NZ: an international retirement home?

Should New Zealand have chequebook entry?

The Government has decided we should - at least, for elderly foreigners who want to come and live here.

Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman has announced that those over the age of 65 who invest a mere $750,000 in New Zealand over the two-year term of their permit can come and live here - as long as they indemnify the government from health or welfare-related costs.  

Those who have family in New Zealand can get a four-year visa if they invest $1 million.

Both visas are renewable indefinitely.

So that means that pretty much anyone over the age of 65 who is in reasonably good health and can get health insurance can come and live in New Zealand for as long as they like. That's because although the permits are only for two years, Coleman has said they can be extended.

Three-quarters of a million dollars is a paltry sum in most countries - including New Zealand actually. There wouldn't be many migrants who couldn't rake up that much through the sale of their house and sundry assets.

I wonder whether simply buying a house here would count as investing? It probably would.

So, is this A Bad Thing? I can just imagine what Winston Peters, God rest his soul, would say were he still in Parliament. But putting aside the vitriol and the usual warnings of hordes of immigrants threatening to overwhelm us, what is the benefit, and to whom?

If I were a retired German, or Brit, or American, or South African living in a pensioner flat with a bit in the bank I'd be on the next plane. Retirement in the South Pacific, where the cost of living's relatively cheap, the weather's nice, and the crime rate's (relatively) low? Yes please.

So why are we doing the world's over-65s such a massive favour? What's in it for us? Coleman says it'll boost investment in the country and give the economy a lift. Really? I'd love to see the evidence. It's a tiny sum required to come and live here, and once you're here you could practically live off the smell of the proverbial oily rag.

I can't imagine that the day-to-day running costs of the average superannuitant are going to do much for the economy. Indeed, immigration's own officials seem to agree.

Embarrassingly for Coleman, Labour's Pete Hodgson has a long memory, and he dredged up a report officials wrote last time National came up with this idea in the late 1990s.

Not to put too fine a point on it, officials bagged it. They said the plan would cost the public health system upwards of half a billion dollars a year and provide no obvious economic benefit. They also dismissed the idea of providing some sort of health indemnity, saying that even if those who took up the scheme signed an indemnity, no hospital could ever turn them away if they fell ill.

There are other issues. Even if such immigrants had proper health insurance, they will still use health resources and potentially put a strain on existing infrastructure - particularly GPs' surgeries. The elderly do tend to use by far the bulk of the health resources in any country. And fair enough, they've paid their taxes all their lives.

I'm also a bit uneasy about the whole concept of buying residence. I understand the need for a special investors' category, but this goes well beyond this. I thought immigration policy was supposed to be based on who was best to serve the interests of the country. Not trying to be ageist here, but wouldn't that be young or young-ish people who have a stake in the country's future?

Immigration policy is a vexed business, I know, but it's one area of government policy we're you're allowed to discriminate. New Zealand residency is one of the greatest privileges the government can bestow on anyone, and there's no obligation to do so simply because it's a nice place to live and people want to come here.

Personally I've never held with Winston Peters' ranting over immigration numbers per se - 40,000 a year is fine with me. But it's who you pick. Becoming a retirement home for the world's elderly while they wait for Godot is not a good idea to me.

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