Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you Madam Chair and I thank the Minister for his answers. He addressed all of the questions that I raised with the exception of the question about accountability for WorkSafe and enforcing labour regulations particularly in the context of differing levels of alert in the COVID-19 period. That's something that a few employers and possibly employees have raised with me. I'd be very grateful to hear that. I won't comment on some of his economic theories that he's got from a Government-backed thinktank based in Paris called the OECD but people can make up their own minds about that.It hadn't occurred to me that we could discuss any issue. I kept to the issues as much as possible that are within the ambit of the Minister who's here but the Minister is actually also the Minister of Immigration and he has raised a number of issues around immigration. I think that is something that we should take the opportunity to debate because Madam Chair I know that you are an electorate MP as am I. As an Auckland electorate MP if you had told me a year ago that any department of Government could drive more people to the door of my electorate office than Auckland Transport (AT) I would have said Not a chance. No Government department could irritate my constituents more than AT." Yet it has happened.I'm sorry to say to the Minister of Immigration that it is Immigration New Zealand (INZ) that is driving people to the door of my electorate office with complaints—often harrowing complaints with families being divided people having to choose whether to stay in New Zealand or not and then economically important complaints people trying to bring in workers vital for their business's growth and survival. I just say to the Minister—he says he wants to cap the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme (RSE) because it is going to somehow force employers to employ more Kiwis. Well to an extent that happens but in my understanding of the horticultural industry actually the cap on the RSE means they just don't plant as much so they don't sell as much. So it has that effect too.A problem with immigration processing times which is driving so many people to the door of their electorate office is also constraining the growth of business. There's a classic debate a he-said she-said between Opposition and Government where the Minister is saying that it's all the fault of the Opposition because they did it when they were in Government and the Opposition is saying it's all the fault of the Government; everything was rosy when they were in charge. Well what I would say is that there's a bit of truth to both. The underlying problem is the complexity of the regulations and rules that Immigration New Zealand staff are required to enforce. Just about everyone that wants to come here has to employ a very expensive professional to get themselves in and if they can't work it out neither often can some of the INZ employees notwithstanding the very good ones that my office has discovered over the years.However there are also conscious policy decisions made within the last two years that have exacerbated the problem. Closing down offshore offices has increased wait times. Usually people I deal with would go to the Queen Street Auckland office of INZ and that sounds pretty sensible. The geographical centre of the largest city in the country might have an INZ office. It's been closed down. Just quietly off the record the INZ staff that were working there and have been transferred to Manukau—Hon Member: Off the record?Hon Member: We'll just keep it a secret.DAVID SEYMOUR: —have said actually—yeah I'll just share it with a few of my closest friends! Well I'm not going to tell you who they are and in that sense it's off the record. But they have said "We can't believe this. It's madness." So the closure of offshore centres and the closure of centres very inshore in the middle of Auckland has led to longer processing times in Immigration New Zealand and that includes decisions made in the last two years. I'd add to that that we have an even bigger problem created by the suspension and reintroduction of the parent category. So they're now looking at 18 months to get processed. That's what they're being told.So I ask the Minister: will he accept that actually he is somewhat responsible for decisions made in Immigration in the last two years? They have led to longer waiting times and more importantly notwithstanding the constraints of COVID-19 what's he going to do about it?CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): The Hon Todd McClay because I know what you're going to do."