Post-Cabinet Press Conference: Monday, 10 February 2025

Kia ora koutou. Good afternoon, everyone. It’s great to be back in Parliament for what is the start of another really busy sitting block for the Government as we push on with our plans to drive economic growth, create jobs and obviously unlock opportunities for all Kiwis. We are relentlessly focused on strengthening our economy because it’s because of—higher incomes, better infrastructure and a better standard of living for all New Zealanders is what it’s all about.

Today I’m joined by our infrastructure Minister, Chris Bishop, to talk about New Zealand’s investment summit that will be held here on March 13 and 14, which is the centrepiece of our quarter one action plan for 2025. Put quite simply, New Zealand is open for business and we want the world to be well aware of it. We are using every tool available to kickstart our economy into high gear. You’ve seen us recently launch Invest New Zealand, close out a free trade agreement with the UAE, start up a dedicated agency to attract that foreign direct investment through Invest NZ. Obviously, our Fast Track process took effect on last Friday. It’s starting to cut through the red tape that has held back investment and major projects for too long. And then obviously yesterday we updated our investor visa programme to make sure that we can bring high quality investment to New Zealand that actually benefits all Kiwis and obviously driving more economic growth.

To build on this momentum, we’re bringing together around 100 top leaders from global investment firms and also from infrastructure companies to showcase the incredible investment opportunities that New Zealand has to offer. We want people from all corners of the globe to know that there’s now a culture of saying yes in New Zealand: yes to investment, yes to innovation, and yes to getting stuff done. International investment is absolutely critical to this vision. Attracting our share of global capital and expertise to our shores will help dig us out of the infrastructure deficit this Government inherited a lot faster and a lot quicker. We want to lift our economic productivity, ensuring that we obviously remain competitive on the world stage. And at the end of the day, Kiwis will be the winners because the more investment and more capital we can attract, ultimately it leads to higher incomes and more jobs.

I’ll personally open the summit and several of our Ministers will also be taking part to share the Government’s ambitions and plans with these folk. I really believe that we have tremendous potential here in New Zealand, that we have a great future ahead of us, and obviously attracting this investment will be a key part of being able to do that. The summit is actually about unleashing the potential that we have by removing the financial barriers that are actually holding back our growth. And with that, I’ll hand over to Chris to pass a few more remarks about the detail.

Thank you, Prime Minister. As I think we all know, New Zealand has a massive infrastructure deficit. Estimates vary, but it’s around $100 billion or so. To put that into context, it’s 80 Transmission Gully motorways. It’s also three times the size of our entire school property portfolio, eight times the size of our hospital network. Our infrastructure deficit is a major drag on productivity and on growth, and to fix it, the Government has a massive programme of infrastructure investment over the next five years.

But we can’t buy our way out alone. Instead, we need to patch the leak in the leaky bucket by using every tool in the toolbox. And the Government has, as I’ve talked about before, an ambitious programme around all of those things. We need to embrace market-led proposals when investors come to us with ideas, which is why we released guidelines on that last year. We need to improve the ways we fund and finance infrastructure, making better use of PPPs and strategic leasing to ensure every dollar of public and private capital is being put to its highest-value use. We’ve recently released a funding and financing framework. We need to think longer term about our infrastructure priorities while we’re working on a 30-year national infrastructure plan, which will be released later this year. And of course Fast Track, which started life on Friday last week, to cut through the red and green tape holding us back.

We’re committed as a Government to using every tool in the toolbox to stop our infrastructure projects getting stuck in regulatory purgatory and to start getting spades in the ground. Greater foreign investment and more partnerships with the Government are an important opportunity that can allow us to move ahead with those big projects that will create jobs and growth for New Zealanders and a better quality of life.

So, the summit will provide an important opportunity to showcase our infrastructure vision, highlight upcoming investment and development opportunities to around 100 leaders from global investment and construction companies. It’s on 13 and 14 March, as the Prime Minister has said. Attendance is by invitation only and I can report to you that interest is so high we are currently oversubscribed for the summit. As well as showcasing upcoming infrastructure opportunities, it’s also going to highlight changes in policy, regulation and legislation that we’re already making to make it easier to do business here, and it will also highlight investment opportunities in a range of growth sectors like renewable energy, clean tech, aquaculture, the resources sector, for example, and indeed the Māori economy. I’m going to be presenting at the summit, alongside many of my Cabinet colleagues. We’re looking forward to showing the world that New Zealand is a country worth investing in and that we are open for business and that we are going for growth. Thank you.

