Professor John Raine: International Education – Not just a Question of Re-opening the Border

The 20^th March NZ Herald article, “Hundreds of International students affected by visa delays”, does not reassure us that specialist capacity issues in Immigration New Zealand have been addressed. These were well known at least two years ago as international student business was re-opening.

Covid-19 lockdowns and the border closure caused massive destruction to our tourism and hospitality industries, but also widespread damage to many other industries, notably international education.

Mike Hosking: Hermit Kingdom attitude is now haunting us

It's coming home to roost a bit, isn't it?

What we have learned this week, whether it be the construction company now in Britain looking to fill the jobs here that pay over $100,000, the university students that haven't come back despite the door being open, the manufacturers who told us the job queue is non-existent because reputation is an issue, or the apple orchards that have left over $100 million worth of fruit on the trees, there is a theme.

The theme is we stayed closed too long.

The line that the best economic response was our health response is now being shown to be the utterly dishonest nonsense it always was.