Overseas Investment Act 2005

Consent and conditions regime - Administration

34: Ministerial directive letter

You could also call this:

"A Ministerial directive letter is a special letter from the Minister that tells the regulator what to do about overseas investment in New Zealand."

The Minister can send a special letter to the regulator, and the regulator must do what the letter says. This letter is called a Ministerial directive letter, and it can be about things like how the Government wants overseas investment in New Zealand to work. The Minister can use this letter to tell the regulator what to do, even if the regulator normally makes those decisions.

The Ministerial directive letter can be about many things, including what is important when deciding if someone can invest in New Zealand. It can also be about what conditions must be met when someone is allowed to invest, and how closely the regulator should watch to make sure those conditions are met. You can learn more about what this type of letter is by looking at the Legislation Act 2019, which explains what secondary legislation is.

The regulator has to follow what the Ministerial directive letter says, and this letter is a type of secondary legislation, which has its own rules about how it is published. This means the Ministerial directive letter has to be made public in a certain way, as explained in Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019. The Minister can use this letter to give the regulator directions about many different things related to overseas investment in New Zealand.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM358047.


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35: Ministerial directive letter must be published, etc, or

"The Government must make important letters public so everyone can see them."

Part 2Consent and conditions regime
Administration

34Ministerial directive letter

  1. The Minister may direct the regulator by a Ministerial directive letter, and the regulator must comply with it.

  2. Subsection (1) applies even if the subject matter of the Ministerial directive letter relates to a power that has been delegated to the regulator.

  3. A Ministerial directive letter may direct the regulator about the following things:

  4. the Government's general policy approach to overseas investment in sensitive New Zealand assets, including the relative importance of different criteria or factors in relation to particular assets:
    1. the asset types, value thresholds, and area thresholds over which the regulator has power to make decisions:
      1. conditions of consents or direction orders, including conditions that this Act requires be imposed:
        1. the level of monitoring required in relation to conditions of consent:
            1. any general or specific matter relating to the regulator's functions, powers, or duties.
              1. A Ministerial directive letter is secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

              Notes
              • Section 34(3)(ba): replaced, on , by section 23 of the Overseas Investment (Urgent Measures) Amendment Act 2020 (2020 No 21).
              • Section 34(3)(d): repealed, on , by section 20(2) of the Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2021 (2021 No 17).
              • Section 34(4): inserted, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).