Well, thanks, Chris, and just a quick word on the quarter one action plan for 2025 that we’ve also released today. The plan obviously has a strong focus about boosting growth by attracting more overseas investment. As well as the summit, some of the initiatives we’re focusing on this quarter are upgrading our visa settings, delivering smarter regulation for our agriculture sector and obviously reshaping our planning rules so that people can actually get stuff done in this country. We have hit the ground running this year, with some of the priorities in our Q1 plan already ticked off, including allowing digital nomads into New Zealand and laying the groundwork for AI to improve public services.

While the focus is on growth, our commitment to restoring law and order and delivering better public services also remains. We’ll soon pass legislation to ensure appropriate consequences for criminal offending, progress legislation to crack down on street racing, and publish our turnaround plans for the health sector to ensure that New Zealanders see better results from the Government’s record spend on healthcare. We have a big year ahead of us. We have a lot to say yes to, including growth, yes to investment and yes to building a more prosperous future for Kiwis. And now we’re happy to take your questions. Jason.

Look, no, we’re country agnostic. Obviously, we’ll have our standard safeguards in place as commercial deals are hammered out, but what this summit’s about is actually connecting an investor community internationally that is very open to investing in New Zealand, a Government that’s very welcoming of that investment, and actually introducing them to the investment opportunities that are here.

As I said, we’re country agnostic, but what we do have is obviously very strong safeguards in place to protect our national interests.

No, no, not—no, no, they are coming here on their own steam. Obviously there’s the cost of holding the event, but that’s funded from within our baselines.

No. I’m not that interested in political sideshows, I’m much more interested in getting this economy growing and that’s what I’ve been focusing on today.

Well, look, those are issues for David Seymour to address with the Speaker, I would imagine. What I’d say to you is I’m just not interested in those political sideshows, as I’d see them. I want to get things done.

I’m very, very focused on making sure we drive economic growth in this country.

Well, those are issues for David Seymour and Gerry Brownlee to talk through, given Gerry Brownlee is, as Speaker, responsible for the Parliament. All I’m saying is for me, I’m very much focused on getting into the job at hand, which is growth, growth, growth.

Well, I’m just saying to you, frankly, today I’ve been very focused on making sure we are doing everything we can to set up for a successful investment summit, making sure that we’re actually opening up our visa settings as we talked about yesterday. On Friday we opened up our Fast Track consenting process. Those are the things that I’ve been concerned about.

Again, for me, I know what I’m focused on, and that’s growing the New Zealand economy.

Well, look, I mean what I’d say is, as I said yesterday, you know, public confidence in the justice system relies on making sure that actually police investigations and political intervention are separated. That’s really a critical part of our system. Personally, I thought sending the letter was ill-advised. He’s aware of my views on that. But as you all know, he wasn’t a Cabinet Minister at the time.

Well, as I said, there’s been no breach of the Cabinet Manual. He didn’t do this as a Minister. I just think sending the letter was ill-advised. That’s my personal view on it. But ultimately, they’re questions for him.

Yeah, well, look, I mean that’s why—that’s why I made the comments I did, which is that, you know, having police investigations completely separate from political interventions is a critical part of our system. It’s absolutely critical, whether you’re an MP or a Minister. But in terms of—you know, and that’s why I think sending the letter was, as I say, ill-advised. But he—this didn’t happen—this happened before we formed Government, before he was a Minister, and, you know, my view is that, you know, this didn’t happen as a Minister. So, you know, from that point of view, my job as Prime Minister is to hold my Ministers’ behaviour and their conduct to account. This didn’t happen while he was a Minister.

Well, there’s a very fine line to walk. All electorate offices up and down this country will have issues where—you know, of different nature about our constituents’ engagement with police. But I think ultimately, it’s about finding that balance and that line, and making sure that you’re not interfering in an investigation or you’re keeping your—you know, the political interference separate from the police investigation, as it should be.

Well, again, I’m sorry but I haven’t been following the story today. I know it’s a big deal for the folk here in Parliament. Ultimately, it’s an issue for—

No, no, I get it, but what I’m saying to you is actually it’s an issue for Gerry Brownlee and David Seymour to work out, given Gerry Brownlee’s responsible for Parliament.

Well, it’s a hypothetical. He didn’t write it as—

Well, he didn’t—he didn’t write it as a Minister, and I’m just saying to you my personal view is it’s ill-advised. Whether you’re an MP—

—or a Minister, it’s important to make sure that there’s a separation between investigations and politicians.

No, I said that as constituent MPs advocating for your constituents, there is always a fine line to make sure that you’re not impeding on that investigation. I just think sending the letter, in the way that it was, was ill-advised.

My office was—had received the letter. I think just before the story broke, the story, I got a high level readout of it. It’s very similar to what was reported.

