King MattMATT KING (National—Northland): A little over 10 days ago I was flicking through my news feeds and I read this rather disturbing story about this Czech criminal—this gangster—who is in jail in New Zealand for drug dealing. The Minister of Immigration Iain Lees-Galloway had granted him residency and I could not believe this. I thought that there must be some sort of mistake and the media must have got it wrong—that's not uncommon in my experience. But we were asked to read between the lines: maybe he's at risk if he's deported or maybe he's not that bad—he's just a little bit misunderstood. And then we asked a few questions and we found out that no he's been back to his homeland twice that witnesses that are involved in the case that he's involved in are on the witness protection programme and that his estranged wife has taken out a protection order against him. So this gangster—this criminal gangster—is a nasty piece of work and I've met a few of them in my time. I've arrested a few.It made me think about some of the constituents that have come into my office. I thought of a Filipino woman called Juliet Garcia who has had 11 years in New Zealand and works at the Switzer rest home. She's just shy of her residency points because they won't take into account a couple of years of her work experience in New Zealand so she's been told that she can't get residency. So they've advertised her position in preparation of the fact that she's going to be kicked out of the country and they've had no applicants—for two years. They cannot replace her and the Minister has the authority to grant a waiver to let her stay in the country. There are about an estimated 3000 Juliet Garcias in this country and aged care is in crisis so I would imagine that she'd be a great case in which to grant a waiver.I have the English woman—a sole child who came here as a resident. Her mother has died and her father is alone in England. He has the means to come out here and the means to support himself. That's her only surviving relative—it's just her and him on this earth. She wants him to come out and live in New Zealand with her in her house and he can support himself. He's a little bit old and they won't give him a waiver. He can't get residency. He doesn't qualify under any categories but they can let him in—this is heartbreaking stuff.We've got a Fijian Indian farm manager. He's been here eight years. His employer values him and is desperate for him to stay. He's paid international fees for his son to go through university here. He's bought his own house. He is two years over the age limit. The Minister has the ability to give him an age waiver to allow him to apply for residency but they refuse to intervene.We've got South African people wanting to escape South Africa because of the violent crime there. Their Government is seizing their land without compensation and they want to get out of that country—they have good grounds. One of them he owned a business over there. The sales rep that delivered the chainsaws to his factory—his truck got robbed and he got shot dead. A couple that they have a barbecue lunch with every second weekend—intruders broke into her house while the husband was away shot her eight times through the bedroom door ransacked the house and left her for dead basically. She lifted her son—her three-year-old son—out of the window and he ran the kilometre down the road to get her help. Stories like this are genuine. They're happening right now in South Africa and we're turning a blind eye. We have the ability to accept these people.Now I've got people that come here on visitor visas from South Africa looking to make New Zealand their home. They are professional people—doctors teachers chefs engineers—but they can't get residency. It's heartbreaking stuff and I see it every day. I understand that we can't open the floodgates and let these people in willy-nilly but we certainly can kick an oxygen-thief of a Czech gangster out of this country—hell I'd do that job for free.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.