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Hi Bernard - one overlooked aspect to this discussion which is presented very much from the vested interest perspective is that there is a huge external cost (subsidy) imposed upon the rest of NZ from employing low wage migrant staff beyond the fact that they are used to keep wages down (and house prices up). Anyone with residence here obtains the right of a citizen and so they get all of the associated social benefits of being a part of the "team of 5 million" (healthcare education etc) but pay minimal tax - so the rest of the economy has to pick up the cost. There is also all of the infrastructure costs that the additional population imposes and going by the current public discussions this is in the many hundreds of billions of dollars required to "catch up" on the demands created by population growth over the past couple of decades that equates to about $200,000 per new citizen/resident but that cost is spread across the entire population not the new arrivals - this is just as much a subsidy as Muldoon's support to farming except that at least Muldoon was supporting export growth - meanwhile Ryman is making fat profits at the public expense - and the expense of its workforce that we are all subsidising.

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So let's just give residency straight off to 200,000 people? Really, with all the social benefits that accompany it incl education, healthcare and pensions....and social housing. If we couldn't meet our work force needs with the massive immigration over the last 20 yrs we won't do it with this 200,000. We need tighter controls and fewer immigrants. Maybe Ryman could pay more and tap local talent.

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As an immigrant myself that had to jump through all the hoops to get here I understand some of the issues and am somewhat supportive BUT on the condition that the employers if such workers are required to financially sponsor such immigrants , pay a fair wage to those immigrants and are banned from getting further immigrants of that class again In fact no special exemption class be allowed unless an employer or employer body has set up a New Zealand rating programme of cadets and apprenticeships and that such programmes have to have been running for at least five years and at least 90% if the workforce is filled through such schemes or other nz residents that have not come through the exemption system. That way employers invest in future capability and capacity and don’t become reliant on foreign slave wage labourers or even skilled workers.

This requirement should especially be applicable to professionals as well. We need to take back our sovereignty in managing a skilled and trained population whereby employment is not based on third world economics of cheap labour but first world economics of investment and innovation. That requires us to invest in New Zealanders make the place a high wage economy and focus on productivity though innovation rather than wage suppression

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