10. Question No. 10—ImmigrationSTUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura) to the Minister of ImmigrationQuestion No. 10—Immigration10. STUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura) to the Minister of Immigration: How many people if any have entered New Zealand under the other critical worker" border closure exception category?Hon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Minister of Immigration): The "other critical worker" category for border exceptions opened on 18 June 2020 and is an updated version of the "other essential worker" category. I'm advised that as of 25 June 383 individuals have been issued an invitation to apply for a visa having been granted an exception to border restrictions under the essential worker category. I'm further advised that to determine how many of those 383 people have secured a visa and travelled to New Zealand would require manual investigation of each of those 383 files. That requires significant collation of information which I'm advised would require approximately 30 hours of work by Immigration officials. I appreciate the member's genuine interest in the number he has asked for but I'm sure he will appreciate that the information has not been able to be collated at this time.Stuart Smith: Does he believe the public has a right to know how many people are entering under each category of border closure exceptions?Hon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: I do think it is of interest for people to know how many people are arriving in New Zealand on visas. Since 31 March and as at 21 June 711 people have arrived on visitor visas 744 have arrived on work visas and 101 have arrived on student visas. That's a total of 1556 people who have arrived in New Zealand who are not New Zealand citizens or residents or Australian citizens or residents.Stuart Smith: Why doesn't he then have the numbers for the people that came in under that category—that is the critical worker border closure exception category?Hon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: As I told the member in the answer to his primary question the number of exceptions is known and then once a person has an exemption they may have to apply for a visa they have to book their travel they have to fly to New Zealand and cross the border. Now that information is all on their files but it has to be manually investigated and each of those 383 files would need to be manually investigated to provide him with that answer at this time.Priyanca Radhakrishnan: What figures can the Minister provide about how many people have requested a border exception and how many have been approved?Hon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: As at 23 June 19540 requests for a border exception have been received; 3643 resulted in an invitation to apply being issued. That resulted in 3125 subsequent applications. Of those 2986 have been approved.Stuart Smith: Is the Minister concerned that not providing the information will heighten concerns New Zealanders have over immigration during a pandemic?Hon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: I think the thing that heightens concerns is Opposition members' fearmongering about homeless people being able to get into managed isolation and other stories that members opposite have picked up and run in the media. What people are interested to know about the number of people crossing the border is how many people are coming into New Zealand what visas they are on. That information is publicly available; I just provided it to the House.Stuart Smith: Is he satisfied the border closure exceptions are being responsive to the needs of businesses critical to our economic recovery?Hon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: Yes.Stuart Smith: Why then have no requests for "other critical workers" been approved since 12 June as reported on RNZ this morning?Hon IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY: As I say the total numbers that have been approved to date are 383. I'm advised that there is an additional approximately 350 that are awaiting process and the time it is taking to process most requests for exception is around about two days."