edithatogo/nz-hansard-corpus huggingface dataset:
Bridges SimonHon SIMON BRIDGES (National—Tauranga): Thank you Mr Chair. I just want to come to the point of this and ask a couple of brief questions on a couple of discrete issues in relation to He Puapua. I just want to ensure the Minister is listening to those because I would like answers. So I'm just going to talk slowly for a moment while the senior whip finishes his conversation with the Minister for Māori Development. Right there are two things that I would like the Minister to answer in relation to He Puapua and I appreciate his pretty I think clear answers before to the questions he's been asked. The first is we are told in the document that it is based on partnership and my read of it—I'm not directly quoting all of this—is that partnership in terms of the document is a greater partnership bodies at the governance level" so that Māori—and this isn't a direct quote now—have half of the governance. It goes on to talk about biculturalism in partnership meaning that that occurs in that 50:50 split in governance across health education resource management conservation and Māori language etc. So is that what we're talking about—partnership? I just want to get that clear. What is partnership in He Puapua and is that what he is going with and taking to Cabinet? Then I just do want to come back to—and I appreciate his answers—that issue of how he will implement it. He said "Yes it is going to Cabinet." and that's good to hear. Can he just be a bit more specific? Tāmati Coffey: Mr Chair can I raise a point of order. Twice now we've heard from the National Party members talking about the He Puapua report which has absolutely nothing to do with the annual review of the Ministry of Māori Development. I thought that this was all about the annual review for the Ministry of Māori Development. CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Sorry but you're wrong. It is in order. Hon SIMON BRIDGES: He's as I say been clear it's going to Cabinet. Can you give us a bit of a sense? I'm not asking for the date or anything but is that this year for example and is it a question of—look which it often is in relation to for example the royal commission on March the 15th—implementation of the full report or is it a pick and choose that he's going to do? I just want to get a sense of what is it that he is seeking to implement in this report at a broad level."
Luxon ChristopherCHRISTOPHER LUXON (National—Botany): Thank you to the Minister for Māori Development for being here this evening to take these questions. We do appreciate it. My first question really is around the status of the He Puapua report. The Government received this report back in December 2019 and then on 7 April he received a draft Cabinet paper on the implementation plan for the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. My questions are: when is he planning to take the paper to Cabinet why has he sat on it for a month and has he consulted with his colleagues about the paper?
Salesa JennyCHAIRPERSON (Hon Jenny Salesa): Members we come now to the Māori Development portfolio given the interests of time for the annual debates. I call on the Māori Affairs Committee chairperson Tāmati Coffey.
Brown Simeon; Davis KelvinSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): The Minister of Corrections is a one-trick pony. All he's interested in talking about is the prison population. He doesn't want to talk about the number of assaults which are taking place against corrections officers. He doesn't want to talk about what's happening around the drop in the number of people getting rehabilitation in our prisons. He only wants to talk about the drop in prison numbers and he doesn't want to talk about the fact that actually what we should be aiming for is a reduction in crime and a reduction in the number of victims of crime. That needs to be the number one issue that the criminal justice sector—Tim van de Molen: He hasn't mentioned the word victim" once. SIMEON BROWN: And he hasn't talked about victims—absolutely. He hasn't referred to victims at all through the contribution that he's made. I've got another question. I'd like to ask about the Waikeria Prison riot. Will the Minister confirm to the committee whether this was a riot or whether it was a prisoner disorder event? Was it a riot or was it a prisoner disorder event and if so can he please define "prisoner disorder event" to the committee? Hon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister of Corrections): Quite quickly on that the Department of Corrections framework said it was a present disorder event but it was a riot. It was a riot. Those men climbed up on the—Simeon Brown: It was a riot—oh that's news. Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Well it's not news to anybody. It was a riot and I just want to thank the hard-working corrections officers who put their lives at risk to calm down that situation. There was an objective to resolve it without loss of life or injury and that was achieved. I'd like to thank those brave corrections men and women. There are some real heroes amongst them and they need to be totally acknowledged for the great work that they did. Māori Development"
