00:00Talk to us about what you're seeing on the ground.
00:03Well, all your listeners and your viewers know that America's polarised at the point in time,
00:07more so than it's been for a long, long time.
00:09We've got many Americans wanting to settle in New Zealand.
00:11As Greg Foran said, we're seen as a safe country.
00:14For example, our police don't carry guns.
00:17There's never been a school shooting in New Zealand.
00:19We've got a first world banking system.
00:21We've got a very stable government.
00:22And, of course, we've got a very pristine environment.
00:24The sort of things that Americans like.
00:26And, you know, we're seen as an oasis at the bottom of the world.
00:29And at this point in time of global uncertainty, geography is just as important as anything else, I would say.
00:41I'm just wondering how New Zealand itself is making itself attractive to these Americans and other potential residents and citizens.
00:52Well, we don't necessarily have to make ourselves attractive.
00:55I think we are by the very nature of the fact that we're, you know, we're 10, 12,000 miles away from the world's trouble spot.
01:02You had Keir Starmer come out and talk about putting his armed forces in a, you know, on radio just in case Putin does something.
01:09You've got a very high level of uncertainty in the Middle East, obviously, South China Seas.
01:14Who knows what's going to happen there?
01:15And, obviously, the U.S. is probably more polarised than we've seen for a long, long time.
01:20You jump on a plane, it takes a while to get to New Zealand.
01:22But by virtue of that, you're a long way away.
01:25So, what we see at Nash Kelly Global is a lot of people are telling us they are looking for a safe haven.
01:32I mean, in the past, a lot of these people were looking for tax havens.
01:35Now, they're after a safe haven for them, their family, and also their money and their wealth.
01:39You've got to wonder how the Kiwis themselves are looking at this.
01:47I recall back in 2018, there was a debate sparked by billionaire Peter Thiel,
01:52who, some say, didn't meet the requirements to be a citizen there or residency,
01:58to have a residency in the country under the administration of Jacinda Ardern.
02:05It's changed a lot since Peter Thiel's day.
02:07And, in fact, Peter would not get that visa or get citizenship under the current rules.
02:11So, the one thing about New Zealand permanent residency that you can get is you never have to reapply for it.
02:17And what a lot of our clients at Nash Kelly Global are telling us is that it's incredibly attractive.
02:22Once you have New Zealand permanent residency, you've got it for life.
02:26But the system does have a high degree of integrity.
02:28For example, you've got to prove that the money is legitimately gained.
02:32You've got to go through health checks.
02:34So, it's reasonably onerous, but we think that's important.
02:37So, the system does have integrity.
02:39New Zealanders love this.
02:40I mean, by and large, you know, the people who are coming over, they're not competing with first home buyers.
02:45They're competing with, you know, the lotto winners and the very high-end businessmen.
02:49And so, all the Nash Kelly Global clients that we're getting love what they're buying into when they come to New Zealand.
02:56As we say, pristine, a world away from everything, like an oasis at the bottom of the world in these troubled times.
03:03You've got to wonder about the optics, though, right?
03:09I mean, you're welcoming the wealthy into the country at a time when unemployment is close to record high.
03:16And these people are likely to drive property prices higher.
03:19We're not seeing the number of people who would drive property prices across the country higher.
03:25And keeping in mind, for me, it's not just the money they bring in.
03:28And they've got to invest it in New Zealand businesses or funds.
03:31It's actually the competency and capability and experience.
03:34So, what we're seeing here is men and women who have actually been very successful in their own country coming to New Zealand and leveraging a lot of that experience to help New Zealand businesses grow.
03:44And, again, a lot of the Nash Kelly Global clients are telling us that they love coming over here, helping businesses.
03:52It's almost like a mentoring role.
03:54So, if you're going to invest sort of 5 million Kiwi or 3 million US, you want to have a little bit of an active say in how this works.
04:00So, there aren't the numbers coming over to really skew house prices in any way, shape or form.
04:08But there are the numbers that are coming over to make a noticeable difference to a number of New Zealand firms that want to internationalise.
04:15It's a great scheme, actually.
04:17New Zealanders, by and large, are welcoming.
04:20You know, we're known globally as a really friendly people.
04:24And that's true.
04:24And it's the same for people who are coming over here and want to be part of New Zealand as well.
04:30Stuart, I want to talk about the Hollywood tariffs.
