Within days of opening the new Parent Boost Visa, nearly 200 applications flooded in, a canary in the coal mine. The government expects between 2,000 and 10,000 applications annually, with a working model of around 6,000. What the official spin frames as a meaningful way for families to spend extended time together is more than that. It is a gamble with our social fabric, our hospitals and the day-to-day lives of everyday Kiwis. In my opinion it is a recklessly optimistic policy that risks degrading the New Zealand many of us still want to live in.