Davis KelvinHon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister of Corrections): It's quite simple. There's a number of those rehabilitation programmes that weren't effective so I'd much rather spend money on those programmes that are the most effective instead of just trying to look like we're doing things that aren't effective. If I can just go through how effective these are some of the results—these are some of the results of what's happened in Corrections over the last three years. Remember the 2017 justice sector projections said that the prison population at this point in time was going to be over 13000. Remember that figure everybody: 13000. As of last Thursday the prison population was 8422—4500 fewer people in prison than would've been if National ACT and the Māori Party had still been in Government. There are over 800 fewer Māori in prison. He wants to know Where's the evidence of what's been effective?" Let me just talk about the results: over 800 fewer Māori are in prison today compared to March of 2018. We used to be the sixth-most incarcerated nation in the world; we have improved our position by six places. The Māori imprisonment rate was 716 per 100000 people. It has dropped down to 533 per 100000—still way too high. The reconviction and the reimprisonment rates have dropped by 5 percent and 4 percent respectively. What Corrections is doing thanks to the hard-working men and women in Corrections is making New Zealand safer. Now I know Simeon Brown doesn't want to hear that because his philosophy is just to build more prisons and fill them up. He saw those justice sector predictions those justice sector forecasts as a target. All he wanted to do was meet his target fill them up and build a new prison every three years. This is the Government that said we have to do things differently—Simeon Brown: You're the Minister—take some responsibility. Hon KELVIN DAVIS: —and we have done them differently. Yeah I'll take responsibility—responsibility for the reduced prison population and making New Zealand a safer country. I will not take responsibility for the danger that they were going to put New Zealanders in. Imagine if they had had their way—we wouldn't have had the beds that we had to cater for those 13000. We would've had not just complete double-bunking; probably triple-bunking. Imagine the tension in the prisons because of their failed policies which we've turned around."
Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): A point of order first Madam Chairperson. The Minister quoted from an official document previously regarding the plan for addressing the prison violence. Under Standing Order 386 I request the Minister to table that document. CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jenny Salesa): The request is to table the document that the Minister referred to. Hon Kelvin Davis: Just in reference to that this is a draft of the plan. So I believe I've been advised that we can provide a finalised version when it's ready. SIMEON BROWN: Point of order Madam Chairperson. The Standing Order doesn't have anything to do with whether it's a draft or a final document. The requirement is that if the Minister uses that document I can request that it be tabled. CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jenny Salesa): Standing Order 386 in terms of documents quoted by a Minister—this document actually states that it is in confidence. The Minister actually said that there is a plan but he didn't actually quote from the document. I can actually see the document. It states that it is a confidential document. So Standing Order 386 says that the Minister is able not to table it because it is confidential. It is a confidential document and also the Minister did not quote from the document; he referred to it. SIMEON BROWN: Thank you for your ruling on that matter. I would like to take up the Minister's offer for him to provide a final copy as soon as that is provided because I think this is something which is of enormous importance to New Zealanders—the amount of violence. I'd like the Minister to please answer to the House when that final document will actually be made available so that we have some idea around the time frame that this issue is actually being addressed in a serious manner and in a timely manner because from my understanding he only just asked for monthly briefings on assaults in prisons in February this year—in February this year was the first month in his three and a bit years as Minister. I find that absolutely shocking. I now just want to touch on the issue of rehabilitation and we heard the Minister talk there about 90 percent of prisoners having drug and alcohol or mental health addiction needs. Under written question No. 3322 I have figures which have been released to me which show that in 2017-18 4075 people in prison received drug and alcohol rehabilitation programmes or were part of them. That dropped to 1180 in the 2019-20 year—so about 25 percent of the 2017-18 year. That's a 75 percent drop—a massive drop—in the amount of people receiving drug and alcohol rehabilitation programmes. He's identified the problem of the number of people in prison needing assistance but the number of people getting help is only a quarter. Why is that?
