Roman Travers: Schmoosing the Hollywood executives should be a higher priority than fiddling with our immigration policies

It’s great to see the coalition government looking at every way possible in order to maximize the New Zealand economy.    Yesterday, a bunch of important government ministers stood near the arrival gates of Wellington Airport, to reinforce the news regarding the loosening of visa requirements for overseas visitors, who want to tour New Zealand while working remotely for their employer at home.   This is a copy and paste of what other countries have successfully implemented. Essentially, what are known as ’digital nomads’, will include visitors like IT specialists, as long as they are not receiving any income from New Zealand sources.   It would also extend to social media influencers — provided they were being paid by overseas companies.   These changes will apply to all visitor visas, including tourists and people visiting family.   Visitor visas can be extended for up to nine months, although the ministers warned that working in New Zealand for more than 90 days could require them to declare themselves as a New Zealand tax resident.   This may well indeed help in a range of ways to ensure that more and more overseas residents spend more time and money here – or indeed – eventually decide to make New Zealand home.   However; the ongoing influence of massive companies like Netflix may prove to be more of a success story for New Zealand than any policy invoked by any government.   Over the past weekend, parts of Dunedin were turned into an 1800s-style Californian town, with Hollywood heavyweights filming a new Netflix drama.   Academy Award nominee Florence Pugh is one of the actresses starring in a new adaptation of the 1952 novel, ‘East of Eden’, being filmed around New Zealand.   Auckland actress Jess Hong is just one of many New Zealand stars hitting the big time with Netflix, in a range of movies and Netflix series watched by millions globally.   Then there’s Luciane Buchanan in the current super smash series on Netflix, ‘The Night Agent’.   This is currently the number one show around the world for Netflix, with the ongoing potential to not only print money for Netflix and those that invest in the company – but also for New Zealand.   There’s a very long list of actors, doing amazing things on the big and small screens of the world, and this list is only fortified and embellished by the even longer list of producers, directors and other behind the scenes talent, who enhance the image, perception and geographical recognition of New Zealand, each and every time they land a gig.   You’ve seen what the Lord of the Rings movies and subsequent TV series has done for New Zealand. But we’ve changed how we want to be entertained since Sir Peter Jackson got stuck into the ring thing.   Government policy like we saw being announced yesterday is gold for the country, but ensuring we do everything possible to keep New Zealand high on the locations list for the abundance of movies and TV series yet to be made is crucial.    For the desperately needed growth of the economy, and the ongoing careers of all those who continue to tread the boards and feel the pull of the limelight.    Schmoosing the pay to view and movie company executives is of greater importance than the fiddling about of immigration policies.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.