SpeechIMMIGRATION (COVID-19 RESPONSE) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Minister of Immigration): In accordance with a determination of the Business Committee I move That the Immigration (COVID-19 Response) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Epidemic Response Committee to consider the bill. At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be reported to the House by 12 May 2020.The coronavirus pandemic has had and will continue to have an extraordinary impact on the global economy and of course on our local economy here in New Zealand. The scale and speed of the epidemic has meant that we have had to work quickly and nimbly to respond and ensure that New Zealand is able to manage its consequences—the immigration system is a good example of this. The underlying principle of the Immigration Act 2009 is that except in limited circumstances individual applications are processed by an individual immigration officer who carefully considers all of the circumstances of the applicant before deciding whether to grant a visa. This one-on-one consideration enables Immigration New Zealand to manage risk and make decisions tailored to each applicant's circumstances. However the scale of the epidemic means that we need to be more nimble. Since the start of the epidemic New Zealand has closed the borders to all but a few visa holders. Other countries' travel restrictions and the consequential decline in flights from 700 per week a year ago to 25 per week now have meant that it is also difficult for travellers to leave New Zealand. Visa holders in badly affected sectors may lose employment and as a result no longer meet the conditions of their visas; others may be trapped outside of New Zealand and unable to meet visa time frames for travel to New Zealand through no fault of their own. Immigration New Zealand has had to suspend most of its offshore processing activities and has limited onshore capacity while the level 3 restrictions remain in place. Previous Governments foresaw the possibility of an impact on the immigration system from an epidemic. The Act has a small number of emergency provisions that were triggered when the Prime Minister issued an epidemic management notice under the Epidemic Preparedness Act. Valid visas held by people in New Zealand which would otherwise be due to expire are automatically extended so they will expire three months after the day on which the epidemic management notice expires and adjustments can be made to detention on immigration grounds. Those settings have the effect of buying us time to address some of the practical challenges by giving onshore visa holders certainty about their visa status at a time of significant disruption. Around 80000 temporary visas which have been automatically extended under the epidemic legislation will now expire on 26 September.This certainty has been useful but more is needed to ensure that the immigration system can react in a timely and nimble fashion. It is the Government's view that new powers are needed for a time-limited period. Under existing settings temporary migrants who wish to remain in New Zealand must submit individual applications for a new visa or to vary their existing visa's conditions when the migrant's circumstances change. This can be where they need to be redeployed by their employer into a different role or to a different region or to look for another job after being made redundant. Applications are also required by regulation to include fees passport photos and travel documents. Receiving and processing such applications is not practical when Immigration New Zealand staff are working from their homes. In particular they cannot meet banking requirements for handling payments. Waiving requirements on an individual basis is not practical while individually processing thousands of applications at once is time-consuming and expensive and provides little certainty for affected applicants at a time where we need Government services to be able to be flexible and efficient. This bill therefore amends the Immigration Act 2009 to provide powers to enable the Government to respond appropriately and efficiently to the COVID-19 epidemic by providing additional flexibility in the immigration system. These powers will expire 12 months after enactment. It is important that this bill is passed without undue delay to enable immigration responses to the COVID-19 epidemic to be a flexible and efficient as possible at this time. The timetable I'm asking the House to agree to will enable these powers to be brought into effect this month.This bill aims to ensure that the Government can respond appropriately and efficiently to the immediate immigration issues arising from the COVID-19 outbreak by providing additional flexibility in the immigration system where for example large numbers of visas need to be changed or extended at once. It does so by introducing eight time-limited powers. In order through the bill they are: (1) the power to extend vary or cancel conditions for classes of resident class visa holders; (2) the power to impose vary or cancel conditions for classes of temporary entry class visa holders; (3) the power to waive any prescribed regulatory requirements for applying for a visa with respect to classes of people; (4) the power to grant visas to individuals and classes of people in the absence of an application; (5) the power to extend the expiry dates of temporary class visas for classes of people; (6) the power to waive in any individual case the requirement to obtain a transit visa; (7) the power to revoke the entry permission of a person who has been deemed by regulations to have been granted entry permission; and (8) the power to suspend the ability for any class of persons to make applications for visas or submit expressions of interest in applying for visas.Examples of how these powers could be used include making changes to visa conditions; allowing workers to be redeployed to a different employer or location; allowing visa holders currently offshore more time to travel to New Zealand within the validity of their visa; and suspending new applications for particular visa categories until global border restrictions are loosened and visa holders are able to travel to New Zealand. One power the power to grant visas without an application is likely to be used only in limited circumstances—such as where individuals are too unwell to be able to make an application. I'm hoping that this will not need to be exercised but there is a precedent. This power would have been useful to support people severely injured in the Whakaari / White Island eruption. The powers in this bill are subject to a range of safeguards. The majority need to be exercised by special direction and one the ability to suspend the making of applications requires an Order in Council. Some can be only exercised by myself as Minister of Immigration.When it comes to special class directions these directions must be published on the internet and tabled in this House. All the powers are also time-limited and subject to a 1-year sunset clause. This bill will provide important powers to enable the Government to respond to the COVID-19 epidemic through providing additional flexibility in the immigration system. This will enable Immigration New Zealand to work appropriately and efficiently to support the welfare of some temporary migrants and situate us well for our economic rebuilding. I commend this bill to the House.