9. Question No. 9—ImmigrationERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays) to the Minister of ImmigrationQuestion No. 9—Immigration9. ERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays) to the Minister of Immigration: Why were nurses and midwives not placed on the straight-to-residence pathway of the Green List in May and on what date did he first receive advice if at all that the retention rates of migrant nurses and midwives are no longer a concern?Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Immigration): When we launched the green list we had some of the most competitive settings in the world for nurses and midwives offering both groups a pathway to residence that did not exist for many of them under the previous Government. Since May we have seen large numbers of nurses and midwives arrive in New Zealand building on the thousands of health workers who have arrived since the pandemic began—around about 3500 nurses over that time. But in recent months we've seen countries that we compete with strengthen their offering for skilled migrants particularly in the health sector where there is a global labour shortage. Our targeted adjustments to the green list announced yesterday will ensure that we remain internationally competitive and attractive to these migrants. To the second part of the member's question it is a simple fact that once someone has attained residency in New Zealand whether that is a nurse or any other profession for that matter they have the ability then to work in other professions. Overall the judgment that the Government has made within light of those international factors is that it is desirable to have an offer that is as attractive and as simple as possible. We're focused on tackling immediate workforce shortages and we have a simple message for any offshore nurses and midwives: come to New Zealand.Erica Stanford: Does he now concede that the rationale for making nurses wait two years for residence—that they might suddenly decide to stop nursing—never made any sense; and why didn't he when he first became the Minister in June take that opportunity to U-turn on a policy that no one in the health sector supported rather than waiting another six months?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: I reject a number of assertions in the member's question. When the Government put in place the green list policy we gave all 13 occupational groups of nurses a clear pathway to residency that did not exist previously. We have further streamlined and simplified that now. It's not a U-turn; it's an acceleration and I think it will assist us in respect of the offer of nurses to come to New Zealand. What I note further is that the Government has worked closely with the health sector not just to assess the situation of nurses and midwives but also to offer a streamlined residency pathway for other clinical workers and allied health workers. So this is a bigger package of changes to help our health sector.Erica Stanford: Can the Minister describe the difference between a U-turn and an acceleration?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: A U-turn would be having a policy to give big tax cuts to the wealthiest New Zealanders and then dropping it; an acceleration would be a policy of having a two-year pathway to residence which was an improvement on the previous situation and then making it straight to residency—something that has been welcomed by nearly every health sector group. The only people who seem to want to politicise it are the National Party.Erica Stanford: Does he stand by his response on the topic of nurses on Newstalk ZB yesterday when asked Here's the thing Minister: you guys are either stupid or stubborn" when he said "Hmm well you can hardly call us stubborn."?Hon MICHAEL WOOD: I encourage anyone to listen to my interview on Newstalk ZB last night but it wasn't the most productive of conversations. The member opposite and I have had far more productive conversations most Friday mornings. If I can respond to that question which Heather du Plessis-Allan didn't actually allow me to answer on Newstalk ZB what I would say is that we have consistently said over the last few months as we've worked through these genuine issues of workforce shortages in health which everyone acknowledges and every country around the world is dealing with is that we would keep an open mind that we would look at the settings that we would continue talking to the sector and that what we have done as a result of that hasn't just been as the member has spoken about in question time today to make changes to the settings around nurses and midwives; we have made more fundamental changes which are going to be of significant assistance to the health sector. That is the opposite of being stubborn. That is listening and working with the sector."