New Zealand's spies advised the government to give itself new powers to 'call in' applications by foreign investors for military and other national security assets, and privately-owned news media, Associate Finance Minister David Parker says.
Asked by journalists whether intelligence agencies recommended this part of a raft of extensions to foreign investment screening rules covering monopoly and vital infrastructure assets, Parker said: "Yes."
"The call-in power for dual-use technologies, for example, that was something the security agencies were interested in," he told a briefing on the government's latest reforms to the Overseas Investment Act, announced today and including a requirement that monopoly-type assets worth, in most cases, more than $100 million be subject to a national interest test.
The new call-in power for sales to foreign interests of "our most strategically important assets, such as firms developing military technology and direct suppliers to our defence and security agencies" will not be subject to a threshold.
The interest of intelligence agencies in such assets should not be a surprise, said Parker who said, when asked whether the changes had also been recommended by security agencies of foreign governments: "Not that I'm aware of."