Copeland Gordon: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Copeland Gordon: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:607;Page:4191] 
3.  
GORDON COPELAND (United Future) 
 to the  
Minister of Immigration 
: Can overseas students work in paid employment while enrolled in a long term course of study in New Zealand; if so how much work are they permitted to undertake? 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL (Minister of Immigration) 
: 
 Yes students on long-term tertiary courses may on application work for 15 hours per week during term time and for extended hours during vacations. 
Gordon Copeland 
: If the Prostitution Reform Bill becomes law is there any way to prevent brothel owners from importing women from at-risk countries like Thailand on student visas and employing them to work as prostitutes in brothels? 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL 
: If such an establishment were to bring in people for one purpose but to apply for a different permit then that particular employer would in fact be in breach of his or her obligations and would be guilty of offences under the Immigration Act. The point the member raises is a very good one and it was something that I became aware of late last week. Therefore I have asked for work to be undertaken with the promoter of the bill and the Minister of Justice to ensure that we exclude all immigration permits from the area of brothel-keeping and prostitution. 
Dave Hereora 
: How does the provision of education to overseas students in New Zealand contribute to the New Zealand economy? 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL 
: Trade New Zealand has estimated the economic value of the export education industry to New Zealand in 2002 at $1.7 billion. That is why it is important that we do follow up on the issue that has been raised by the primary questioner. 
Pansy Wong 
: How can overseas students concentrate on their study or 15 hours of work when some of them still have to queue outside the New Zealand Immigration Service at the crack of dawn and what is the Minister doing to fix the problem? 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL 
: Students do not have to queue outside the Immigration Service at the crack of dawn. If that member were to be helpful and advise members of different communities in Christchurch that they do not actually have to go into the Immigration Service as I have been trying to do for the last several weeks—there has not been one helpful contribution from that member—then I would take her seriously. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. You have consistently ruled Mr Speaker that all a Minister has to do is stand up and address the question. Are you going to extend that rule to allowing a Minister to stand up and attack the questioner and allow that to stand as an answer to a question? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No the Minister was addressing the question. The member may not have liked it. I allowed a certain amount of comment to come back from the other side at that point and that applied. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Why is it that after 4 years every time something goes wrong—for example people paying for others to queue for them; prostitutes being brought into this country about which she claims she knows nothing at all; or worse the Japanese school in Auckland that she now claims was illegally started which had people falling asleep because they were working 7 days a week in restaurants illegally—she knows about it only when somebody tells her and if that is how incompetent she is why does she not resign? 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL 
: I have done more as Minister of Immigration than the member did in addressing rorts that existed in the system the whole time that he was in a Government and could have addressed these problems. The point is that people who come to this country as students have an entitlement to work if they apply for open work permits. The original questioner has raised a serious question and that member would do well to listen to the answers. 
Larry Baldock 
: In the light of that serious issue has the Minister received any reports that indicate the practice of importing women into New Zealand on student visas to work as prostitutes is already taking place; if so will she review the rules covering the granting of student visas with a view to eliminating this practice? 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL 
: Again the point the member raises is a good one because the current law does not make prostitution illegal. It makes the act of soliciting illegal and it also covers the activities of brothel-keeping and living off the earnings of prostitution—so there actually is a gap in the existing law. I do not have any evidence that people are being brought in under student permits to act in brothels. I do have good evidence that people are coming in from some countries on visitors visas and are working unlawfully in brothels. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Why does the Minister blandly rise in the House day in day out giving an assurance with regard to these questions when for example— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I have allowed a little bit of toing and froing on this but my patience is now at an end. There will be no more interjections. I want to hear Mr Peters’ question. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Why does the Minister give these bland assurances day in day out when for example in the case of the Japanese school in Auckland she had no idea what the students were doing she had no idea that the school was operating she had no idea of the level of illegality; and after a murder was committed she still has no idea of what happened there? Surely she does not have the resources to give the assurances she has given this House? 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL 
: I have answered the questions on the issue of the Columbus Academy very clearly by reference to the fact that the individual student who was killed on those premises—which is now the subject of an intense police inquiry—entered New Zealand visa-free from Japan in 1997—a familiar year. 
Gordon Copeland 
: What course attendance and academic progress requirements do overseas students currently face in order to maintain their student visas; and is the Government moving to monitor these for compliance continuously throughout the year as is being done now in the United States? 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL 
: Institutions that have enrolled international students under these student permit provisions are obliged to advise the Immigration Service either that the individual student is not complying with his or her student permit by attending courses or that he or she is failing to meet the course requirements.