Well, look, I mean, as I’ve said, you know, we have a very good relationship with the Cook Islands and its people. We have a rather unique constitutional arrangement about free association for the last 60 years. We have real points of difference between the New Zealand and Cook Islands Governments, as we’ve talked about, around passports and around international agreements. You know, we know under those constitutional arrangements it’s important that there is total transparency about those, and in this case we don’t feel that that’s happened, and that’s why we’ve talked about that publicly and the Foreign Minister has done so. We’ll wait and see, and we’ll see what comes back.

Well, again, given we haven’t seen this purported agreement, we need to make sure we wait and actually see it, and we’ll make our judgments after that.

Well, again, that’s hypothetical. We haven’t seen the agreement. We need to wait and see and actually be able to see it, and once we see it, we’ll make our assessment.

Well, what is important is that there is transparency, and in this case, there hasn’t been and that’s what we’re—that’s all we’re asking for. And so that’s been the nature of the conversations, leader-to-leaders but also officials-to-officials, and that’s what we’re expecting. At the moment we need to wait and see, and see what the agreement actually does or doesn’t look like.

We have a very good relationship with the Cook Islands and also its people but, you know, we have points of difference, as we’ve highlighted here, around passports and around international agreements. We have an obligation under our constitutional arrangement to make sure, around issues of defence and security, that we’re very transparent about all of that. We need to wait and see what has actually been agreed or not agreed, and then we’ll make our judgments after that.

Well, that’s why, under questioning, you’ve actually seen him say that we want— we expect transparency and he’s calling that out, and that’s what we’re saying, and that’s why you do have a dispute between the two countries.

I think our relationships across the Pacific have been strengthened over the last 15 months for sure, no doubt about it—

—but what we have here is a dispute.

What we—what we—what we know is that we have our—we don’t see eye to eye on these two issues. Passports we’ve actually dealt with and the Prime Minister has conceded that he won’t be progressing passports, which is right, given the nature of our constitutional arrangements. With respect to the agreement, you know, we’ll have to wait and see what that looks like, and we’ll make our decision after that.

Sorry, Tom. Can you speak up a bit? I can’t hear you. You’ve got a very soft voice, my friend.

No, what a load of rubbish. This is actually going to be a very good thing for New Zealand. We have an active investor visa that—Australia and the UK don’t have anything like this. We have huge interest that has built up even before we made the announcement yesterday about people who want to invest in New Zealand. You know, to give you a feel for it, I think in the last—certainly the last two-year period, there was about 13 projects of about $70 million worth of value only that was actually actioned under the old regime. Pre that, it was—over the same two-year period, it was about $2.2 billion. So we are missing out on a huge amount of investment.

And the incredible thing with this class of investors—and I met many of them yesterday and I’ve met many of them over the last 15 months or so—is that once they get here and they have trusted networks and they build relationships and they get familiar with the situation, they’ve invested up to another $1.7 billion in further investments. So this is a really positive move for us. It’s one of many things that we’re doing, as you can see today by announcing the investment summit. It’s also about the investor visa class. It’s also about the free trade deals. It’s also about Fast Track. It’s and, and, and, it’s yes, yes, yes, in order to actually make sure that we’re doing everything we can. Job number one: power up the New Zealand economy, get a stronger, bigger economic engine in place so that we can help Kiwis get ahead, so we can get better public services.

Well, again, I’ll direct you to the Immigration Minister if you want the detail. We missed you yesterday. But what I’d say is that this is a very clean and simple and clear, you know, two-speed investor category, where you can bring in $5 million with higher-risk investment for a period of three years or you come in with $10 million for lower-risk investment, and there’s clear criteria about what asset classes you need to invest in in order to do that. Invest New Zealand will make sure that that is actually the case.

But importantly, you know, by the time we’re now putting in place Invest New Zealand to go out and attract foreign direct investment in the order that Chris and I are planning through the investment summit, coupled with the investor class; by the time we actually have mechanisms like, you know, a 30-year pipeline of infrastructure, and we have a national infrastructure funding and financing company in place; those are the mechanisms we need to be able to activate and actually get the money into New Zealand and actually working for New Zealanders. And I think all of that’s a pretty exciting development, as you saw yesterday.

Well, really, I’ll let Chris talk to that.

There will be investment opportunities at the summit, but more importantly I think it’s talking about the pipeline of investment opportunities into the future. You know, we’ve got big ambitions as a Government around infrastructure more broadly. I talked about the health infrastructure pipeline. Obviously we’ve got the Roads of National Significance programme being delivered through NZTA and others. So we’ve got big ambitions as a Government around infrastructure investment.

