6. Question No. 6—ImmigrationDr JAMES McDOWALL (ACT) to the Minister of ImmigrationQuestion No. 6—Immigration6. Dr JAMES McDOWALL (ACT) to the Minister of Immigration: Does he agree with the Productivity Commission's finding that the immigration system does not undergo the same level of transparency public scrutiny and robust policy assessment that most other public policies require" and how can he be confident that his Government's immigration rebalance will alleviate workforce shortages?Hon KRIS FAAFOI (Minister of Immigration): Talofa lava Mr Speaker. In answer to the first question no. A year ago this Government set out our intention to make immigration systems smarter and simpler and that is what we have done through the immigration rebalance. I'm confident about the rebalance because the Accredited Employer Work Visa combines six visa categories into one and will have simple criteria and shorter processing times. The Green List provides clear and accelerated pathways to residence for more skilled workers. The median wage threshold protects against migrant exploitation and creates the right incentives for employers to transition away from reliance on low skilled low-wage migrant workers. And sector agreements will help the sectors particularly reliant on migrant workers to transition to these new settings. The Government has been very open about our intention to move to a higher skilled and higher-wage workforce and that is what we are delivering.Dr James McDowall: Does the Minister believe that nurses are less valuable to New Zealand than multimedia specialists given he gave multimedia specialists a fast track to residence but is making nurses wait two years?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: The Green List as the member refers to was made up by skills that are in high demand in New Zealand. I know that the Minister of Health has talked about the shortage of nurses recently and when we're wanting to attract nurses to New Zealand we actually want them to nurse. We have given more categories of nurses a streamlined pathway to residence which is better than pre-COVID and under the previous Government.Dr James McDowall: Point of order Mr Speaker. The question very specifically asked does he believe that nurses are less valuable and I don't think he addressed that.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Well I think he did. A member shouldn't actually expect "Yes" "No" or an explicit answer. He can by making the statement that he did actually address the question which he did.Dr James McDowall: How does he respond to the Aged Care Commissioner who when asked about nurses not being given a fast track to residence said in select committee yesterday that there is "a significant need for nurses in the aged residential care sector" and that they would "prefer to see nurses being able to get into New Zealand quickly now"?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: My response to that would be that we have enabled about 2500 nurses or health workers to get through the border while the borders have been closed through the critical health worker visa process. And also both of the components of the Green List have given certainties to the likes of nurses and other medical professionals around residency.Dr James McDowall: Is it logical that there are 17 varieties of doctor who are fast tracked on the Green List while nurses by far the most critical shortfall across the healthcare system are excluded?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: The nurses are on the Green List. They are on a work to residence two-year pathway to residence. We give them certainty that if they want to come to New Zealand and nurse for two years they will become residents.Erica Stanford: Is it true that nurses currently coming into the country have access to the Resident Visa 2021 which takes around 12 months; so in fact the two-year pathway that he has created is in fact worse than what we have at the moment?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: Well the member will know that the residence visa announced last year is a one-off pathway. Through the rebalance we are giving nurses certainty about being residents here in New Zealand if they make a commitment to come to New Zealand and nurse.Dr James McDowall: Does he believe that it is robust policy to make nurses wait two years before being able to apply for residence given the Canterbury DHB alone is 250 nurses short Christchurch Hospital is at 112 percent capacity and that DHBs across the country are foreshadowing a worse than normal influenza season on top of COVID-19 all of which could cripple the health system?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: Yes. We want to make sure that we are giving nurses who want to come to New Zealand a certain pathway to residence. I think it would be worse for those employers if we bring nurses in and they go and undertake different employment. We actually want to attract nurses to come here and commit to nursing. If they do that for two years New Zealand is guaranteeing them residency.Ricardo Menéndez March: Does the Minister have any evidence that if nurses were to be given residency immediately upon arrival they will be working in other professions other than nursing?Hon KRIS FAAFOI: As we went through the Cabinet process I undertook consultation with the likes of the Ministry of Health. We did an assessment of the likelihood of nurses who are coming from offshore—the likelihood of them moving on to other occupations. There was a slightly increased risk of that and we did get feedback from the sector that they were concerned that if we went straight to residency those nurses might move to different occupations upon arriving in New Zealand. Dr James McDowall: Supplementary?DEPUTY SPEAKER: Sorry ACT has run out of supplementaries."