Ross Jami-Lee: Immigration Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ross Jami-Lee: Immigration Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 03 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:1961. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany) 
: 
 I take absolutely no shame in standing up and supporting this bill the Immigration Amendment Bill this afternoon. I take absolutely no shame in supporting this bill because this is about New Zealand getting ahead of a potential problem in the future. Many of the criticisms that we have heard this afternoon many of the concerns that have been levelled at us this afternoon are the same types of arguments that were made in Australia in years gone past. And do you know what? If the Australian Government of the past had listened to that type of criticism and those types of concerns and done nothing then it would have an even bigger problem than what it has got today.  
The fact of the matter is that we are a nation that is desirable for people to come to. We have a beautiful country. We have natural fauna and flora we have great seaside areas to live in we have great environmental areas that people want to live in we have good education systems and we have good health systems. Naturally people want to come and live in New Zealand and I completely understand that. I have an electorate where half of the population was not born in New Zealand. There are a lot of migrants in my electorate a lot of people in my electorate who have worked hard done the right thing and gone through the right processes to come to this country and it is absolutely unfair on the people who work hard do the right thing and come to New Zealand through the right channels to see people having the opportunity to come here illegally and getting fast tracked and jumping through the queue. Sure we may not have a huge number of them coming just yet but should we sit back and do nothing? Should we just say: “It’ll be OK. We won’t deal with it and we won’t get ahead of the issue because this may never happen.”? The fact of the matter is that people will want to come here. This happened in Australia. We are very close to Australia. Our nearest neighbour is Australia and they do have this problem. If we sit back and do nothing then we will have exactly the same problem.  
It is quite interesting to see. I disagree with a lot of what the Green Party stands for and what it believes in but you have to say that at least it opposes things on principle. The other guys over the other side actually do not know why they are opposing it. They just oppose things for the sake of it. They are just opposing it because they are the Opposition and they think the only thing they can do to get some attention is to oppose things. They seem to think that we have a case here where we are trying to avoid distractions. Well their leader needs some distraction because he is just not getting anywhere at all. If they are wanting to accuse us of trying to avoid distractions well they are looking for some relevance for their leader. Where has he been? What has he had to do in the last few weeks? Who is David Shearer? Most people around the country do not know who he is. So I do not accept the criticism they have made because they have got a far bigger problem on the other side.  
It is depressing to hear the Opposition’s comments today. It is depressing to hear Opposition members say that we should not have this legislation before the House because there is no problem. We need to show that New Zealand is not going to be a soft touch. We need to show that good people who work hard to come here through the proper channels who do follow the law and who do recognise New Zealand’s law should be rewarded. They should not be in a position where people who can queue-jump do so.  
I perfectly accept that there are a lot of people in the world who have had a lot of bad things done to them. We cannot get away from that; it is a fact. But we are not a country that can take everybody. We are not a country that can sit back and accept every person who has had something bad happen in their life. Sure the people who come here on boats the people who try to get through the system without going through proper processes and the people who seek asylum by coming here on boats do have a lot of genuine problems that they have had to face in their lives. But should they be fast tracked over and above the good people who go through the proper process?  
Moana Mackey 
: We haven’t had any.  
JAMI-LEE ROSS 
: Well look at the heckling from the other side. She has got nothing interesting to say. The Opposition has had no real reasons to be opposing this bill. It is just opposing it for the sake of opposing it. That is all it does. It wants to know why it is so low in the polls. It is because all it does is just oppose things for the sake of it.  
Darien Fenton 
: Shame.  
JAMI-LEE ROSS 
: I take no shame in standing in support of this bill Darien Fenton. You know people often ask me what Darien Fenton is like. I say: “She is a unionist but she is actually a nice person.” I am starting to change my mind after this Darien.  
This is legislation that we need to get ahead of the game to make sure we are prepared and to make sure New Zealand is not seen as a soft touch. We will in the future have problems if we do nothing. The Opposition wants to see nothing done. It does not want to tackle the problems that New Zealand has and potentially will have in the future. This is a Government that wants to get ahead of the game. I congratulate Nathan Guy and thank him for bringing this legislation to the House. I am looking forward to the select committee process.