This order brings into force, on 24 November 2021, certain sections of the Overseas Investment Amendment Act 2021 that relate to the benefit test and fisheries.

The benefit to New Zealand test is designed to ensure that investments in sensitive land and fishing quota will benefit New Zealand. The changes brought into force by this order include the following:

• changing the counterfactual to a simpler test (ie, Ministers must compare “before and after the investment”, rather than using the “with and without the investment” test used after the Court decision in the Crafar Farms case):

• requiring a proportionate approach (ie, taking into account whether the benefit is proportionate to the sensitivity of the land and the nature of the overseas investment transaction):

• enacting a modified test for farm land with an elevated benefits threshold, by moving the current Government’s rural land directive up into the Act:

• restating the factors for assessing the benefit of overseas investments in sensitive land:

• confirming that a holistic cost-benefit assessment is not possible, by excluding consideration of negative impacts of a proposed overseas investment, with the exception of the new factor that relates to investments in water bottling.

The amendments to the Fisheries Act 1996 are to align the overseas investment fishing provisions with the changes made to the Overseas Investment Act 2005.