04:35Trump putting or intending to put tariffs on movies made overseas.
04:39And we know that a lot of those Hollywood movies are made in New Zealand.
04:44How do you see this playing out?
04:45What ripple effects do you see?
04:48Well, because we understand President Trump has actually released these sort of thoughts on truth social.
04:54We know it's not a policy yet.
04:55If it was to become reality, then it would probably decimate the New Zealand film industry, to be honest.
05:00And we've got, you know, Peter Jackson, obviously Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit.
05:03We've got The Avatar made here.
05:06Some very, very big movies, big Hollywood movies are made in New Zealand.
05:11We've got actually Brad Pitt's over here at the moment, I understand.
05:14Minecraft has just been made.
05:15But we're just waiting and seeing how this would play out.
05:18We understand what President Trump is trying to do.
05:21We think it would be very, very difficult to put a 100% tariff based on overseas movies.
05:27So we're just waiting and seeing how this plays out.
05:30And we hope that common sense will prevail because we have a lot to offer here.
05:33You know, we have a fantastic film crew here.
05:36There's about 24,000 jobs, 3.3 billion Kiwi.
05:40It's a pretty big part of our economy.
05:44It's not an American policy yet.
05:47We understand President Trump is just floating the idea.
05:50So we're just waiting to see where this goes.
05:54The thing is, you oversaw about $650 million in film subsidies under the Adrian administration.
06:01Do you see this time around possibly that the Prime Minister would retaliate?
06:06And what are the options?
06:07No, there's no point in a country like New Zealand retaliating against a country like the United States.
06:14There's nothing to be gained from doing that.
06:16You know, New Zealand actually has a very good relationship with the United States.
06:19Our Foreign Minister, a guy called Winston Peters, is a very seasoned and very professional politician.
06:25He's been dealing with the United States for many years now.
06:28The relationship between our two countries is very strong.
06:31And it goes back a long way.
06:33I just do not see any New Zealand government seeking to retaliate on any measure put in place by the United States.
06:40We're too small to make a difference.
06:42So, you know, we tend to negotiate as opposed to retaliate.
06:49Even as you adopt a wait-and-see attitude, I wonder if you see a possible impact on tourism as well as the broader economy.
06:56Well, about 19% of American tourists who came to New Zealand pre-COVID came because of what they saw in Lord of the Rings.
07:05So there's no doubt about it that the movie industry has blowdown impacts into the tourism industry.
07:10But as the CEO of Air New Zealand, Greg Fran, mentioned earlier,
07:14we're only seeing an increase in the number of Americans who want to come to New Zealand for all the reasons outlined.
07:21It is a long way away from home, but it's a bucket list holiday journey for many people.
07:26At Nash Kelly Global, we have our own ultra high net worth luxury tour package.
07:31We're seeing an uptake in that.
07:33This is Americans just getting away from the hustle bustle of, you know, the big cities, the New Yorks, the L.A.s.
07:39And coming to New Zealand, just experiencing the tranquility that is very, very difficult to find anywhere else in the world.
07:45As it stands now, though, how is the Kiwi economy looking amidst all the tariffs and trade negotiations happening right now?
07:56Yeah, look, there are bumpy winds.
07:59There's no doubt about that.
08:00We're coming out of a slow period.
08:03We're an agricultural-based nation.
08:04We're an export-based nation.
08:06People want to buy our protein.
08:08They want to buy our milk.
08:09They want to buy our meat.
08:10They want to buy our dairy products.
08:12So an export-led economy is going reasonably well and keeping in mind, due to the size of New Zealand at this point in time, we tend to focus on the ultra premium end of global markets.
08:24What we're finding is consumers around the world, as they become more engaged and enabled and educated, they tend to seek products that have a very high efficacy and high integrity.
08:33And that's what New Zealand prides itself on.
08:35Again, it's what a lot of my clients at Nash Kelly Global are telling us.
08:40They want a country where you get, you know, grass-fed beef, where you know your dairy is from cows that wander around paddocks as opposed to in stalls.
08:50We have it all in New Zealand.
08:52I know I'm a great advocate for the country.
08:54But it really is the sort of place where you get everything you read about in the magazines and you're one from 10 chickens like your own.
09:01Stuart Nash, thank you, Stuart Nash from our New Zealand minister for economic development and co-founder of Nash Kelly Global.
Be the first to comment