2020
Brenton Tarrant & The F Word. The Swastika In The Room
All of the media, judicial, and political comment on Brenton Tarrant, mass murderer and terrorist, talked about his ideology.[More…]
Good Riddance To NZ’s Biggest Bludger – And Take Your Bad Rubbish With You
Finally!
For as long as the Campaign Against Foreign Control (CAFCA) has existed – 45+ years – we have called for the closure of Rio Tinto’s Bluff smelter (for example, see our historic Comalco comic).[More…]
National Interest Test Must Be Permanently Applied To All Foreign Investment Applicants – And Should Be Applied To Transnational Corporations Already In NZ
The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) congratulates the Government for announcing that it is going to implement something that CAFCA has long called for – namely, applying its proposed national interest test to all foreign investment applicants, not just those in certain specified sectors, and not just those over the existing $100 million threshold (the current level above which official approval is required). [More…]
Rio Tinto: Clean Up Your Own Bluff Smelter Mess – And Bugger Off
For as long as the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) has existed – more than 45 years now – we have called for the closure of the Bluff aluminium smelter, owned by giant transnational corporation, Rio Tinto. [More…]
2019
National Interest Test Excellent First Step – Now Make Transnationals Re-Sit Their Licences
Campaign Against Foreign Control (CAFCA) congratulates the Government for adding to the foreign investment rules a national interest test for asset sales, and for including water bottling and media companies within its scope. [More…]
Government’s “Nuclear Free Moment” Response – Contract It Out To Forestry Transnational Corporations
There have been a couple of disturbing recent revelations by Radio NZ. [More…]
Let The “Too Big To Fail” Smelter Fail
“Too big to fail” was the mantra of the robber banks and other transnational financial sharks during the Global Financial Crisis a decade ago. This left the victims to pay for the costs of the crime, while the corporate criminals walked away scotfree and kept their loot. [More…]
ANZ Shenanigans Reinforce Need For Inquiry Into Banks
The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) joins the growing chorus of those calling for an inquiry into the banks, particularly the Gang of Four big Australian-owned banks that completely dominate the sector (and do very nicely out of it in the process). [More…]
Overseas Investment Act Review Aimed At Making Things Easier For Foreign Big Business: CAFCA
The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) welcomes the announcement by Associate Finance Minister David Parker that a review of the Overseas Investment Act “might” give Ministers “‘full discretion’ to decide whether the purchase of assets worth more than $100 million by foreign investors should be allowed, with an expectation they would decline any deals that they did not think were in the national interest”. [More…]
Hold The Phone! For First Time, OIO Does Something About One Of CAFCA’s “Good Character” Complaints
One of the very few alleged “checks and balances” in the Overseas Investment Act is the requirement that the persons owning and/or controlling the applicant transnational corporation be “of good character”. [More…]
2018
Hell Freezes Over – Treasury Consults CAFCA On Government’s Review Of Overseas Investment Act
Something unprecedented happened this week. Treasury – which has never contacted CAFCA about anything in our 40+ years of existence – [More…]
New Overseas Investment Amendment Act – CAFCA Says Don’t Expect Much And You Won’t Be Disappointed
The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) congratulates the Government for passing the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill, which will become law within weeks. [More…]
Time For Action From Govt on Foreign Takeover of Businesses – Tell Them The Garage Sale is Over
The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) has already congratulated the Government on toughening up the approval regime for foreigners wanting to buy New Zealand rural land. [More…]
CAFCA Says It’s Time To Get Tough With Tax Dodging Transnationals: This is Not Just About One Bad Apple
For several years now the New Zealand media have drawn attention to the scandalously low amount of tax paid in this country by some of the biggest transnational corporations (TNCs) in the world, particularly the digital economy giants such as Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon. [More…]
Policy Change Puts Brake on Foreign Land Grab Good!