And so the summit will highlight and showcase the opportunities that will come in the forthcoming years because we can’t—we’re not in a position to—and nor would the market want us to—drop out dozens of opportunities right now because the market couldn’t handle that and nor could we build all of those things. So it’s about establishing a clear and consistent and stable pipeline of opportunities, and the summit is the start of that investment piece.

So there will be some opportunities at the summit but it’s more about: what are the opportunities that will be there in three years, five years, even ten years? Because we want to attract new investors into New Zealand and also new construction companies into New Zealand to say, “You know what, I’m going to turn up to New Zealand and I’m going to start building some stuff because they’ve got a Government that’s welcoming of me, I’ve got some partners I want to work with, they’ve got great skilled capital—skilled labour that I can work with, and it’s a great place to do business”. The rule of law, all the things that are really important. But what hasn’t been—what’s been lacking in the last few years is those investment opportunities and some of the regulatory and policy settings that we’ve spent a lot of time over the last year working on: things like Fast Track, market-led proposals, foreign investment rule changes, investor visas. All of that stuff is really important as well.

Well, you wait and see what happens at the summit. But as I say, there will be investment opportunities presented at the summit and around the time of the summit, but there will also be a showcasing of the pipeline of opportunities that will be coming over the forthcoming years. And we have—we have an unsolicited bid or market-led proposal guidance out there now. That is administered by the National Infrastructure Funding and Financing company. That went live on 1 December, from memory.

And so we are open for business right now. If there’s an investor out there or a group of investors who’ve got bright ideas for things that they would like to fund in New Zealand or would like funding for, that they think would add value to the New Zealand market, they can approach the New Zealand Government right now. They have a single point of contact through the National Infrastructure Funding and Financing company. And, you know, we will get on with the job of processing those. Not all of them will be accepted. You know, it’s early days. But we are interested in bringing capital and talent to this country so that we can go for growth.

Well, it’s actually not just about—it’s not about the summit per se, it’s about what the summit leads to. And so what we’ve discovered over our travels over the last 15 months, as many of you have experienced, is that when we sit and talk with investors, which I do in every location I go to internationally, there is now a real openness to invest in New Zealand, but they don’t know what is—what are the investment opportunities that are here. Equally, you now have a Government that’s put the settings and some of the mechanisms in place that we desperately need to be able to convert that investment. And really what the summit is about is the beginning of actually making them aware of investment opportunities, raising their interest in New Zealand. And, you know, I know that we also have other investors that will be coming through the country after the summit as well, wanting to explore in some detail opportunities as well.

So, you know, really what this is about is we need investment because when we get investment and capital that leads to higher incomes and more jobs, and that’s a good thing for Kiwis who win out of the back of this. But we also think there’s opportunities for partnerships in some of our fast-growing sectors, and certainly for iwi, being a key partner in many of these opportunities to participate in infrastructure development as well.

I’ll let Chris—well, we’ll detail that at the summit but—

You don’t get everything all at once, you’ll have to wait and see, but there’ll be some investment opportunities at and around the summit.

There’ll be some investment opportunities at and around the summit, but as I say, it’s also—it’s not just about the immediate, as in the next six months. It’s about the pipeline and showcasing to international investors that we are open for business and ready for their capital.

Well, look, I mean we’ve looked all around the world. We’ve looked at other small, advanced economies and asked how they’ve actually put it together. And we realise there’s quite a different skill set at NZTE, which is about helping our New Zealand domestic firms sell their goods and products out into overseas markets and building that literacy of exports and market development from overseas. But it’s quite a different skill set to actually sit down with overseas investors and actually make the connection to opportunities here in New Zealand, so that’s why we’ve followed the Irish model.

I’m just saying if you put Invest New Zealand together, which is designed to be able to attract billions of dollars of foreign direct investment into New Zealand—we know that we sit at the bottom of the OECD and we’ve done a poor job over a number of years, a number of decades, I’ll put it to you, attracting foreign direct investment. We need to be able to make the most of all that pension fund wealth that sits out there in the world that is awash with cash. We want to be able to make sure it needs a home and we want to be able to make sure that we can bring some of that money here to New Zealand to benefit everyday Kiwis.

We’ve had ongoing—we have ongoing conversations.

Look, all I’m going to say is that we have ongoing conversations on that point. It’s one piece of the investment puzzle that we need to be able to do, getting visa settings right, getting, you know, investors connected with opportunities. Yes, we can talk about foreign buyer ban and the ability to purchase houses, and those are ongoing conversations. When we’ve got something to say about it, we’ll talk about it then.

