32 LISTENER MARCH 10 2018
Zealand citizens. Finn, born in the US,
also holds US citizenship.
About four years ago, Handley was
shocked to find he had spent too many
days outside New Zealand and had lost
his permanent residence status and
with it the chance to become a citizen.
Handley’s attempts to regain eligibility for
citizenship languished in the system until
January when his citizenship application
was approved.
How does a savvy businessman get into this
sort of bind?
When I was living here all the time and
had permanent-resident status, it didn’t
occur to me. I thought it was a technical-
ity. But somewhere along the line, going
overseas to build up my businesses, I lost
the right to become a citizen. I spent years
trying to figure out how to get my per-
manent residency back so I could become
a citizen. It’s important to me that I am
a New Zealander. I am here for 100-plus
days a year and I have never really been
away from New Zealand for more than
three months at a time, but that didn’t
play into the maths required to regain that
citizenship qualification. When I applied,
it went round and round in circles.
Do you think this is tied to the controversial
decision to fast-track citizenship to US
billionaire and Trump supporter Peter Thiel,
even though he had never lived in New
Zealand and had visited for only 12 days?
Definitely. It became dynamite, but then
the government changed and in its first
month, this was done. My last resort
would have been to wait for five years
after I came back to apply. I am super
happy and so is my son. He said, “Dad,
you are going to be just like us”, because
in our family we have two black [NZ]
passports and one red [British] one.
Has Donald Trump’s presidency entered your
thinking about returning to New Zealand for
good?
Yes, it is one of the nails in the coffin
leading to us coming home. It’s not just
Trump: there are lots of problems there,
guns being just one of them. Racism is still
a huge issue and the healthcare system
makes no sense. These problems would
exist whether Trump was there or not.Where do you live in the US?
We live in a hamlet called Halcottsville
in upstate New York. It has about 100
people and that has taught me a lot about
community. There are people from several
generations who have always lived there,
and whatever grooves or grudges they
have remain. Some are accepting of new
people; some are not. We moved there
from Brooklyn in July. We wanted to
spend more time at our house there before
moving home to New Zealand next year.Do you have any reservations about returning
to New Zealand?
I land at Auckland Airport and cry – with
happiness. Increasingly, we have all felt
like that and so we are coming home. We
can always be a bit bolder about how we
shape New Zealand for ourselves and put
New Zealand on the world stage.What will you be doing?
Whatever I do long term, it will have
a heavy component of service. Not
necessarily public service but working
for some sort of entity that is working
on society and the issues we face. I am
already involved via my foundation and
the collaboration with Splice and through
supporting social enterprises such as Eat
My Lunch.You’re booked on Richard Branson’s
commercial flights into space some time in the
future. What’s the attraction?
Since childhood, I have wanted to go into
space. When you watch a movie such as
Hidden Figures, which I saw recently, it
makes you think not just that it’s a great
movie, but about how hard space is, the
magnitude of it all and, yes, the danger.
After the crash [in 2014, an experimental
vehicle crashed on a test flight, killing the
co-pilot; an investigation blamed human
error], they no longer set tentative dates
for launching passenger flights and I don’t
think about it often. There isn’t an age
limit, so as long as I am fit, I should be
fine. How interesting to think that within
our lifetime someone might go to Mars,
although they might not come back.What are you reading?
I have a long reading list. I go to
bookstores and Amazon also makes it
so easy to accumulate books. I also read
on a Kindle and I am into audiobooks.
I’ve been listening to The Audacity of
Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American
Dream, by Barack Obama and read by
him. The Penguin History of New Zealand,
by Michael King, read by Rosemary
Ronald. God: A Human History, by Reza
Aslan. There is also a podcast I listen to
called On Being, hosted by Krista Tippett.
She features everyone from a civil-rights
activist one day to a Jesuit priest another
day talking about the core of their being
and what it means to be human.And in actual book form?
I am obsessed with books where there is
insight that helps teach you about your-
self. I have read Siddhartha, by HermannSHELF LIFE
1
4
“I land at Auckland
Airport and cry – with
happiness. We have all
felt like that and so we
are coming home.”