Ghahraman GolrizGOLRIZ GHAHRAMAN (Green): Thank you Madam Chair. I want to acknowledge the Minister of Corrections in his last contribution for touching on some of the themes that are of grave concern to the Green Party which are the excessive mental health issues the drug and alcohol addictions issues and the overpopulation that we see in our prison populations. I do want to acknowledge also that we've now had the past chief scientist of the Prime Minister last term Dr Gluckman and we've had High Court and Court of Appeal judges call imprisonment a failed model—in particular when it comes to the myth of deterrence of crime. So I do want us to hold the evidence-based approach central to our policy making this term in particular. If we hold that imprisonment has failed to keep our communities safe and then we move on to what has come out in the very recent past in terms of literal abuse being committed in our prisons by this already failed system we have findings of inhumane treatment in our women's prison we had on Mother's Day revelations of women being chained as they give birth we have the Waikeria Prison protest that was based on some of the inhumane conditions that have been found and we have the idea that crime has not come down nobody is being kept safe. The failure there being rehabilitation being the step that our corrections system needs to take to move us to a place where like the Nordic countries and like Scandinavian models we can minimise imprisonment as a model and we can move to the things that we know actually work those being mental health treatment drug and alcohol treatment literacy programmes and systems that apply across the nation in a standardised way and in an evidence-based way that will actually bring down recidivism and will bring down issues with safety in our communities but will actually move away from imprisonment. I know that this Minister can't change the law when it comes to imprisonment but I also know that corrections are where rehabilitative measures have to be first implemented so that we can keep communities safe and ensure abuse stops. So what measures are being taken in that regard to move New Zealand away from this failed system while we still have to abide by it?
Severin ToniTONI SEVERIN (ACT): My question is in the same line as Simeon's. The question is why have the assaults on corrections officers increased but our population in the prisons has decreased because with the 90 percent you would expect to see possibly less assaults happening with less prisoners but the assaults are increasing. The other question that at this stage I want to ask also is: what is he going to do about the gang problems within prisons?
Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to take part in this debate on the annual review of the Department of Corrections. I've got a range of issues that I'd like to ask questions of the Minister over and the first one to touch on is the issue that Ginny Andersen the previous speaker just briefly touched on at the end which is around the number of prisoner assaults. What we've seen under this Government and under Kelvin Davis' leadership has been a 92 percent increase in prisoner assaults and a 92 percent increase in assaults on corrections officers is something which I believe is incredibly unacceptable. In my view none of our corrections officers deserves that treatment when they go to work and it's something which is definitely not part of their job description. My question is: what actions is the Minister taking to address this growing problem in our prisons? Well the question is what action is he taking regarding the increase in prisoner assaults because not only have we seen an increase in prisoners on corrections officers which has increased by 92 percent but we have also seen an increase in assaults of prisoner on prisoner which is also seriously concerning. We've also seen an 80 percent increase in the number of corrections officers requiring medical treatment following assaults in our prisons. The question is: what action is the Minister taking to address these issues? When we had corrections before the committee we heard that the Minister has now started receiving monthly briefings. Well when did those monthly briefings begin? If it's true that they've only just started happening this year why did it take the Minister over three years of being in the portfolio to start receiving regular briefings on the number of assaults which happen in our prisons?
Salesa JennyCHAIRPERSON (Hon Jenny Salesa): We now move to the Corrections annual review.
Faafoi KrisHon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Immigration): I might just deal with a couple of questions that have been raised because there is an assumption that is loaded into some of the questions that if people are in the skilled migrant category (SMC) queue they will definitely be granted residence. That is not a certainty. And as I say I would push against the statement that some of these people who are turning 18 have no options; they do. I'm sure some of them know that and they have been reflected by me already in this debate.So as a review of the SMC category we will make sure that we address some of the long-term issues that face the skill shortages in our economy. What we have found is that there was an increase in demand or an amount of demand way ahead of forecast which has also as I said contributed to some of the delays into processing and also to the queue becoming so large. As we look at the settings for the SMC going forward whether or not we've got those in the right place is one of those things we are currently looking at.Corrections
McDowall JamesDr JAMES McDOWALL (ACT): Thank you Madam Chair. If the processing time for the skilled migrant applications is now up to two years or longer why do immigration rules only allow applicants to extend work visas without labour market tests for 18 months? And secondly lawyers and advisers around the country are getting in touch with me saying they're getting five or up to 10 calls a day from migrants expressing interest in shifting to Canada. So is the Minister happy with skilled migrants here in New Zealand who are just stuck in the queue moving and taking their skills to Canada?
