The director of a law company says the Government is planning to shut down its investor immigration policy - but the Prime Minister says no such decision has been made.
Marcus Beveridge, the managing director of Queen City Law told The AM Show the Government will shut down the investor immigration category which he says brings in a billion dollars every year.
The investment categories - investor 2 and investor plus - stipulate that people wanting to immigrate to New Zealand using them must invest a certain amount of money in the country.
Investor plus has a $10 million minimum investment over three years, and investor 2 a $1.5 million over four years.
"For the last 10 years, $40 billion has flowed into our economy in the share market, property development, and in Government bonds. The bureaucrats in Wellington have said let's cancel it," Beveridge told The AM Show.
He says it's a "shut down the moat, fortress mentality".
"It's all quite negative. The only way to get a pathway to residency is a relationship with a Kiwi."
Beveridge says one of the proposed changes is to announce a new category of immigration which requires an individual to remit $25 million to New Zealand, a huge increase from the current investment requirements.
But Jacinda Ardern says no such decision has been made.
"We haven't made any decisions yet so you're not going to get a lot out of me," she told host Duncan Garner.
"We've said we're doing a piece on immigration and I think that's timely and right to do it now at a time when our borders are closed."
She did admit her "starter point" for investor categories is what New Zealanders get out of it.
"As a general principle, we always have to look at what New Zealand derives from those categories. We're not a country that looks to people and says you can just buy citizenship here - our view is there must be some benefit to New Zealand."
Garner then claimed Ardern just "doesn't like rich people who try and buy their way in".
"I haven't said that at all - I won't allow you to put words in my mouth Duncan when we haven't made any decisions."