We are progressing conversations on a range of issues, including some of those and others that you haven’t raised, to make sure that we make this a very investment-friendly place, and we’ll continue to do so.

You can see we’re announcing things each and every week and—if you notice that we announced Fast Track, we announced investors and today we’re announcing a summit.

When we’re ready to tell you, we’ll tell you.

Look, what we’re focused on is making sure that any conversations we have from a leader-to-leader point of view is highly transparent. That’s all we’re asking for in the context of our constitutional arrangement with the Cook Islands, which is that we expect transparency and we expect discussion and consultation, and that’s all we’re laying down. And yes, we’re a new Government, but that’s our expectation in our partnership with the Cook Islands, is that we should be straight up with each other about what we’re doing.

Well, again, our issue is with New Zealand and the Cook Islands, is that under our constitutional arrangements we expect, you know, matters of defence and security to be transparently discussed between partners. That’s all we’re asking for here. So that’s why there is a difference of opinion and we’ve been very transparent about that with you, in the public domain. We’re answering those questions, and we’re being very clear with the Cook Islands as to what we expect them to deliver.

Well, yeah, no disrespect but I won’t be running—doing a running commentary on comments from the US President. You know, I speak for New Zealand and what I can say from a New Zealand perspective is we believe in the importance of the rules-based system.

Wherever and wherever I go I advocate very strongly for that, and I’ll continue to do so.

Tom, can you speak up again?

Yeah, look, as I was coming down, I was made—you know, I’m aware of the statement that the President’s made about steel and aluminium at 25 percent tariffs. Frankly, let’s just wait and see, and we’ll deal with it then.

Again, we’ll wait and see what the actual proposal actually is, versus—you know, it’s important we see what policy in detail gets implemented, given statements—as different from statements.

Well, again, I’d just say to you I’m not here to comment on statements from the US President. He’s elected on a platform. It’s no surprises in what—in some of the decisions that he’s taking. But that’s up to the American people and to him. What I’m advocating as Prime Minister of New Zealand is that I defend our national interests and where I can, I advocate for the rules-based system, as I should.

Well, again, we’re making very clearly that we expect those conversations to be very transparent. You know, we want to make—we need to see what is actually being discussed.

Again, what’s in New Zealand’s national interest is to make sure we have a positive relationship with the Cook Islands. You know, it’s a special relationship, 60 years in the making, and it’s important to us that we actually are transparent and honest, as deep and trusted partners with each other.

Yeah, again, we’ll wait and see, and see what is in agreement or not in agreement and we’ll work it out from there.

What we’re saying is that we want to make sure there is—anything that’s of a defence or security nature is obviously of great importance to New Zealand. It’s part of—it’s captured in our constitutional arrangements that we talk very openly and transparently about that, and that’s what we need to see. Okay, team, last question. Sorry, Thomas.

Well, again, as I’ve said before, we’re country agnostic. Obviously we have safeguards, you know, around our national interests and those will continue to be prosecuted and understood before any, you know, commercial deals are signed.

Well, again, we will look at the deals as they come and as they are formed. It’s all speculative and it’s all premature to talk about things. You know, we want to open up to as many countries as we possibly can. We’re agnostic as to where the money comes from. We need the investment, but we’ll obviously make sure we’ve got safeguards and we’re acting in our national interest.

Well, what I see it as is it’s been a tough time for New Zealanders and we’ve made some progress, as you’ve seen, with interest rates and tax relief and also inflation relief. You see rising—you know, good levels of confidence around business, pharma, consumer confidence. As I’ve said in my State of the Nation speech and as evidenced by the actions at the beginning of this year—that everything is focused on growth, growth, growth. The New Zealand people have been doing it tough. They’ve had a very, very tough summer. We’ve got a cost of living crisis. That’s why we’re trying to attract investment to this country. That’s why we’re trying to make sure we make it easier to get things done and built. That’s why we want our kids focused on being educated on the basics.

So we’re setting up the conditions for a great future because we do have a great future, but I fully acknowledge it’s a very difficult and challenging time for many New Zealanders. But they can—the plan is beginning to work. We have some encouraging green shoots with respect to inflation and interest rates and confidence. But this year it’s about growth and jobs, and that’s really what our focus has to be as we work our way through that economic cycle and power ourselves out to consistent, steady economic growth.

Well look, the Public Service Commissioner will release it when he’s ready. It’s important that we take time and do the—do the analysis properly and importantly, if there’s any findings coming through it, that we actually make sure that we’ve got an action plan that actually is implemented. So I’m going to leave that for the Public Service Commissioner to comment and I’m sure he’ll do that shortly. Okay team, thanks so much. Appreciate your time.