Menéndez March RicardoRICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green): Following on the issue of lack of pathways for residency whether it's young people or people who don't meet the salary criteria I recognise that the Minister in the chair Kris Faafoi mentioned the need to grow skills locally and I think everyone in this House would support that notion but I think also acknowledging that that may take some time and in the meanwhile we do have a workforce that is currently on temporary visas and does not have access to fully participate in society. So seeing as in the period that we're reviewing we know that there's a large portion of that workforce that still depends on migrant communities and that those gaps may not be filled for some years would it not make sense for these communities to be able to access residency class visas to be upskilled and as we fill those skills locally acknowledging that it actually may take some years because those gaps may well not be filled in six months; meanwhile the workforce here is suffering with uncertainty and without the ability to access State support services. If we were to go back to alert level 3 or 4 that migrant workforce is always more at risk of COVID-19 due to the lack of support. So I'm interested in knowing what the rationale is for keeping these people on temporary visas for such a long time when they would fill the gaps of skills.
Stanford EricaERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays): Thank you Madam Chair. I'd like to go back to these children of the residence visa applicants who are turning 18 and can't do anything because I thought it was very interesting the Minister's last response. I want to clarify: is the Minister seriously saying that he believes that the thousands of 18-year-olds in this country who are part of their family's residence application should with no experience no education split from their parents' application get a job on an essential skills work visa—if they'd even get a job that would make immigration give them a work visa. And then how on earth would they ever get residence with no education being an 18-year-old leaving school with no skills no experience and no education?That is a ridiculous and preposterous argument and what he's basically saying to these families is that their children have to sit and rot for years and do absolutely nothing which is terrible for their mental health and terrible for their lives because the real risk is that if they go out and work—if they'd even be granted a work visa which is preposterous—it's very very unlikely they would ever get residence given that they don't have an education and would never be able to get up to a point where they could get residence which would mean they would have to return home while their parents were here effectively splitting up migrant families which this Minister loves to do.
Faafoi KrisHon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Immigration): Just to address Mr McDowall's question we'd like to address that as soon as we possibly can; so it's not something that we'll be sitting on. To the second question we are always trying to balance the needs of businesses that might be employing the likes of working holiday visa holders and also the domestic labour market and making sure that there are opportunities available for New Zealanders to take jobs that some of those working holiday visa holders might be able to take up if those jobs are available instead of just allowing some of those companies or employers to default to working holiday visas because it's what they have done in the past. I think when you look at the totality of some of the work that we've done across the employment space the fact that we are now having a situation you know 10 to 12 months after COVID hit where we've got unemployment decreasing we've done everything that we possibly can to get New Zealanders into work.Going to Mr Menéndez March's question it is more about making sure that we're taking every opportunity to upskill and make sure that we've got wages and conditions here in New Zealand for New Zealanders to make sure that training is done by sectors and that they have serious conversations about wages and conditions which we think is well overdue. I think there has been a long period of high-volume immigration which has suppressed the likes of wages has put off serious investment that some sectors should have taken a long time ago and again affected the conditions of some of the sectors involved—so again working with the likes of some of the changes that Mr Hipkins has made over the last three years making sure that we've got better skills matches to jobs that are available and getting New Zealanders into those skills and wages and ensuring that if there are still remaining skill gaps we continue to use immigration as that lever.
Menéndez March RicardoRICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green): I wanted to touch on one of the previous answers by the Minister talking about high-volume low-skilled migration that is not sustainable. I just wanted to get a better understanding of how the Minister defines low skill because a lot of our migrant communities many of whom are essential workers and do things that I would consider essential to our society such as keeping our supermarkets running and keeping our many industries that ran during the lockdown I would consider them skilled. So the fact that we have attached the definition of being high skilled to salaries comes with a lot of barriers for migrant communities. I'm interested to hear how the Minister defines low skills and what does that hold for the future of our immigration system in relation to how that definition's being currently applied.
McDowall JamesDr JAMES McDOWALL (ACT): Thank you Madam Chair. First of all just to reiterate I would like to know if that clarification will be reversed soon and what kind of time frame we will be expecting—that's regarding the sleepover rates. The second question is: why has the Minister made a habit of granting extensions very much at the last minute creating a great deal of uncertainty for migrants and was it intentional to weed out the people who had made plans to leave so that they couldn't get refunds? So that's one.Secondly why is Immigration New Zealand shooting themselves in the foot again and again with their decisions in this case with a skilled migrant category queue especially with the paused expression of interest queue and again with the employer accreditation window? Thank you.
