Immigration minister Kris Faafoi has missed two key deadlines for the government's long signalled immigration 'reset'.
The reset (now termed a ‘rebalance’) was announced in May with the government calling the border closure “a once-in-a-generation” opportunity to take a more strategic approach to immigration settings.
The government undertook to test their thinking with stakeholders over the coming months but instead, Faafoi took a paper straight to cabinet in July that set out the long-term direction for the immigration portfolio.
BusinessDesk made repeated attempts under the Official Information Act (OIA) to obtain details of the scope and timing of the reset policy work but was refused on the grounds that the information “would soon be publicly available”.
Faafoi’s paper was quietly released just before Parliament went into summer recess.
Immigration milestones
Cabinet rules require papers to be proactively released within 30 business days of decisions being made – in this case, the minister took nearly six months.
The paper has cabinet committing to a reduction in the overall volume of low-skilled migrant workers.
This is meant to incentivise businesses to improve working conditions and invest more in skills training and automation.
Faafoi’s first milestone was to report back to a cabinet committee in October on settings for international students, including post-study work rights.
International students had been a source of high migrant volume pre-covid and the government wants to not only reduce their overall volume, but also the proportion studying below the degree level.
The second milestone was to report back in November on lower-skilled temporary workers, partnership settings, skilled residence pathways and settings for migrants currently onshore.
However, immigration officials were instead diverted to sorting out the biggest residency queue in history with the government announcing a special one-off 2021 residence visa aimed at clearing the backlog.
Rebalance
David Cooper, chief executive of immigration advisory Malcolm Pacific, told BusinessDesk it was disappointing to learn of the delay on major decisions impacting our tertiary education sector, families and “frankly the economy”.
“Work needs to be completed now in readiness for the staged reopening of the border on 30 Apr 2022,” said Cooper.
A spokesperson for the immigration minister said despite the report backs not happening as planned, officials have still been progressing work on the immigration rebalance.
In response to questions, Faafoi would only make the following brief statement: “Cabinet will consider the immigration rebalance in the context of how New Zealand will reconnect with the world.
“That includes decisions around consultation and engagement, and there will be more to say in due course.”
