Larry Page, co-founder of Google, has officially been granted New Zealand residency. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) confirmed on Thursday that the world’s sixth richest man has Kiwi residency, just 2 days the same ministry said – “Mr Page is not a permanent resident”. Interestingly, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said she was not aware that Page was in the country.

The 48-year-old Billionaire, who co-founded Google with Sergey Brin in 1998, is worth a staggering US$116.5 billion. As the U.S. is plagued with Covid-19 pandemic, Mr Page has gone missing, only to be found living off grid for over a year – hiding on some isolated private islands in Fiji. He reportedly arrived in the Fijian city of Nadi last month (July) on a private jet.

While Fiji has been closed to tourists and outsiders during the pandemic, Larry Page, however,  managed to enter through the special “Blue Lane”, an initiative that allows high net individuals with superyacht and private jets to enter the country with few restrictions. He has parked himself on the heart-shaped “Tavarua Island”, which lies west of the main Fijian island.

The billionaire was earlier spotted in Namotu amid speculation that he had bought the island in Fiji. Together with his family, including wife Lucinda Southworth, and an entourage, Page is believed to have arrived as early as last summer. He spent an extended period of time in the country, enjoying hydrofoiling, a kind of surfing where the board is elevated above the water.

The Fijian government has helped Page keep his presence on the islands private. In return for the favour, the Google billionaire had donated medical supplies to the country via his private jet when Fiji was hit with a second wave of Coronavirus infections. However, the story disappeared after the Fijian health authorities asked Google to keep the information secret.

While riding out the pandemic in Fiji, his child fell sick and required hospital treatment in New Zealand. Businessman and multimillionaire Sir Stephen Tindall, who knows Page, told Stuff that Larry Page’s young child had required treatment at Auckland’s Starship children’s hospital, and they had left “quite a while ago”. Citing privacy, the Kiwi Ministry of Health refused to comment.

But according to the New Zealand Immigration website, people requesting access to the country for medical treatment must obtain approval from the Ministry of Health or a district health board (DHB). Even then, Kiwi has extremely strict border controls in place, and entry is mostly reserved for New Zealand citizens and permanent residents.

In the year ending June 30, only 99 patients had been accepted for medical treatment via medevac flights. Obviously, it’s extremely difficult to gain access. The policies say patients, and a family member accompanying a child, are kept in isolation in hospital on arrival. Upon discharge, they would spend 2 weeks in Managed Isolation and Quarantine Facility (MIQ) in order to sustain its Covid-19 elimination strategy.

Immigration New Zealand said that Page met the requirements to be approved entry into New Zealand, despite not being a permanent resident or citizen. But the authorities refused to provide justifications as to why the billionaire was granted entry. It also refused to comment whether the Google co-founder had actually spent 14 days (two weeks) in managed isolation.

The Parliament was only told on Thursday afternoon that Page and his child were evacuated to New Zealand aboard a Kiwi air ambulance. New Zealand health minister Andrew Little said – “I’m advised all of the normal steps occurred in this case”. When grilled by MP Brooke van Velden, Mr Little said the Ministry of Health received a request on January 11, 2021, for Page’s child to be medevaced from Fiji.

PM Jacinda Ardern, on the other hand, said medevac decisions were made by clinicians, not politicians – “With all medevac cases, those are decisions for clinicians, and I absolutely trust our clinicians to make a decision.” Still, how did the billionaire get residency in New Zealand? Just because he was granted access to medical treatment for his kid, does not mean he gets residency automatically.

Apparently, the New Zealand government claimed that Larry Page applied for New Zealand residence in November 2020 via the nation’s “Investor Plus” residency visa. But the application was unable to be processed because he was offshore at the time. The visa requires applicants to have NZ$10 million (US$7 million) to invest in New Zealand over a period of three years.

After the billionaire landed in Auckland on January 12, just one day after Page’s son was evacuated from Fiji due to the medical emergency, the residency visa was instantly processed. Immigration New Zealand said – “Once Mr. Page entered New Zealand, his application was able to be processed and it was approved on 4 February 2021.”

The news of Page’s easy access and his residency status has reignited a longstanding debate over whether the super rich can buy access to the Kiwi as and when they want. Was his son really sick or was the entire medical emergency episode a smokescreen for the billionaire to step his foot on New Zealand soil, despite the border being closed to non-residents?

New Zealand has become a popular destination with high net worth individuals, largely because the country is located in relative isolation from the world, and specifically because it has successful in containing the pandemic. Previously, billionaire Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, was granted Kiwi citizenship in 2017, despite having spent only 12 days in New Zealand.

But billionaires are not the only privileged group of people allowed access under double standards or dubious reasons. In March this year, a Malaysian politician, Edmund Santhara Kumar Ramanaidu, attracted controversy after he was exposed of travelling to New Zealand on a 55-day leave to visit his children and wife amid the Covid-19 plaguing both countries.

Santhara, formerly PKR (People’s Justice Party) member, was one of the party traitors who switched sides, leading to the collapse of the democratically elected Pakatan Harapan government. In return for his contribution, backdoor Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin awarded him with the post of Deputy Minister for Federal Territories.

Mr Santhara managed to enter Kiwi on Christmas Eve (December 23) to celebrate with his family, and left 16 days later. However, as early as October 30 – the same day Santhara said he began his travel application with the Malaysia Immigration Department – Air New Zealand was ordered by the Jacinda government to freeze international bookings as Kiwis flocked home for Christmas.

Hence, like Larry Page’s highly suspicious entry into the country, Edmund Santhara’s access to New Zealand was met with backlash not only back home in Malaysia, but also raised the questions over the unfair special treatment accorded by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. The Kiwi government refused to say whether Santhara is a New Zealand resident or citizen, or how long he waited for an MIQ spot.

The Malaysian politician said – “My purpose of going out of state is to visit my children in New Zealand, especially my children who are continuing their studies in the law. Other than that, as a responsible father, I need to meet a 9-year-old child to carry out responsibility as a father during the break after almost a year of not meeting. In addition, I also need to visit a wife who is suffering from health issues.”

But Santhara’s desperate attempt to do damage control had raised more anger. How about other responsible parents or fathers who could not even travel inter-district, let alone interstate or overseas to care for their children or families? The Immigration New Zealand had used the same excuse – privacy – to evade any questions about Santhara’s controversial visit.

Santhara conveniently said he had already gotten permission from Prime Minister Muhyiddin to travel and his leave was approved. Heck, the disgraced politician had even threatened to take legal action “regarding false defamation allegations” made by his critics. Even after returning home, he was allowed to quarantine at home when ordinary people were made to stay in hotel rooms for the 10-day period.

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