This Government bill amends the Overseas Investment Act 2005 to reduce compliance costs and make decision-making timelier, while giving the Government tools—including a national interest test—to safeguard national security and public order. It was enacted as the Overseas Investment (National Interest Test and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2025.
Parliament advanced this bill under urgency (committee of whole house, third reading) — moving it through faster than usual, with less time than normal for public submissions.
This bill amends the Overseas Investment Act 2005, which governs foreign purchases of sensitive New Zealand assets such as significant business assets, sensitive land and fishing quota. It reshapes screening by consolidating several existing tests — the benefit-to-New-Zealand, investor and national interest tests — into a single national interest test for most assets other than farmland, fishing quota and residential land, and directs scrutiny toward the most sensitive deals. It gives ministers a clearer power to decline or attach conditions to investments that pose a risk, while aiming to process most applications faster. It affects overseas investors and New Zealand businesses and landowners seeking foreign capital.
It is a government bill, part of a wider reform to make New Zealand more attractive to foreign investment. The argument for is that a faster, more predictable regime draws in capital, jobs and growth while still letting the government block genuinely risky deals. The argument against is that a lighter-touch, quicker process may weaken safeguards over strategic assets and land, reduce public scrutiny, and concentrate discretionary power in ministers' hands.
See the Parliament.nz ↗ site for the full bill.