Overseas Investment Amendment Bill - public submissions now open

People can now make submissions on the Overseas Investment (National Interest Test and Other Matters) Amendment Bill, with public submissions open until 23 July 2025.

The Bill passed its first reading in Parliament on 24 June 2025. The Bill proposes to amend the Overseas Investment Act 2005 to better reflect the benefits that international investment can bring to New Zealand’s economy, while providing the appropriate regulatory tools to proportionately manage risks to New Zealand’s national interest.

The proposed legislative changes include:

• revising the Act’s purpose statement to explicitly acknowledge the role of overseas investment in increasing economic opportunity, while continuing to acknowledge that it is a privilege for overseas persons to own or control sensitive New Zealand assets,
• consolidating the national interest, benefit to New Zealand, and investor tests into a single test for all assets other than farmland, fishing quota, and residential land (for which the existing consent pathways remain), and
• requiring that LINZ, as the regulator, grant consent under the national interest pathway within 15 working days unless there are ‘reasonable grounds’ to consider a risk to national interest may exist, in which case a ‘stage two’ full national interest assessment is required.

Public submissions to the Finance and Expenditure Committee are open from now until 23 July 2025 at the Parliament website at Overseas Investment (National Interest Test and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. 

The Committee’s report back to the House is due by 31 October 2025. 

Overseas investment policy is led by The Treasury, and LINZ is providing operational support and advice as the reforms progress.