McDowall JamesDr JAMES McDOWALL (ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. On the first reading of this bill the ACT Party took a principled stance in opposing this bill—the only party to do so—and our stance remains unchanged. It's not about one year or two years; the issues are much bigger than that. Of course it's unlikely that we could've changed our minds since it's been so little time since that first reading though admittedly more time than has been afforded to the many other pieces of legislation that have passed under urgency this year without consideration for their obvious consequences. New Zealanders can consider themselves perhaps lucky that the Government has shown at least a token appreciation for democratic lawmaking with this bill. However frankly the outcome will be the same as if we had a select committee or if we didn't have one.Outside of the select committee I'm sure many members of this House have heard of migrants' personal stories via e-mail phone calls social media or in person at electorate offices. There's also—good news—going to be another demonstration very shortly outside Parliament and I hope at least one Government member makes the effort to attend this time. So consider this your invitation.During the select committee members heard about the unending misery caused by loved ones not being able to reunite with their families for over a year and in some cases many years. The most recent announcement on family reunification offered a glimmer of hope but the reality soon became very clear: few migrants qualified despite ongoing managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) capacity which has been spoken about let alone the ability to scale up MIQ.They've also heard about international students who have been begging to come back in in huge debt and schools and universities would like to see them back here as well. Many workers are in the same situation: some migrants here already have visas but with expiry dates looming and uncertainty around whether or not they're going to get an extension under the powers that have been granted.There is never any proper communication or transparency from Immigration New Zealand no effort to improve on their processes. I'm not even going to delve into the delays in processing residency applications though I'll note that the skilled migrant category just increased to 90 percent completed by 24 months and it's only going to get worse.The attitude of the Government in introducing last-minute legislation as an excuse to have a shortened select committee process is very much in line with the Minister's long-established approach of being disinterested and disengaged with migrants and with stakeholders. We've got the annual immigration law conference coming up in Auckland and normally the Minister of Immigration is the keynote speaker. It's been like that year after year but I'm afraid there's no such luck this year it seems.We've heard the call for a formal inquiry and it seems we're back to the blame game around housing and infrastructure with the Government trying to distract from the real failures. We're also back to pipe dreams around meeting skills shortages without relying on migration; blaming sectors for a supposed lack of training despite businesses trying their best for years to engage a local workforce. We've also heard time and again about the need for an immigration reset while the opportunity presents itself in this COVID environment. And I'm not opposed to that. We absolutely have that opportunity but that work should have started this time last year and by now we should have a pretty good idea of what a shiny new immigration system looks like and a time line of when we might see that but all we hear is a desire to clamp down on the system rather than solve existing problems.We've also had the Productivity Commission give their unfortunate view of what immigration should look like including the suggestion that the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme somehow hampers technological innovation including automation and local employment. The thing about automation though is that it actually reduces the need for workers in any event whether local or from overseas—but that's a sad analysis for another day.We support the recommendations of the National Party for improving this bill. However regardless the ACT Party will not be supporting it. Thank you.