The member should keep in mind that they are providing technical and legal advice, not policy; that will be determined by Ministers and Cabinet.
Mr SPEAKERBefore I call the supplementary question, I tell the Minister that the question asked when the Minister had been alerted of that. It was a straightforward question, and I believe that the member deserves to have it answered, if the Minister has that information.
I became aware of Mr Petersen’s connection with Natural Dairy Holdings only last week when it was made public.
When the Minister met with members of the technical reference group on 18 February, did any of them suggest raising the threshold required for business investments that must be approved under overseas investment law for citizens from China or Hong Kong?
I do not recall the details of those discussions, but if the member is suggesting that individual lawyers were making propositions in the interests of particular applications, that is absurd. The applications are not processed by me or by the lawyers; they are processed by the Overseas Investment Office in accordance with the law, for which that member’s party voted, I am quite sure, when it was changed 4 or 5 years ago.
Will the Minister consider releasing the information relating to the 18 February meeting to which lawyers from five corporate law firms were invited to give their No. 1 problem with the current screening regime, so that the public can see how fair and open his review of overseas investment is; if not, why not?
As far as I am aware there is no information related to that meeting. I had a discussion with a group of lawyers about how they thought the Act could be made to work better. That is about it. There is no possible conspiracy here. They were giving some technical advice on, as I recall it, issues like the definition of land, which is an uncertainty in the Act. Any applications are processed by the Overseas Investment Office in accordance with law passed by this Parliament in recent years.
Do officials from Treasury and the Overseas Investment Office liaise with the members of the technical reference group; if so, how are conflicts of interest handled?
As I understand it, they do liaise with those members. The way that any potential conflicts of interest are handled is that all the applications are handled by the Overseas Investment Office, which is separate from Treasury, separate from the Minister, and separate from Cabinet, and administers independently a law that was passed by this Parliament in recent years.
Could the Minister explain how Treasury’s advice to the members of the technical reference group not to produce any formal report, thereby leaving no paper trail, reduces the risks of any conflicts of interest?
Will the Minister release all advice from the technical reference group members at the same time as the Government announces its plans for the next step of the overseas investment review, so that the public can decide for themselves whether there were any conflicts of interest; if not, why not?
This is an open Government and all of the processes of the Government, including that one, are subject to the Official Information Act. The member may be disappointed to find that the group of lawyers have provided some pretty narrowly focused technical advice, mainly to Treasury. I had one meeting with them, 4 or 5 months ago now. In case the member is not aware, all applications are processed by the Overseas Investment Office. Any policy changes that are made will be debated by this Parliament in the same open and transparent manner as every other policy change that goes through Parliament is.