Take the politics out of foreign investment

We’re not New Zealand born, but we’re staunch New Zealand citizens. We’re also proud Wairarapa sheep and beef farmers.
Before my wife and I moved our family thousands of miles from upstate New York we did research – a great deal of it. As we wanted to go farming, we narrowed our choices to Canada, Australia and of course New Zealand. 

South America was out of contention.  We made the conscious decision to live in an English-speaking country for the simple reason a new language would add too much complexity.
We dropped Canada from consideration for being even colder than New York. We also wanted to break out of the closeted subsidy culture that’s prevalent in North America. 

Our preference was for New Zealand’s more benign temperate climate.
Emily was the farmer, I was an investment analyst. Together we learned more about the country, its political stability, history, economy, agricultural system, climate and the rural property market. Of course, being ‘foreign investors’, we checked out whether we’d be welcomed or not by Kiwis. Being in Federated Farmers a few years later, I came across one farmer who made Winston Peters look like a weak-kneed liberal. This man genuinely hates foreign investment. Yet proving the debate is seemingly two-thirds heart and one-third brain, I recently learnt he’d bought a farm in Australia and was an absentee owner. Without any sense of contradiction he still opposes foreign investment, albeit slightly sheepishly. 
Deciding on a country is one thing, but it’s quite another to get the ideal farm. We were fortunate to convince Castlepoint’s board that a family of New York Yankees were fit custodians for their iconic Wairarapa station. That was 1998 and we’ve never looked back.

Kiwis are the most hospitable people, with an unerring knack of convincing you to take on more responsibilities. Currently I am one of two non-New Zealand born farmers on Federated Farmers national board. I’m also on the board of Grow Wellington and the NZ Grassland Association. 

To keep my feet firmly on the ground I’m also Castlepoint’s fire chief. Emily is similarly involved and our children are progressing through university here in New Zealand.
Seeing we live near Wellington and serve on the Federated Farmers board, politicians are quick to say families such as us are ‘ideal’ business migrants. The message is that ‘people like us’ will continue to be welcomed whichever party wins the next election.  Unfortunately, that nuance is lost if you are thousands of miles away reading media reports, watching TV news on-demand or listening to talkback radio streamed live on the internet. 

If, today, we were researching New Zealand, would we make the biggest of big moves? Possibly not. The tone about foreign investment has hardened for the worse. To outsiders, politics and popularity now seem big determinants. 

There’s also a nasty undercurrent which reflects poorly on us as Kiwis. Who this is putting off we’ll never know, but it is off-putting.
Farming is the most international industry we have. It’s this mix of people that makes New Zealand agriculture unique and the success it is. The Green Party opposed Shania Twain’s High Country purchase, but I understand that station is now working on one of the largest privately funded conservation efforts in New Zealand. The restoration and enhancement of Young Nicks Head would never have taken place had a Kiwi farmer bought it rather than the New York financier John Griffin. 

Politics must come out of the ‘foreign investment’ debate because it can so easily spiral into the gutter. Rules are important and we Kiwis accept that with sport so why not with overseas investment? There will always be ‘the rub of the green’ with individual decisions but New Zealand benefits far more from the people, capital and the ideas it brings.

• Anders Crofoot is a Federated Farmers national board member and with his wife Emily runs Castlepoint Station, recently named 2012 Wairarapa sheep and beef farm business of the year.