Chadwick Steve: Immigration Advisers Licensing Bill — Third Reading 
Chadwick Steve: Immigration Advisers Licensing Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:638;Page:8792] 
STEVE CHADWICK (Labour—Rotorua) 
: 
 I am pleased to take a call on this bill. I think it is extremely important for the fabric of New Zealand society. As a Government we have always stressed since we came into office that we need a very well-managed and balanced immigration programme and that that sort of programme was one of the keys to New Zealand’s economic transformation. We are very aware that the Opposition has carped on somewhat about net migration loss and we knew that this net migration loss had to be offset by attracting to New Zealand the right sorts of people who are given the right advice from the very beginning of the process. That is core to the fabric of the New Zealand identity.  
We have always trusted people in New Zealand. We have gone on good faith goodwill and trust. It is amazing how haphazard the immigration advice industry—and it is an industry—has become. It takes a constituent MP in a very busy office to see the number of cases that come to us as a default process after a person has tried to use the Immigration Service out of need and has to talk to someone he or she trusts about the process that has belittled what we want in an open and transparent Immigration Service. That is why I am very pleased to see in this bill the complaints and disciplinary tribunal. I think it puts this profession on a parallel and makes it relative to other professions. We are saying that immigration advisers must be professional in the way they go about their business. Along with that goes accountability as it does for any other professionals about the sort of advice given and also about the costing and the transparency of the process for these more vulnerable people when they want to come to New Zealand.  
What a ghastly thing it is for any people from offshore who decide that New Zealand is the country of their choice—not the country of default—to meet an immigration adviser who gives them the wrong steer from the start. Members all know how we have to then make appeals to the Minister of Immigration and we all know about the huge amount of resources that go into any appeal process because the wrong advice has been given in the first instance. So these people were put crook to begin with either about what category they should be using or about what sort of visa they should be applying under and from then on it is very difficult to unpick and undo a process that was faulty from the initial application.  
I am also pleased that this tribunal is independent of the ministry. I think that is very very important. In many cases I have had nowhere to go to other than the Minister’s office and I do not see that as being the right place because then yet another official is asked to go and review the file and make sure that the right advice was given. Migrants ask to see members often—but not in the members’ offices because they feel they are hiding under the threat of being sent back to their country of origin. As a constituent MP I have been to some very peculiar places to meet some thoroughly decent people who have applied with the best intent of coming into New Zealand and contributing to our economic fabric and who are in hiding and have nowhere to go. They have been led by some very good people through their ethnic association or their particular migrant community who have bothered to make the effort to put together a case to bring to a constituent MP.  
I have been appalled at what I have seen in terms of costs along the transaction pathway for applications. I have seen cases where costs have run to thousands and thousands of dollars and the associates of the migrant community have put in together to fund it in terms of getting the record straight. So I am really pleased that there is an independent tribunal for complaints. I think that tribunal will have to be thoroughly well resourced because as soon as we have a complaints tribunal along the lines of any other tribunal that we are aware of we will need to resource it. We have had the recent case of the Police Complaints Authority saying that if the Government is to set up the authority to answer the issues that come before it we should resource it well. So I am pleased to see that complaints tribunal in the bill.  
Really good immigration advisers in my community have absolutely no problem at all about being licensed about being subject to rigorous scrutiny over their professionalism and about their need for ongoing professional development because goodness knows we change the Immigration Act very frequently. Often the wrong advice is given unsuspectingly because immigration advisers are not even aware of the amendments that have happened to either the regulations or the Immigration Act. Immigration advisers are saying that they need to keep up with the play and that they need to go and attend some seminars to know what is going on so that they do give the right advice.  
I think that this is a thoroughly good bill. It even goes back to before Paul Swain’s time when members had to give names to the Hon Lianne Dalziel. She asked for members to come forward with specific names in order to cite immigration advisers either onshore or offshore who had been absolutely unscrupulous in their dealings. That information was hard enough to get out of constituents because they did not want to dob in the person who put them wrong and took their money under false pretences. So members gave a huge list to the Minister. Then she to her credit then Paul Swain and now David Cunliffe and Clayton Cosgrove put their minds to creating a thoroughly professional bill.  
I think it is a great thing that we are having this reading today and I congratulate those on the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee who took this bill so seriously. I do believe that this bill will bring us into line with other countries. It will show that we are a thoroughly decent country and that we do not just go on trust and a bit of a wink and a nod. The professionalism around immigration now has raised the bar. This bill shows the standard we expect to see in our country and we expect to abide by it so we know we are getting the people here welcoming them and making them feel that they are part of our society. We are proud to have them here and we are dissociating ourselves with the illegal and shonky practices of the past.  
I think that this is a fantastic bill. I know that the migrant community out there is very pleased about it. I went to the Indian association AGM. That association has been going in this country for 83 years. The Minister for Ethnic Affairs came and those people were delighted with the steps this Government has undertaken from when we got into office in 1999 in order to purge our processes and to put in place very very strong and sustainable frameworks for immigration that cannot be unpicked by future Governments. I believe that we have met that commitment. The community that we discussed this bill with was delighted and I am sure that we will go forward in a very positive manner with this bill behind us.