Dawn chorus: Call for migration review

Productivity Commission recommends review of migration settings after study for 'frontier firms' inquiry finds temporary and RSE migration benefits only mixed for NZ, and not clear

TLDR: The Productivity Commission has recommended the Government conduct a full review of its migration settings after the release of a report challenging the ‘triple win’ from the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme.

The call came in the Commission’s final report of its ‘frontier firms’ inquiry (pages 8,9, 156), which also called for a review of a recent change to the laws around Fonterra (page 165). Those changes allowed the cooperative to strengthen its hold over suppliers by removing the right for farmers to leave and return on similar terms. The separate paper on the RSE scheme and temporary migration via NZIER, Peter Wilson and Julie Fry is here.

I’ll have more on this later in the week after a couple of interviews. These three charts help illustrate the scale of the issue requiring a proper review, beyond just the current review of the skilled visa settings suggested by Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi. The only detail on that is that he said yesterday it would be held ‘later this year’.

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Chart of the day

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Table of the day

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The sun rose today in Wellington at 6.56 am and will rise tomorrow at 6.57 am.