9. Question No. 9—ImmigrationERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays) to the Minister of ImmigrationQuestion No. 9—Immigration9. ERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays) to the Minister of Immigration: Does he stand by his statement regarding why engineers are on the fast-tracked 'straight to residence' pathway that those skills are at high demand"; and why are nurses not on that pathway when Hon Andrew Little Minister of Health recently admitted that New Zealand hospitals are around 4000 nurses short?Hon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Immigration): Talofa lava Mr Speaker. Yes under the immigration settings that were in place pre-COVID and when that member's party was last in Government there was only one class of nurse eligible for a work-to-residence pathway. Under the rebalance the work-to-residence pathway is extended to all 13 classes of nurses. This is a significant expansion and recognition of the demand that the health sector is currently experiencing. The reason there is a work-to-residence pathway rather than "straight-to-residence" pathway is that we want these nurses to work in the health sector when they arrive. In simple: we need nurses to nurse.Erica Stanford: Who in the sector gave him advice that nurses tended to leave their profession when they got residence?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: In the formation of the policy we spoke to the likes of the Aged Care Association and other home-based care stakeholders. Of course through the pathway of this policy we also kept in close contact with the Ministry of Health and also I spoke to a number of colleagues.Erica Stanford: Isn't it the case that the Aged Care Association were only in favour of a two-year wait for residence if their nurses were tied to their employer and not the sector?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: Well they may have but they didn't necessarily get everything they wanted.Erica Stanford: So aren't we now in a position where we have the worst of both worlds where we have a two-year wait for nurses to get residence and they can still switch between the district health board and aged-care sector which is exactly what we were trying to stop happening?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: I think we've made it pretty clear that we do have a shortage of nurses and when they get here they can nurse.Erica Stanford: When he said that there was a slight chance of a small loss of nurses out of the profession if they were to get residence is this small loss more or less than the loss that we will lose to Australia or Canada or the UK who give residence immediately to nurses?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: I think she might want check her facts because I don't necessarily think that happens in all of those jurisdictions.Erica Stanford: Can he explain what makes a nurse more likely to chance jobs once they receive residence but not an engineer?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: We made our decision to put the nurses on a two-year pathway to residence because of the demand for nurses in order to give them certainty that when they arrived in New Zealand if they stayed in nursing for two years they would get residence.Dr James McDowall: Point of order Mr Speaker. I seek leave of the House for the ACT Party to have another supplementary question.DEPUTY SPEAKER: No the House can't give you leave for that."