NZ eyes thousands more migrants from central America
Just as Immigration NZ eyes thousands more migrants, the Labour Govt decides to take over urban planning on huge chunk of Auckland isthmus from Auckland Council
TL;DR: Yet again, huge decisions are being made with long-run consequences without much debate or planning, let alone open bi-partisan agreement.
Immigration NZ is looking at joining Five Eyes scheme to bring in temporary workers from central America. No doubt the Government knows that will require thousands more homes in Auckland that aren’t built yet and won’t be if the Auckland Council has anything to do with it.
So the Labour Government has ‘gone nuclear’ on the Council by using new planning powers to take over planning for a huge chunk of the Auckland isthmus, including the CBD and the planned ‘light rail’ line all the way to the Airport.
Elsewhere in our political economy here and overseas
ANZ’s monthly survey found business confidence surged in June as businesses welcomed the Reserve Bank’s declaration it would not hike rates any further. ANZ
US jobless claims data out overnight showed yet again how robust global labour markets have been in the face of the fastest rate hikes in 30 years. Reuters
Australian inflation was much lower than expected in May, adding to market hopes the Reserve Bank of Australia will hold off on new rate hikes. Reuters
‘Maybe we could join that too?’
Immigration New Zealand is exploring joining a labour mobility scheme being trialled by the US, Canada and Spain that would gain access to thousands of officially-vetted workers in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, Gill Bonnett reported yesterday for RNZ from documents obtained under the OIA ahead of a meeting of the Five Country Ministerial group in Wellington this week. It is a group of Home Affairs, Interior, Security and Immigration ministers from the ‘Five Eyes’ countries that share intelligence, including the United States, Canada, Australia, Britain and New Zealand.
"United States is close to making an announcement of a pilot with the United States, Canada and Spain, working with the governments of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras through the Ministry of Labor in each country to match the skills of potential migrants with job opportunities in receiving countries," it read.
"The scheme has a focus on ethical recruitment with the Ministry of Labor in each country having thousands of eligible workers in their databases. These ministries become full-service recruitment agencies, undertaking the identification of potential migrants, matching with job opportunities, processing of visas and passports and then supporting the migrants while they are working offshore. Pre-visa checks also include health screening and background checks. Specific skill requests can be accommodated.
"INZ continues to explore how New Zealand could join this proposal and what opportunities there are for both employers and migrants." Immigration NZ document cited by Gill Bonnett via RNZ
So what? - Where is the public debate or strategy from the Government about population growth, infrastructure planning and what we could handle. Decisions keep being made without any public debate. It’s ironic that a wide-open-door for temporary-migrant-driven population that boosts GDP and tax on income and spending (but doesn’t tax wealth) is effectively a bipartisan policy, but has never been properly debated or codified. The less ironic thing is the two parties have also agreed by default not to invest enough to deal with that population growth, and have done for 30 years. That’s also not debated or codified.
‘You can’t run a business like this’
Auckland Transport’s new CEO Dean Kimpton can’t quite believe Auckland Council and the Government are cutting funding for public transport in the country’s biggest city, which also has to bear the biggest emissions reduction load if we are to get anywhere near meeting our Paris Accord commitments.
He’s not the only one. Matthew Scott reported via Newsroom yesterday from Kimpton’s comments to an AT board meeting this week about being stuck with an annual funding cycle.
“If we cannot resolve this issue, by the mid 2030s, all but our capital programme will be used to fund renewals,” he said. “So I'm signalling, I'm sounding a big alarm ... we have to do something different, if we keep repeating the same action it feels like it could go down to a definition of insanity.”
“You can't run a business like this, so my appeal is ... we have to address certainty of funding at the programme level.” Dean Kimpton quoted by Matthew Scott via Newsroom
‘You had your chance. Now we’re doing it.’
Regular readers might recall that last year the Auckland Council carved the ‘light rail’ CBD to Mangere route out of the densified version of the Unitary Plan it had to submit under the new Medium Density Residential Standards (MDRS) ‘Townhouse Nation’ rules set from Wellington in a (once) bi-partisan deal. The Council also carved out much of Ponsonby, Grey Lynn, Parnell, Mt Eden and Remuera from the rules because there were some old houses in that area that rich people didn’t want turned into townhouses.
The Government appeared to have ignored this open defiance. Until now.
Apparently out of the blue, the Government has ordered Kāinga Ora to use its very extensive urban development powers to over-rule Auckland Council along the 24-km route from Auckland to Mangere. Here’s the letter from Housing Minister Megan Woods and Finance Minister Grant Robertson to Kāinga Ora dropping the hammer on the Council. The Minister even invented a new acronym to rub it in — Auckland Light Rail urban development project (ALRUDP). Snappy.
Here’s what serving up a dish cold to Auckland’s politicians looks like in letter form:
“The proposed project area for ALRUDP is the geographic area referred to as the “ALR corridor”, most of which was excluded (‘whited-out’) from the Proposed Intensification Planning Instrument – Plan Change 78, as noted in the August 2022 Proposed Plan Change 78 Information Sheet #13: Plan Change 78 and the Auckland Light Rail corridor. This area includes the majority of the 24km City Centre to Airport route identified in the Indicative Business Case (IBC). The majority of land within the central business district (CBD) is within scope of the proposed project area, minus land around the waterfront.” Megan Woods in a letter to Kainga Ora.
Boom.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and former National party minister and former Auckland Mayor Christine Fletcher were livid, as reported here by Bernard1 Orsman in the NZ Herald this morning:
“We should have heard from her. It’s not a partnership with the council. The first thing I see is this stuff, self-justifying-keep-your-job bullshit.
“I stood for getting Wellington out of Auckland. I got a huge response to that. Auckland is big enough to make its own decisions.
“Enough is enough … this is a bombing run.” Wayne Brown via NZ Herald/NewstalkZB
Here’s Fletcher describing the letter as an “extraordinary arrogance, a betrayal of trust and an assault on the community”:
“The behaviour of the Government dropping this on us is completely unacceptable.”
The governing body voted for Brown to write to Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Robertson requesting them to withdraw their request to Kainga Ora until they have discussed the matter with other light rail sponsors, including Auckland Council, and agreed on the next steps.
Now the whole issue is being thrown into the bucket of: ‘We’ll repeal this if we get elected.’ Here’s ACT Leader David Seymour shooting fast from the hip:
“Light rail doesn’t stack up, and it certainly doesn’t justify a department as dysfunctional as Kainga Ora taking over planning half of Mt Eden. The next Government must stop this Specified Development Project dead.” David Seymour.
Briefly elsewhere
‘Every Minister will have a moment’: Chris Hipkins on Kiri Allan. Stuff (Andrea Vance)
Govt announces loan schemes to help growers in flood-hit areas. Beehive
Chart of the day
If you think we’re going hard on migration, check out Canada
Longer reads of the day
Ka kite ano
Bernard
Regularly referred to as ‘the other Bernard’ in certain circles.
Always refreshing reading your choruses, Bernard. I worry that we are just under four months to the election, and the media just seems focused in the next sound-bite or Ministerial 'scandal'- and we actually lose focus on what each polictal party is bringing to the election, and what impacts these will have in people. A lot of these important pieces on our infrastructure are simply pushed aside for the latest headline grabber.
“I stood for getting Wellington out of Auckland. I got a huge response to that.
181,810 out of 1,128,255 is a huge response Wayne?