O'Rourke Denis: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Rourke Denis: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 30 January 2014. Volume:696;Page:15729. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First): Chester Borrows said that National had started the year with a hiss and a roar; but of course it was really only because that was the air coming out of the Government’s tyres. The Prime Minister is still proud to say that it has a proud record in Government. However most Kiwis do not agree especially those people looking for a good job or an affordable home or people trying to run a small business. The Government’s lax immigration policy is one particular area it should be ashamed of. It drives up the cost of housing especially in Auckland. It drives down wages by allowing the importation of cheap foreign labour. It places strains on superannuation health and other social services by allowing too much unskilled labour into the country. What all this shows is that this Government is really only interested in the interests of big business and it is not interested in the needs of ordinary Kiwis at all.There are several areas of disgraceful performance by a weak Government with slack immigration and ineffective housing policies and Auckland residential property prices are clear evidence of that. There is no doubt that foreign investors are using Auckland as a land bank. They have access to plenty of cash from foreign banks they pay very low interest rates—as low as 0.5 percent in China and elsewhere—and they have no concerns about the increasing interest rates that we in New Zealand are about to see. They can pay cash and they can easily outbid Kiwis seeking a home. There are no restrictions here on foreign buyers buying homes land banking them letting them at high rents and then reselling at a profit so of course they buy as many as they can.New Zealand First will put a stop to it and not allow foreign people to buy land in this country at all; this Government does not care and does nothing. In the meantime what we see is offshore real estate agents busy advertising and selling Auckland property and overseas property publications recommending that overseas investors buy in New Zealand because they know they can make a killing here at the expense of young Kiwis in particular who are seeking a first home. We are getting absentee overseas landlords being created and seeking the highest rents possible. They are one important cause of the Auckland housing bubble. But this Government is in denial about this problem and does absolutely nothing about it.Another thing is that parent reunion immigration is another problem that this Government is being particularly slack about. Firstly there is already a backlog as at June 2013 of 7000 applicants for entry under the parent reunion category and 5500 of these are Chinese. All these numbers are growing and growing fast hence the backlog. It is now getting really out of hand and the Government is sitting on its hands about it. Despite all of the caterwauling from those members opposite people in New Zealand are concerned. They are concerned because what it means is that the average age of all immigrants is now too high at 29 years and it is getting older.The proportion of unskilled immigrants is too high too. New Zealand does need the skills of skilled immigrants where there is a genuine shortage of those skills but this Government’s immigration policies are poorly targeted. Chinese immigrants are favoured at the expense of other nationalities which is unfair. The average age of Chinese immigrants is 40 years and that is much too old. The reason for this is the legacy of China’s one-child policy which means that a much higher proportion of Chinese have only one child. These days a very large number of Chinese are wealthy enough to educate that child overseas and New Zealand is of course a popular place to go for that purpose. So the child easily gets a student visa then applies for residence and then the parents apply for residence under the parent reunion category so that they can be with their only child. They have no problem with the requirement to have either $500000 capital—with which of course they would buy a home in Auckland—or at least $40000 of annual income.Parents from other countries are usually not that lucky so the practical effect is that Chinese are favoured and the average age of Chinese immigrants is as I have said far too high. These people can get New Zealand superannuation after only 10 years’ residence and without ever having had to work here or pay tax in this country and they get the benefit of our health system ACC and other benefits. New Zealand is a retirement paradise for elderly Chinese and they know it as the 5500 backlogged applicants testify but this witless Government does nothing about it. This is not a small issue. There are 20000 applicants per year from all countries in this category. Expert commentators have said that the ratio between skilled and unskilled immigrants in New Zealand is far too heavily weighted in favour of unskilled immigrants and we agree. The reasons I have given show why that is.New Zealand First would restructure immigration policy to achieve a ratio of 25 percent unskilled and 75 percent skilled immigrants and that is the way it should be. That would be fair to all applicants but most of all it would be fair to New Zealanders especially those looking for a job here or seeking their first home. At 6.2 percent unemployment according to the household labour force survey this is a pretty significant issue. Our policy would also reduce the potential for a blowout in costs for New Zealand superannuation and other social services that older immigrants would seek.Another important issue for immigration is work visas. There were 158542 work visas issued in 2013. At the same time there were 150000 Kiwis out of work. As I have said that is 6.2 percent of the whole workforce which is too high. Kiwis should be at the front of the job queue and not competing with foreigners. The essential skills list is not properly reassessed. Employers are supposed to seek foreign labour only if they cannot get a Kiwi to do the job but that is not well policed so cheap foreign labour comes in taking Kiwi jobs. Another area is international student visas which needs to be changed—70000 of these were issued in New Zealand in 2013. It is good to bring in overseas students for education but they should not automatically have work visas because that is potentially another 70000 jobs being taken from Kiwis and New Zealand First says that that also has to stop.The truth about this Government’s immigration policies is that they are a mess. Immigration plays a large part in the health of the New Zealand economy. This Government should be ashamed of and not proud of the chaotic state of immigration policy in New Zealand and the damage it is doing right now. It is high time for change but this Government clearly does not know what to do about it. New Zealand First does and will when we get the chance to do so later this year.