Faafoi KrisHon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Immigration): Madam Chair I'll try and deal with some of those questions—I might just deal with the final question first. I think there's been a bit of misreporting about how some of the people who have come in as investors have found their way to residency. If we are talking about the same reporting the individuals concerned came in under a border exception because their skills were not readily available. When they came into New Zealand I understand they already had active applications for investor category type visas and as soon as they come to the country those can be processed. So the way that that story was framed I believe didn't necessary reflect the situation with those individuals.I might go to the question that was first raised. The border settings and the criteria always have had a test for acceptable standard of health. I don't think I should go into particular cases but if people who are applying for visas don't meet the criteria of having acceptable levels of health and would place burden on the New Zealand health system—for some time that test has always been part of the visa application process. Anyone who has had any interaction with an Associate Minister of Immigration would have argued the case for someone at some stage and sometimes those are able to be done on other grounds primarily humanitarian.Mr McDowall the new systems and the new rates I believe pertain to what I would call fourth form economics. If the skills aren't available in New Zealand and they are skills that are in high demand then paying the absolute minimum wage is not what this is about. We've been very up front with sectors—and those sectors that have traditionally relied on migrant labour—about the new system that will come into place which will be employer and job led not necessarily migrant led. So we can match skilled migrant labour to jobs that actually exist and jobs that are paying a wage or a salary that is actually going to let them support themselves while they are in New Zealand. So as we have said for some time the days of open slather high-volume low-skill low-wage immigration needs to be reset and we'll have some more news about that very soon.I think to go towards the question that Erica Stanford reinforced—I believe those children do have options if they wanted to separate themselves from their parent's visas and apply as individuals now that they have become 18 and adults—Erica Stanford: How are they going to do that without tertiary education?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: —they can apply to do that. And that if they do that would enable them to take up tertiary study under domestic settings.
Menéndez March RicardoRICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green): Following from the questions of the member to my right I'm also interested in hearing about the people who were stranded overseas and their visas have now expired—I'm thinking of post-study work visas thinking of people who may have a valid working holiday visa who were due to come and are now still trapped overseas particularly during the period that we're reviewing; thinking what the rationale has been for perhaps not using those powers in the past and whether the Minister could give some indication around whether that may change in terms of giving some assurances to post-study work visa holders here. And more broadly for those that are here our communities onshore—many who are feeling a bit despondent about the fact that some investors are easily able to access residency class visas while they seem to have very few pathways—whether there'd be any reviews based on what has happened during the past year around the inequities that exist for our working class migrants compared to our investor category migrants?
Stanford EricaERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays): Thank you Madam Chair. I'd like to ask the Minister: why do visa waiver country partners—sorry let me start the question again. What is the logic or reasoning behind the decision to mean that New Zealand citizens or residents have to travel to fetch their partners from non-visa waiver countries whereas those from visa waiver countries get to travel to New Zealand without their partners? And will he look at changing this policy so that New Zealand citizens and residents can be with their loved ones?Madam Chair I'll continue because it looks like the Minister's just taking some advice. Is the Minister considering extending—under the generous powers that he's been granted for the next two years—the post-study work visas for those holders who've been trapped offshore in early 2020 and are unable to use their visas once the borders reopen? Or is it the case that when those visas expire the holder will not have the opportunity to return to New Zealand when the borders open despite the significant investment they've made into education here? I will carry on—oh no I'll sit down.
McDowall JamesDr JAMES McDOWALL (ACT): Thank you Madam Chair and I just want to take a moment to say thank you to the Minister for addressing the question on sleepover hours and rates—don't get used to it though. So actually further to that I would like a little bit more clarification if possible as to if that decision will be reversed and when we can expect that because I know the stakeholders that have reached out to me would like an answer.The next question I have is evidently employers—this is a new thing—that have more than six people on work visas now need to pay all of their staff the minimum wage plus 10 percent. I've just spoken to someone—a business owner—who has calculated that this will cost him $830000 per year and this cost will be passed on to his clients. That's no good for anybody. And it's the same with a hospitality client: one reached out to me they've got 300 staff and even the dishwasher will need to be paid $22 an hour now and this is going to have a big effect on their bottom line and therefore the cost they pass on.