The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) congratulated the Government when it announced that, as from December 2017, the rules around foreigners buying NZ farmland have been tightened up. [More…]
2017
Overseas Investment Office Needs To Pull Finger On “Not Of Good Character” Complaints
The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) is pleased that the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) has rejected the application from China’s HNA Group to buy finance company UDC Finance. [More…]
New Farmland Restrictions On Foreign Buyers Welcome First Step
CAFCA Urges Government To Go Much Further & Faster
The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) is very pleased that the Government announced that, as of December 2017, the rules around foreigners buying NZ farmland have been tightened up. [More…]
Government Takes First Baby Steps On Foreign Control But Needs To Get Its Arse-Kicking Boots On, And Fast
The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) congratulates the Government on taking its first baby steps on the major issue of foreign control. [More…]
2016
Overseas Investment Office’s Conditions On Shanghai Pengxin’s Farm Purchases Prove Meaningless
In September Landcorp announced that it is selling nine sheep and beef farms. Included in those are farms that it was running on behalf of Chinese company, Shanghai Pengxin. [More…]
Overseas Investment Office Good Character Process Review
Land Information NZ released today the independent review of the Overseas Investment Office’s “good character” process in the wake of its 2014 approval of the sale of Onetai Station to buyers who figure in the Panama Papers. [More…]
IAG/State Insurance Just Keeps On Demonstrating Why It Won The Roger Award
This latest outrage by IAG / State Insurance just goes to show why it was such a worthy winner of the 2015 Roger Award for the Worst Transnational Corporation Operating in Aotearoa / New Zealand. [More…]
Overseas Investment Office Review: What NZ Needs is a Bouncer, Not a Doorman
The Government has announced an “independent review” of the Overseas Investment Office in the wake of its 2014 approval of the sale of Onetai Station to buyers who figure in the Panama Papers. [More…]
Well Done, Mr Weldon! First You Stuffed TV3, Then You Stuffed Yourself
It was one of those fascinating contradictions of capitalism that the foreign-owned TV3 always took its journalistic obligations more seriously than the State-owned TVNZ. [More…]
CAFCA Forces Overseas Investment Office to Lift Cloak of Secrecy on its Approvals
The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) has had a relationship with the Overseas Investment Office (and the Overseas Investment Commission before that) dating back to the 1980s, when we waged a five year long campaign just to get any access to its data at all. [More…]
Flogging the Country Off to Foreign Owners Does Nothing to Reduce NZ�s Debt
A common justification for flogging off NZ, particularly its publicly-owned assets, to foreign owners, is that it is necessary to reduce the county’s debt.
In a word: nonsense. [More…]
Tax Havens Among Biggest Foreign Owners of NZ
The Panama Papers have shone a most welcome (and long overdue) light into the murky world of tax havens, offshore trusts and shell companies.
It is worth noting that two notorious tax havens – the British Virgin Island and the Cayman Islands – are among the top foreign owners of New Zealand companies. In both cases, they rank ahead of China, just to put it into perspective. [More…]
Four Out Of Five Kiwi Workers Aren�t Employed By Transnational Corporations
Business New Zealand said today (“Foreign Investment Essential For New Zealand”) that: “Today one in five New Zealanders works in a firm that is part-funded by FDI (Foreign Direct Investment)”.
Not so. The actual figure is lower than that and is lower than what it was in 2000. [More…]
What Export From NZ Is Bigger Than Seafood & Milk Powder Combined?
The answer is the exported profits of transnational corporations. Proving that foreign �investment� actually sucks out more money out of New Zealand than it puts in. [More…]
2014
Key’s double talk on land sales disturbing
John Key is reported (Press, 18/3/14) as telling iwi leader Sir Mark Solomon and the public different things concerning NZ land sales to China. Solomon was told the Government is encouraging China to lease rather than buy New Zealand land, whilst publicly Key denies there is any change to “the rules around foreign investments”. [More…]
2013
Blackmail and Corporate Welfare: Government Plays Monkey To Rio Tinto’s Organ Grinder
CAFCA says you could have knocked us down with a feather. So, Rio Tinto is not going to close down its Bluff smelter as it threatened to do a few months ago (and has threatened to do every time it feels that its charmed existence in New Zealand is going to become less cushy). Instead, it has condescended to keep it open – but only guaranteed that until January 2017. [More…]
Let the ‘too big to fail’ smelter fail
“Too big to fail” was the mantra of the robber banks and other transnational financial sharks during the Global Financial Crisis, which remains ongoing. This left the victims to pay for the costs of the crime, while the corporate criminals walked away scotfree and kept their loot. In this country, Rio Tinto’s Bluff smelter was decades ahead of the fashion. [More…]
Press Statements – Archive
Older press statements are available via the following links:
Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa,
P.O. Box 2258
Christchurch 8140.