Skills shortages and immigration settings remain at the top of chief executives' list of concerns in the Herald's recent Mood of the Boardroom survey. With almost daily reports of labour shortfalls in one industry or another, this should be no surprise.
Many factors are responsible for the reset’s failure. Constant tweaks to immigration settings have contributed to complexity and confusion for migrants and officials. The Government abandoning targets for processing visa applications has led to fewer decisions being made. Immigration NZ's antiquated legacy processes and teething problems with its new online systems have also played a role. And then there has been the Government’s clunky approach to dealing with pandemic-related backlogs.
Yet these issues are all symptoms rather than the cause. The root of the problem is the Government's distrust of immigration. It stems from a belief that productivity improvements will come from restricting the supply of migrant labour. Unfortunately, that belief is not founded on economic evidence. And it risks tarnishing our longstanding record as a favoured destination for skilled migrants.
The distrust also contrasts starkly with the new Labor Government's approach to immigration in Australia.
In her address at the Anthony Albanese-led "Jobs and Skills Summit" in September, Minister for Home Affairs Claire O'Neil declared, "Immigration is one of the biggest levers we have to drive our country forward, and it is fast, and it is powerful."
O'Neil promised her Government would switch from a system focussed almost entirely on keeping people out to one that "recognises that Australia is in a global competition for talent."
"[F]or the first time in our history, Australia is not the destination of choice for many of the world's skilled migrants," she said.
O'Neil described Australia's migration system as "fiendishly complex" with "multiple skilled occupation lists… and an outdated visa processing system that is anything but fit for purpose."
If this sounds all too familiar, the Minister's prescription was anything but. O'Neill promised, "A simple, fast system that's easy for businesses, big and small, and for migrants, to use."
As New Zealand firms and workers battle rising interest rates, a cost of living crisis and geopolitical uncertainty, it is time our Government ended the self-inflicted harm of restrictive immigration settings.
Here's to a Labor Australia-style immigration reset.
Yet these issues are all symptoms rather than the cause. The root of the problem is the Government's distrust of immigration. It stems from a belief that productivity improvements will come from restricting the supply of migrant labour. Unfortunately, that belief is not founded on economic evidence. And it risks tarnishing our longstanding record as a favoured destination for skilled migrants.
The distrust also contrasts starkly with the new Labor Government's approach to immigration in Australia.
In her address at the Anthony Albanese-led "Jobs and Skills Summit" in September, Minister for Home Affairs Claire O'Neil declared, "Immigration is one of the biggest levers we have to drive our country forward, and it is fast, and it is powerful."
O'Neil promised her Government would switch from a system focussed almost entirely on keeping people out to one that "recognises that Australia is in a global competition for talent."
"[F]or the first time in our history, Australia is not the destination of choice for many of the world's skilled migrants," she said.
O'Neil described Australia's migration system as "fiendishly complex" with "multiple skilled occupation lists… and an outdated visa processing system that is anything but fit for purpose."
If this sounds all too familiar, the Minister's prescription was anything but. O'Neill promised, "A simple, fast system that's easy for businesses, big and small, and for migrants, to use."
As New Zealand firms and workers battle rising interest rates, a cost of living crisis and geopolitical uncertainty, it is time our Government ended the self-inflicted harm of restrictive immigration settings.
Here's to a Labor Australia-style immigration reset.
Roger Partridge is chairman and a co-founder of The New Zealand Initiative and is a senior member of its research team. He led law firm Bell Gully as executive chairman from 2007 to 2014. This article was first published HERE.
2 comments:
Yes.
Pour them in so the corporate sector thrive from churn and realestate thrives from excessive commissions.
That’s productivity to them.
It is easy to say that restricting immigration doesn't lead to productivity gains. Thus implying that high levels will increase productivity. If this was true NZ would have the highest productivity in the world. Instead, experience has shown that high levels of immigration makes it lower.
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