Stanford EricaERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays): The Minister didn't answer my question earlier and I'm keen to get an answer because this is important—what does he intend to do about the dependent children of resident applicants who are turning 18 and who are prevented from studying working or even volunteering for fear of not being able to come in under their parents' residency application and not being able to afford tertiary study? That's the question he has not answered and I would like a response because there are thousands of children out there who are affected by this. The Minister just told us in his previous answer that he has to be very careful around the applications that are coming in; they have to do be done properly. I'd like to ask the Minister why it is that between 2018 and 2019 the caseload of an officer processing residence applications was 52 cases in 2019-20 it dropped to 36 it currently sits at 25 cases on their books at one time. That is a massive productivity drop. I'd also like to ask him why it was that in 2019-20 90 percent of skilled migrant category cases were finalised in 15 months in 2018-19 that was 19 and now we're at 24 so you've gone from 9 to 15 to 24 and the caseload of the officers has dropped dramatically as well. And has this got anything to do with the fact that in the 2019-20 year 55 percent of staff working in the residence application branch left?
Menéndez March RicardoRICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green): Tēnā koe Madam Chair. So I am interested in getting some answers on the discrimination that disabled people face within our immigration system. I wanted to ask about the rationale for continuing this policy despite disabled people being quite clear that the ongoing discrimination for people to access residency class visas has prevented them from fully participating in our society and particularly during the pandemic in this case and also with the discrimination that people living with HIV face within our immigration system. Despite the previous National Government and subsequent Governments recognising that discrimination because of HIV is no longer fit for purpose it continues. So I'm interested in hearing the Minister's rationale—despite granting residency to people like Juliana Carvalho who put a petition that garnered tens of thousands of signatures there has been no policy change and I'm wondering what the rationale has been to continue down this path so far?
McDowall JamesDr JAMES McDOWALL (ACT): Thank you Madam Chair. Why has there been a refusal to make any decision on the future of the expressions of interest (EOI) and skilled migrant category system despite leaving it open to people to submit further EOIs? And separately why has the minimum salary for the work-to-residence been raised from $55k to $79k when these employers have already proven through the accreditation process that they struggle to find local workers? Why are we punishing them further to the point where they may not be able to hire anybody?
Stanford EricaERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays): Following on from my last question: is it acceptable that a priority queue was established based on income and registration of occupation and in place for 18 months without being written into Immigration New Zealand instructions—effectively operating as a secret queue—until a complaint was lodged with the Ombudsman forcing officials to make this priority queue official by writing it into instructions? And what is the Minister doing to ensure that Immigration officials are not using other measures that are not transparently communicated to applicants?For the period 2019/20 we saw a dramatic increase in the amount of time taken to process skilled migrant category (SMC) applications. Long queues blew out to two years—that's if a person had been selected in the first place. Lots of people are still stuck in the expression of interest pool that was frozen in early 2020. What does the Minister intend to do about dependent children of residence applicants who are turning 18 and being prevented from undertaking tertiary study due to the cost of international fees and who can't work or volunteer or they will not be allowed to gain residence with their parents?This is a serious question about these children. Many of them are having to repeat year 13 which they don't need to do but they are forced to because there is nothing else they can do or they're sitting at home doing nothing. They are starting to display mental health problems. Will the Minister commit to allowing these children to at least work while they await the outcome of their parents' residence application without that work deeming them to be non-dependent on their parents?
McDowall JamesDr JAMES McDOWALL (ACT): Thank you Madam Chair. I've got a variety of specific questions so I'll just get to it in the interests of time. The first is: why is Immigration New Zealand (INZ) working so hard to come down on vulnerable industries—for example a recent clarification or should I say rule change around sleepover hours that need to be paid at $25.50 per hour at a minimum where they're traditionally classed as an allowance and paid at the minimum wage? Other industries are allowed to pay their employees allowances yet the care industry for some reason can't. This has huge ramifications for the sector with workers and employers reaching out to me in desperation. This is very important. If the clients suffer—and this is in the mental health sector particularly and also in aged care—then this is very much on the Minister. Thank you.
