Cameron buying staff silence too

HOLLYWOOD HEAVYWEIGHT James Cameron is assembling a committed group of Kiwi staff to milk his cows, harvest his walnuts, buy his land – and keep the public at arm’s length.

Last week the Avatar and Titanic director got the green light from the Overseas Investment Office to buy a 420- hectare dairy farm, bringing his properties in the region to 10 totalling more than 1500 hectares.

The latest purchase, Macland Farm, includes around 600 cows, a 60- bail milking shed and three workers’ houses.

It also appears to include the silence of farm managers Jay and Nicole Harris.

Jay Harris, a recent finalist in the Wairarapa Farm Manager of the Year competition, would say only that he and Nicole ‘‘loved working and living’’ on Macland farm, and would continue in the role.

The couple cited confidentiality agreements, a recurrent theme with Cameron’s new employees.

The former owner and now understood to be manager of Pinnacle Grove walnut orchard near Carterton, which Cameron was cleared to buy in May, said they weren’t able to comment.

‘‘We are now employed fulltime by James and we have signed confidentiality agreements, so we don’t feel able to talk,’’ Ad van der Tol said.

‘‘We’re employed by Jim and he sets the conditions, and we will abide by them.’’

Cameron’s full Overseas Investment Office applications for two recent purchases, released to the Sunday Star- Times under the Official Information Act , show the film-maker has gathered a consort of loyal, tight- lipped local staff over the last two years.

A document outlined how his T Base 2 company, incorporated on January 31, 2012, to ‘‘hold [New Zealand] real estate assets for Mr Cameron’’, operates.

‘‘[T Base 2 is] engaging New Zealand legal and other advisers and consultants to assist with due diligence on the land and with the review and negotiation agreement.’’

A key member of this team is Bell Gully lawyers partner Willy Sussman, likely to have overseen employee confidentiality agreements and also efforts to keep details of Cameron’s recent transactions from emerging.

This follows Fairfax’s reporting on documents released through the OIA last year, showing that Cameron applied for residency under Immigration New Zealand’s Investment Plus category.

His applications for consent to buy the walnut orchard and 10 hectares of land at Lot 25, Western Lake Rd, both granted in May, contain provisos designed to avoid OIA revelations.

‘‘[Cameron] requests that if the Overseas Investment Office receives a request under for any information contained in the application, [he] first be given an opportunity to object.’’

Sussman said it would be ‘‘inappropriate’’ for him to comment.

One document in the files was withheld by the OIO on grounds of

of

the sale either privacy or commercial sensitivity.

But its title, ‘‘ School Philosophy’’, suggests Cameron’s wife Suzy Amis may be contemplating her own business venture. In 2006, she co-founded the private Muse School in California with a philosophy of child-centred learning and sustainability.

Their children – twins Claire and Quinn, 10, and Elizabeth Rose, 5 – were reportedly enrolled at the US$20,500-a-year-school.

Under the Government’s charter schools plan, the Camerons could launch a Muse-style school here and its teachers could also find themselves ‘‘working for Jim’’.

Also set to work with Cameron is the New Zealand Association.

The files show Cameron will honour a contract the van der Tols made in 1998 with the NZTCA to participate in a 20-year walnut variety cropping trial.

A document titled ‘‘Walnut Field Day details’’ suggests Cameron is developing a solid working

Tree

Crops relationship with the tree-cropping fraternity.

The OIO said the Camerons intended to live indefinitely in New Zealand and were buying the land as part of their home and working farm.

Immigration New Zealand confirmed Cameron has been granted residence.