Stanford EricaERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays): Today is an auspicious day. In fact it is an anniversary for the Minister of Immigration—happy anniversary Minister. I made the Minister a card actually. It's from an old Christmas card with Happy Christmas" crossed out and "Happy anniversary" written on it. I'm sure he'll appreciate it none the less because on this day 24 March 2021 we officially observe the one-month anniversary of the day that the Prime Minister told Minister Faafoi to do his job. On this day exactly one month ago Jacinda Ardern was made aware by the Opposition via the media of the migrant nurse anomaly: where those nurses who came before the borders closed couldn't bring their families or their partners and children but those who came after could. The Prime Minister was blind-sided by this information and seemingly concerned about the plight of those nurses who hadn't seen their children for over a year and she ordered her Minister to sort it out not only for those nurses but also for New Zealand because we are a thousand nurses short and we can't afford to lose any more.So here we are a month later and while I jest this is no laughing matter. The Minister by his own omission in question time has admitted that he knew about the problem when the policy was changed in June last year. His officials told us in committee that they briefed him on multiple occasions. He then told us that he had received an official briefing in December last year. The Prime Minister told him a month ago to get on with it and find a fix. Last week in the House during question time he admitted that it was an anomaly and they were working on it—but still absolutely nothing.And isn't it interesting that when it comes to tax this Government can move heaven and earth to pass legislation under urgency in a day like we've seen with the new capital gains tax but when it comes to our migrant nurses in the nine months they've had to fix the problem in the nine months the Minister knew about this and the Prime Minister coming in over the top telling him to do his job—doesn't even involve a legislative change just needs the Minister to make a decision—they just can't be bothered. This speaks volumes to what this Government thinks about our valuable migrants.And the Minister's response: predictably he points to the constrained space in managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) completely unable to answer my questions around how letting these nurses leave and replacing them with more migrant nurses taking up spaces in MIQ to fill their place is any different than just simply bringing those families here for the nurses who are already in New Zealand. And we have offered them a solution: open the trans-Tasman bubble free up 40 percent of MIQ let those families be reunited let desperate Kiwis in and help the struggling tourism sector. And while the Government begrudgingly works on this trans-Tasman bubble at a frustratingly glacial pace we have story after story of nannies and bands and shows and children's entertainers who are being fast tracked into the country.Case in point is The Lion King with 126 workers cast and crew who were allowed in with visas through MIQ. The Minister vigorously defended the decision to grant these visas. In fact on Radio New Zealand he was quoted saying that the skills are not readily available here in New Zealand. But when we take a look through the cast and crew list of the people that were fast tracked into the country we have a look and we see a tutor a physiotherapist and a chaperone—for goodness' sake. These positions are not uniquely experienced or uniquely technical specialist skills that we don't have here in New Zealand. There is no possible way that these people meet the Immigration New Zealand criteria but here they are taking up space in MIQ facilities ahead of Kiwis and ahead of migrant families.And you compare this to the visa applications of crews of superyachts coming into New Zealand last year who don't even take up any space in MIQ. Crew lists were poured over with a fine-tooth comb and visas were declined for multiple crewmembers on the basis that New Zealanders could do their jobs. So these billionaires turned around their yachts they sailed away and the million dollars a week that they spend here in New Zealand went somewhere else. We turn away Recognised Seasonal Employer workers. We literally have fruit rotting on the ground and it will continue to do so. We expect farmers in our rural communities to pull 18-hour days and not see their own families because their seasonal workers can't get in—pushing them to the brink mentally. And we've heard so many harrowing stories of those farmers. But here we have a chaperone a tutor and a physiotherapist coming through MIQ to help put on an international show which by the way is competing against fantastic local show Jersey Boys but that is a speech for another day.Not only is this Minister not doing his job and almost nothing in his portfolio the things that he does do make a complete farce of the system. So Minister Faafoi happy anniversary."