Stanford EricaERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays): Thank you Madam Chair. I would like to ask the Minister: was the priority queue system for skilled migrant category (SMC) residence applications agreed to and signed off by a Minister when it was implemented and why was this not transparently communicated to applicants until March 2020—effectively being a secret priority queue for 18 months?
Strange JamieJAMIE STRANGE (Chairperson of the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee): Thank you Madam Chair. I appreciate the opportunity to make a third speech in this debate this time on the topic of immigration. Thank you for the opportunity. At the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee we heard about New Zealand's closed borders and we heard that they've had huge challenges for the immigration system. That will come to no surprise to anyone who is listening today. It's important that we continue responding with flexibility to the unique challenges posed by COVID-19.We also heard about New Zealand's ability to bring people through our managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) system. We know that over the past 12 months demand for places in MIQ has certainly been intense. We also heard about the effects of Immigration New Zealand (INZ) officials making changes and standing up new functions and processes to respond to the pandemic and that the nature of Immigration New Zealand's work has changed in many ways. We heard that the Government is committed to building a productive sustainable and inclusive economy that delivers good jobs decent working conditions and fair wages. We heard that the immigration system is incredibly critical to this and there is work under way to support that.The border closure has had a major impact on the immigration system which is now operating very differently than in the pre-COVID environment. Three offshore visa processing offices have been closed since March 2020. Beijing Apia and Suva offices are now operating. There has been a significant reduction in temporary visa applications particularly visitor visas which made up over half of all visa applications pre - COVID-19. Despite the visa volume reductions Immigration New Zealand's visa processing capacity is being fully utilised. Significant work remains in the system and this and the new functions that INZ has absorbed are challenging complex and resource intensive.We heard that these functions include four in particular: number one temporary and residence visa applications for 260000 migrants currently in New Zealand to ensure they remain lawful and meet workforce needs; number two partnership applications for eligible offshore applicants; the third point was around new work to process requests for border exemptions and related visas; and the fourth was around managing the significant number of queued offshore applicants due to applicants being unable to travel.So that's a little bit of an overview of some of the key points that we heard during this process. If I could ask a question of the Minister my question is that with our border being closed to keep COVID out of our communities core public services and industries have continued to need people to come across the border to help keep them running. Can the Minister tell us about some of the measures that have been taken to support them through this? Thank you.
Court Simon; Salesa JennySIMON COURT (ACT): So to the Minister I appreciate you are having discussions. This is so urgent there are a number of quarries and other operations in Auckland which have lost an entire construction season because after they've approached their local council—Auckland Council for example—to apply for an earthworks permit on land already consented for their activity their application was declined. They were told not to put it on the desk because it could not be accepted by that local authority. This is leading to increased costs. It is leading to disruption in the supply chain. And I ask the Minister how urgently this is being treated and what the time frame is to respond to stakeholders and to give assurance to the infrastructure and construction sectors that this is a priority for the Government.ImmigrationCHAIRPERSON (Hon Jenny Salesa): We now come to the annual review of immigration and I call on the chairperson of the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee Jamie Strange.
Court Simon; Woods MeganSIMON COURT (ACT): Madam Chair thank you. To the Minister I now turn to resources. I've become aware from a number of different stakeholders that they're very concerned that their access to mineral resources in particular to quarry resources has been severely impacted by the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater which prohibited earthworks and disturbing wetland—a wetland being defined as an area as small as one square metre. I'm interested in what advice the Minister has had about how the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater has affected access to those quarry resources—whether you're aware that that has held up any projects or added to additional cost—and what discussions you may have had with other Ministers about very quickly modifying that term prohibited" or otherwise modifying the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater to allow earthworks in wetlands for infrastructure to get access to vital resources minerals like gold and rare earth elements which we absolutely depend on for manufacturing and construction and infrastructure. Thank you Minister.Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Energy and Resources): Also being the Minister of Housing access to aggregate is something that I'm very well aware of. I've had engagement with a number of stakeholders. The Minister for the Environment has been made aware of this and we're continuing to look at the issue. In terms of other work happening across Government around the issue of aggregate and resources this is an issue also that the Infrastructure Commission is turning its attention to as well as the advice that I'm working with my officials on about the pathway we need for what is an incredibly ambitious infrastructure programme from a Government that is spending more than has been spent in a generation on infrastructure."
