Did you ever hope madly to receive a certain coveted gift at Christmas as a child, writing letters to Santa after a long year of behaving well, only to be disappointed when unwrapping your presents?Writing to the Overseas Investment Office isn't laced wit
Did you ever hope madly to receive a certain coveted gift at Christmas as a child, writing letters to Santa after a long year of behaving well, only to be disappointed when unwrapping your presents?
Writing to the Overseas Investment Office isn’t laced with quite the same magic as addressing old St Nick but Private Bin was nonetheless excited when penning a request under the Official Information Act.
One of the most recent decisions released by the government office was completely blank. It revealed only that a confidential party bought confidential interests for a confidential sum at a secret location.
Of course, the first thing Private Bin did was send off a quick demand for more details. The response was disappointing – the old commercial sensitivity line.
A couple of weeks later a shiny new email appeared in Private Bin’s inbox, with the details attached in a pdf document about the top secret deal.
Anticipation bubbled as the pdf was opened. To be shrouded in such disclosure it must have been a major property deal on a controversial site funded from A-list high profile pockets.
Imaginations ran wild. Had Donald Trump, Richard Branson and Lady GaGa formed a consortium to buy up the entirety of the North Island? Had David Cameron bought Stewart Island as an Antipodean hideaway?
But Private Bin crashed back down to her desk with a disappointing thud.
The deal was 36.92% foreign-owned Auckland Airport buying interests in Queenstown airport, which by that point was such old news it had already been published on this very website.
