12. Question No. 12—ImmigrationERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays) to the Minister of ImmigrationQuestion No. 12—Immigration12. ERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays) to the Minister of Immigration: What advice if any has he received on the issue of split migrant families and will he commit to allowing migrant reunification once a trans-Tasman bubble is in place?Hon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Immigration): The Government has been receiving advice on the effects of the border closure since we closed it over a year ago as part of our strategy to eliminate COVID-19 from our communities. This has included advice on the issue of families of temporary visa holders who may have been having difficulties because of our border closure. The advice I have received has also set out where we have been able to make changes to allow some of these families to come together as capacity has allowed including 1000 normally resident temporary visa holders and partners and dependants from visa waiver countries. We will continue to consider these situations and what further measures we can introduce to assist families that may be having difficulties with the border closure. It's important to remember that we've had nearly 130000 people safely come across the border and through our managed isolation and quarantine system and the overwhelming majority of those have been New Zealanders who have an absolute right to come home. I understand the Prime Minister will address the trans-Tasman bubble this afternoon and I would not want to get ahead of that.Erica Stanford: What does he say to Cameron Conradie a mathematics teacher from the Hutt Valley who has not seen his two sons in over a year and has no choice right now but to leave New Zealand if he wants to see his family?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: I would say to that individual and many others who are in his situation that we understand the difficulties that he is in but we also have extreme challenges in making sure that we keep New Zealand safe at the border and our border settings we believe are appropriate in order to do that. As I say it is a balance of priorities around keeping New Zealanders safe also recognising that New Zealanders have the right to come home and go through managed isolation.Erica Stanford: How much longer does he expect our migrant workers to stay in New Zealand without their partners and children if he won't commit to a time frame?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: Look a lot of those families will be in different situations around the length of time that they've had in New Zealand. As I have said to the member during a number of question times we are currently considering options for that. I would again stress that that is balancing the likes of keeping New Zealanders safe and managed isolation capacity and I believe the results to date show that New Zealanders trust our judgment when it comes to our border settings.Erica Stanford: Does he think that it's acceptable that migrants have to appear on TV3 news crying over pictures of their children they haven't seen in a year in order for him to simply take considerations into account after ignoring the problems for nine months?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: As I have said already during this line of questioning we acknowledge the difficult situations that those families are in. I think they would also acknowledge the difficulty and complexity of having to manage the border in order to get to the state that New Zealand currently is in where we are considering options such as the trans-Tasman bubble. Those are complex decisions. We understand as I've said that we can along the way take into consideration some of those groups who are facing difficulties with the border settings but our primary concern is making sure that we can keep New Zealanders safe and I would stress again: New Zealanders trust our judgment on those settings.Ricardo Menéndez March: Will the Minister allow separated couples from non - visa waiver countries such as India to apply for partnership visas on the same terms and criteria as applicants from visa waiver countries?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: There are already settings that we believe are appropriate for non - visa waiver countries. Again this is about making sure that we manage the border settings to keep New Zealanders safe. In consideration of that too it is about the capacity of and ability of New Zealanders to come as well. These are all the complex issues that we take into consideration when we are assessing some of the difficult situations that people find themselves in.Erica Stanford: Why is it that when his office told media on 24 February that the Minister expects to get advice on the migrant—SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! Sorry I'll get the member to start the question again. It sounded like it was going out of order but it mightn't be.Erica Stanford: Why is it that when his office told the media on 24 February that the Minister expects to get advice on the migrant nurse anomaly from officials in the next few weeks nearly six weeks later nothing has been announced?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: Because that's probably an accurate statement.