Kuriger Barbara; Woods MeganBARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country): To the Minister: we hear a lot about the supply side of energy; what work is the Minister doing in the demand side?Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Energy and Resources): Through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority EECA this is a major focus as the name on the tin says: that it is about conservation; that it is about reducing energy. We do a lot of work with businesses with industry who are very eager to participate in this work because actually energy conservation means less expenditure for those businesses and a way for them to improve the profitability of their businesses. This is an area of a great deal of interest to me. As a Minister I served as one of the four Ministers I think on the International Energy Agency's conservation working party and doing work globally with fellow Ministers around what needs to happen as we make transitions to 100 percent renewable systems.
Woods MeganHon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Energy and Resources): Thank you. I'll address the broad area of security of supply that has been brought up in the last few questions. The National spokesperson asked me what happens if this happens over a prolonged period of time? So if we look back at the historical data in terms of what dry years have looked like over the last few decades we've seen an instance in 1959 1960 1973 1974 1976 and 1977 when you had two consecutive dry years. They are incredibly rare—for us to have more than a dry year. As a proud South Islander I can talk to the amount of rain that does tend to fall in the island in the winter. What we are seeing is actually a little bit of recharge over the last 24 hours happening in the southern hydro lakes which I think is something that is of a great relief to everybody. So it is incredibly rare but we do have a system that is set up like this. This is the system behaving as it should. So in terms of what would happen well set out by the architects of the system there is what happens in terms of conservation campaigns and what springs into action. I don't think this should be New Zealand's long-term future and neither does our Government. That is precisely why we are addressing the issue of dry year risk by looking at something that has some greater certainty and will stop New Zealanders and New Zealand businesses having to go through this by looking at what we have to do to address that through a renewable source rather than increasing cost of gas supplies. In terms of the decision we made around ending the issuing of new offshore permits I can give the member reassurance that it is not what lies at the heart of this. The last offshore gas find in New Zealand was in 2020. It's 21 years since there's been an economic find of oil or gas in New Zealand. All of our finds have been onshore in that period of time. They haven't been offshore. We've also seen the surrender of many permits that had already been issued for offshore permits in the time since we made the decision. That's because those fields were shown to be uneconomic. What I say is that it is incredibly important that as a country we are planning for the scenario that we simply don't have those gas reserves there because that is what the evidence is showing us. We're finding that the economic reserves simply are not there.
Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Madam Chair. To the Minister: I'm sure that there will be many opportunities to respond to questions about energy which is a vital plank in New Zealand's economic self-sustainability and cheap energy is actually something that has allowed New Zealand manufacturing businesses to compete very effectively even with much larger businesses and much larger countries around the world. So we understand that there's a risk that's developed over time that is now manifested with the rapid decline of the Pohokura field and the time that that is taking to have it essentially refreshed with additional drilling and maintenance so that it can be brought back online. So the ACT Party understands to some extent how we've got to this point but does the Minister agree with the Genesis CEO who said on Radio New Zealand yesterday that now existing gas fields are declining much faster than anticipated the Government's ban on oil and gas exploration is becoming an issue with respect to future electricity supply? And would she be able to reassure the House that Government policy in terms of banning oil and gas exploration has not contributed in any way to the situation that we find ourselves in?
Kuriger BarbaraBARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country): I'd just like to ask the Minister about the just transition because we keep hearing a lot about just transition and since I've been in the spokesperson's role I've actually seen a lot of exciting possibilities in the future. But right now none of them are ready. They need to be built. They need to be developed. You know hydrogen's talked about a lot. We talk about building more wind farms. But what I'd be extremely worried about is as I said before it could take 10 years if Onslow—not that I think Onslow is a good idea; I think it's a very bad idea. But what's going to happen in the next 10 years with limited gas supply if we have no rain—what is in the future and what is the just transition?
Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Madam Chair. To the Minister: does she agree with the Genesis CEO that electricity can help us decarbonise but we should not get hung up on the last remaining bits of emissions—that we must focus on security of supply and pricing. If so does she believe that having New Zealand's major industries turn off production to save power this winter reflects security of supply and pricing? Should New Zealand homeowners be concerned about price rises and the welfare of older persons and should businesses be worried about price rises impacting on their business viability because of the lack of security of supply and the very significant increase in prices?