Woodhouse MichaelHon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (Minister of Immigration): Those are the seven words that are going to define the Labour Party in this election. Those seven words are: We desperately need to take a breather". Goodness knows those members have been 9 years in Opposition. They have been trying so hard to get back to Government they are already exhausted—already exhausted. They have got to take a breather. Goodness me things are going so fast for them. The economy is growing just too quickly for them to keep up. Nearly 11000 jobs are being created every single month and it is exhausting them. A lazy—Tracey Martin: Speak to the Estimates.Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: She says: "Speak to the Estimates." This is the fundamental purpose of the investment in infrastructure in transport in jobs and in growth. This is a confident country a confident Government that knows exactly where it is going that has a plan for growth and that certainly has a plan for migration.It started with those words 10 years ago when we said that we would bring them home and we did and they stayed home. And do you know what else we did because of very good immigration policies? We reduced by a third the number of labour market - tested work visas that the lazy Labour Government was issuing because it was not prepared to work hard enough to ensure that New Zealanders were at the front of the queue for the growing number of jobs that were there then before the global financial crisis.I am extremely proud of this Government's track record in ensuring that New Zealanders are getting jobs. We have a labour market and I have three portfolios that are very very connected to that labour market—that is immigration workplace relations and safety and ACC—which is designed to be fair flexible and safe. The investments that we have made in WorkSafe the labour inspectorate and ACC are going to ensure that that very strong confident growth in the economy in the creation of jobs and in our immigration policy will continue.The bleaters over on the New Zealand First benches have been out to the regions and do you know what they could come back with to talk about? Nothing—absolutely nothing. And do you know why? Because they got a message. They got a message that when a leader talks out both sides of his mouth and says that he wants to reduce net migration to 10000—10000 does not even allow for the number of Pacific friendship agreement visas the refugee quota and the partnership visas that we have to issue every year. It means no work visas no working holiday visas no post-study visas no farming visas—that friend of the farmers apparently is going to decimate that industry. At least he said which particular ones he wanted to kill off. The Labour Party members who want to cut the migration by 30000 are not able to say that. It is an oblique reference from a lazy Opposition that does not know what it is talking about.And Iain Lees-Galloway has stood up and said that our immigration policies on temporary labour have been rejected; actually quite the opposite—quite the opposite.Iain Lees-Galloway: No they have. That's why you're backing away from it?Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: No no. I am not backing away from anything and the member will need to wait and see. I admire the fact that he thinks he knows more about this policy than we do but I can tell that member that there is a very very sensible policy that is targeted to where the growth is and that will continue. And guess where it is. It is in the regions and it is going to continue to be in the regions because those regions are the backbone of this country—the backbone of this economy. The last thing that this Government will do is throw those regions under a bus the way a Labour-Greens – New Zealand First Government would do.We understand where jobs come from. They come from hard-working Kiwis who have the confidence to take a risk to invest and to invest in our New Zealanders. But there are some industries that now and for the foreseeable future are going to need to rely on overseas labour and this Government supports those businesses. It supports them in helping New Zealanders into jobs and that is why we have the Ara initiative at Auckland airport. That is why we have the Sector Workforce Engagement Programme initiatives in Ashburton the regional seasonal employer schemes in Hawke's Bay and Central Otago and that is why we will continue to make sure that Kiwis benefit from this growing economy. This Government understands good migration good sensible work employment laws good health and safety laws and that is what we have invested in through this Budget."