Bid to tag $1m migrant fees

By WAYNE THOMPSON

Rodney Mayor John Law says the $1 million that investment-category migrants have to bring into New Zealand could be a huge source of funding for the country's infrastructure needs.

He said migrants should be required to deposit their $1 million in a Kiwibank account to create a "jam jar" dedicated to infrastructure costs of their region.

The Auckland region needed about $4 billion to expand its roading, sewerage and water to meet the needs of a rising population, he said.

Ratepayers and taxpayers should not have to foot the bill when there was a potential source of funding in business migrants.

Present business immigration policy requires migrants to invest $1 million in a trading bank and the total amounts to about $1 billion a year.

Mr Law said the banks could well end up investing that money overseas, rather than within New Zealand for the benefit of its communities.

Immigrants would feel good about their money helping their new communities to prosper and those communities would appreciate immigrants making the contribution.

Their deposits could also help develop industries in the smaller towns.

Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel said Mr Law was welcome to make a submission to a review of business immigration policy.

Using Kiwibank was not appropriate, the minister said, but she wanted to ensure that migrants' investments were put to maximum advantage for the country.

One possibility was to force investment-category migrants to invest $1 million in low-yielding Government bonds.

At the end of the period their capital would be returned but, in the meantime, it would have been available for venture funds or infrastructure development.

An evaluation of the business immigration policy by New Zealand officials last month found about 98 per cent of those in the investment category simply parked their money in trading banks to meet their entry requirements.

Aussie Malcolm, of immigration consultancy Malcolm Pacific, said Mr Law's idea would have to overcome the natural dislike of governments to forms of state income being dedicated to forms of state spending.

But he thought most immigrants would be happy to contribute.

Herald feature: Immigration