Answered in the other thread.
One of the criteria for qualifying for a Permanent Resident Visa, as a Resident Visa holder, is that you continue to meet character requirements for residence, as laid out in
A5. See
RV2.5, particularly RV2.5(e).
After going through A5 myself, I can see no circumstances where the denial of a foreign visa application would directly to ineligibility for a New Zealand residence class visa, but it's entirely possible that such denial by the foreign country was due to a character issue that, in New Zealand, makes one require a character waiver (
A5.25) or makes one ineligible for a visa entirely unless granted special direction (
A5.20). It would therefore be reasonable to expect INZ to scrutinize such applications more closely, to ensure that the denial of a foreign visa was not due to a character concern.