Bernard Hickey details the key news over the weekend in 90 seconds at 9 am in association with Bank of New Zealand, including news the Australian dollar briefly hit parity versus the US dollar on Friday night before lurching lower.
All the talk on global currency markets is about the US Federal Reserve's plans for a second round of quantitative easing, which is pressuring the US dollar lower against many currencies, including those seen to have stronger economies and benefiting from high commodity prices. The Australian dollar is among the strongest.
However, Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan almost seemed to welcome the milestone as a badge of honour for a strong Australian economy, saying Australia would take a hands-off approach to its currency because it acted as an automatic stabiliser that helped control the inflationary effects of the biggest mining boom in more than 100 years.
The New Zealand dollar remains weak versus the Australian dollar at around 76.2 Aussie cents, helping to boost New Zealand companies exporting to Australia and tourism operators welcoming in Australian tourists keen to spend their bulked up currency.
Meanwhile, the opposition Labour Party announced a major turnaround in its policy on foreign ownership of New Zealand farmland and monopoly assets.
Labour Leader Phil Goff announced at the annual Labour conference that acquisitions of farm land would only be approved if they included the creation of new jobs with processing facilities.
Sales of more than 5ha would be blocked and sales of more than 25% of monopoly assets would be blocked, he said.
Ministers would be given the authority to block any acquisition worth more than NZ$100 million.
Here's some of the details below of his speech.
It is time we reconsidered what we get from the sale of farm land offshore, and what are the costs. Kiwi farmers are the most efficient in the world. We are not going to make them more efficient by making more of them overseas owned. Selling off our farmland won’t increase production or export earnings.
There are big overseas buyers with money to burn who want to control and own the supply chain for food production. Instead of adding value to production here in New Zealand, they could decide to do it overseas. That would cost us jobs. They’re coming here to buy what’s currently ours and they will be doing it more often. We are more vulnerable as land values fall. Assets like the Crafar farms have been put up at the behest of banks.
But what is in the banks' interest is not always in the wider interests of New Zealand. We are at risk of our land being priced on an international market beyond the reach of New Zealanders. When New Zealanders have to compete against overseas buyers, we have to ask ourselves - what will happen if the prices paid lock us out of owning our own land? Where does it end up if we say to ambitious young New Zealanders that you can only buy into our best and productive assets if you come from overseas or you are born into a wealthy family.
That is not the New Zealand I want. No overseas person has the right to buy our land - it is a privilege. It is a privilege we have granted too easily. Today you have my commitment that Labour will turn the rules on selling land to foreigners on their head. We’ll guarantee that New Zealand’s interests are put first. We will reverse the presumption that any foreign purchase of our rural land is good for New Zealand. This will mean that rather than most applications from foreign buyers going through, most will be turned down. Buyers will have to prove that selling land to them will be good for our economy.
We will force would-be buyers of New Zealand rural land to invest in New Zealand and our people by bringing jobs, transferring technology, increasing exports or bringing other benefits for New Zealand. These rules will apply to sales of rural land over 5 hectares. We will also introduce new rules around investment in monopoly infrastructure to guarantee these crucial assets, such as airports, seaports and water services remain in New Zealand hands.
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