Hayes Joanne: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHayes Joanne: General Debate[Sitting date: 29 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5439. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JOANNE HAYES (National): Ā huri noa tēnā koutou ki ngā mema o te Whare Pāremata. Kai te tautoko au i te kaupapa o Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori i tēnei tau ā whāngaitia Te Reo ki ngā mātua.[And so acknowledgments to you all the members of Parliament House throughout the House. I support the focus of this year’s Māori Language Week: feed it to the parents.]I want to support my colleagues by saying just how much of a wonderful conference we have had. It was one of the best conferences that I have attended. It was amazing because of the wonderful—full of foresight—announcements that were made by our Prime Minister this weekend. I can tell you that the one around immigration—and I am going to talk about immigration because in the list seat that I sit in in Christchurch East nothing is being done by the sitting MP. That sitting MP in Christchurch East is doing nothing about immigration or helping people with immigration issues. I can tell you this now because they are coming to my office. Therefore some of the questions that are coming out from these people around employment employers wanting skilled migrant workers and skilled migrant workers looking for residency—all of those questions are coming to my office.When I look across at Te Rōpū Reipa I start to wonder about how much of a plan it has for skilled migrants. Its plan would fit on a piece of paper of this size but its plan has nothing on it. It is like this pad here—it has got absolutely empty pages. There is nothing—nada—that Labour is doing to help skilled migrants. Therefore when the Prime Minister stood and delivered his speech on the immigration area I was so pleased because this will actually help the migrants in the South Island to gain employment and to stay in our country. Skilled migrants bring labour to this country. They bring in skills that some New Zealanders do not have. They bring with them their capital wealth they bring with them their families and they bring whole new ways of life and ways of life that fit into this country and I am really pleased to see that the Labour Party has actually supported our immigration announcements.Let us have a look at what Mr Stuart Nash the MP for Napier had to say in Hawke’s Bay Today which was “Key plan has merit—Nash”. Even he actually supports our plan so that just tells me that you know your empty plan Labour? There is not much in it. It is empty. So what he said was: “I thought about it for a while and I thought well let’s give it a go.”—let us all give it a go. Let us go down to Minister Woodhouse’s electorate down in Dunedin where the Mayor of Dunedin Dave Cull again said that he welcomed measures to give prospective immigrants to New Zealand greater incentive to go to the provinces—to go to the regions to work. Half of the migrants that are coming into New Zealand are staying in Auckland and it is causing a lot of pressures there. We need them out in the regions we need them in the South Island and that is exactly where they are going. That is great for the regions. It is going to grow the regions and it is certainly going to help the rebuild in Christchurch.Recently I went on to a construction site where the majority of the workers there were skilled migrants. The call for skilled migrants on that site is very very strong and I am proud to stand here to support those construction companies down in Christchurch. Again let us have a look at what Grey District mayor Tony Kokshoorn said. He also welcomed the immigration package. These are all people all mayors and actually MPs who sit on the left side.We are a focused Government. We take—now how would you say this—we are punching above our weight. That is what we are doing—we are always punching above our weight. I want to get our words right because it is right that we get the sentence right.Many Kiwis are actually voting with their feet and are coming home. They are coming home because this Government has provided a solid platform on which they can come home and get work and get good salaries and there is plenty of employment here. Thank you.