Mitchell Clayton: Immigration Amendment Bill (No 2) — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMitchell Clayton: Immigration Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee[Sitting date: 31 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2723. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLAYTON MITCHELL (NZ First): I rise on behalf of New Zealand First to take a call on this bill the Immigration Amendment Bill (No 2). It is probably no surprise to the Minister of Immigration that New Zealand First does not support this bill. We cannot support it although we have a lot of sympathy for those temporary migrant workers who are being exploited and we have a lot of sympathy for those illegal temporary migrant workers who are being exploited as we have a big issue with any worker in New Zealand being exploited. So we would just like to talk and explain to you the issues that we have.As early as today there was a media release—and I am sure Mr Young was speaking to the same one that I am speaking to—about a fine that was given out to a restaurant up in Auckland for exploiting some workers. These were illegal immigrant workers and these workers had been taken serious advantage of. The interesting point here is that this outfit this organisation really could not be fined because of course it has gone into liquidation now. This is not the first time that this has taken place.This situation is continuing throughout New Zealand at a time when New Zealand is having some major internal issues of its own around employment. At the moment we have got 138000 temporary migrant workers in the country 54000 working holiday visas per annum and another 100000 student visas with expanding working rights. We are approaching if you include the illegal temporary migrant workers or the illegal migrant workers close to 400000 workers coming to this country—temporarily I might add. We are not talking about migrants who are moving to New Zealand for the benefit of the long-term looking after of their families as Mr Young mentioned where the money would stay in this country. This money goes out of our country. This money at the end of their seasonal work and picking goes back to the other countries. We have some serious issues. When we have got an unemployment rate of 143000 people this bill does nothing to help get those workers—New Zealanders—into those jobs.The biggest issue that we have got which this bill does not attack or in any way mitigate is closing the borders to those people who are coming here to take advantage of our generosity our hospitality and our open-arms policy of immigration. This bill needs to address the issue by taking closer consideration of it and by taking a deeper harder look at those people who are coming here. As recently as October last year there was a case in Tauranga where we had a whole group of temporary migrant workers who were over here to do some kiwifruit picking. It had a similar issue of exploitation—they were being paid between $5 to $7 per hour. There were eight people living in a shack with one toilet. They were promised food they were promised suitable accommodation they were promised clothing and they got none of it. These people came to New Zealand First where they were actually assisted. They wanted to go back home to Fiji. They did not want to be here any more. This is what has been going on for such a long time.We want to reiterate that this is in no way New Zealand First supporting this sort of exploitation but a lot more could be done with this legislation at our border control areas. If we can control the entry points into our country we are going to have a lot more control over what is going on within our country. We need to look at incentivising and offering opportunities for the youth. Northland is a very very topical point at the moment. The unemployment rate up in Northland is much higher than anywhere else in the country. We could incentivise like we have in Christchurch by getting some of these people some money to get themselves down to areas where there is work required for them to do and get them trained and upskilled. These are the sorts of things we need to be doing for the betterment of New Zealand and for the betterment of our people.As far as exploitation goes I reiterate that we are in no way condoning that. We sympathise with these people who have come here to the land of milk and honey the land of opportunity to get themselves ahead but the bill does not help New Zealand or New Zealanders. We need to do more to look after those people. Prevention is by far the best cure in this situation.We can understand why so many people want to move here and certainly come and work here. We have got great weather. We have got fantastic opportunities for jobs but we have got to get back to the most important issue which is getting our 143000 unemployed workers out there taking up some of these jobs. We cannot support this bill going through. Thank you.