SpeechHon SHANE JONES (Minister of Forestry): I rise to take a call on the Immigration (COVID-19 Response) Amendment Bill. I rise to support the sentiments expressed by the Minister of Immigration along with the former Associate Minister of Immigration the Hon Kris Faafoi. The issue at stake here is a change to our immigration settings that enables the Minister to exercise extraordinary power. That power obviously will be exercised within a policy envelope and given the tremendous level of interest that our party has in the role immigration policy will play going forward in the COVID recovery there will be lots of discussions as to what is an acceptable envelope. But the Minister has made quite a compelling case and I don't think all of our MPs realised how many global citizens were actually caught up by this COVID lockdown—into the hundreds of thousands—and we do need to reflect a level of humanity in dealing with their awful situation. They are not able to pack up and go home. They do want in many cases to remain in the country and I look forward to the submissions that will inevitably flow.In the general policy statement the bill outlines—and actually the departmental disclosure statement is very helpful as well—the specific time-limited categories of power; eight of them. This enables the cancellation and variation of conditions. Whilst the borders aren't going to be open in any comprehensive sense any time soon this does raise some deep questions as to how we reorientate and retrain our own young people rural and urban whilst at the same time maintaining a flow of international migration that adds to the knowledge base of New Zealand. Prior to coming to Parliament today I took the opportunity to speak to the Auckland University of Technology vice-chancellor Mr Derek McCormack who pestered the Helen Clark Government—very successfully if I recall—to gain the status of a university.SPEAKER: No. It was his predecessor.Hon SHANE JONES: Oh—OK. So I thought I'd pick the brains of Mr Derek McCormack. He outlined to me that a university such as his has about 20000 students 17 percent of international character. Those are students that do contribute financially and those are students who are entitled to work for a period of time. But the challenge now lies with the tertiary sector ensuring as they go forward how they can compete in the absence of a comprehensive opening of the border. I was left with quite a healthy respect for the level of thinking that is taking place in our tertiary institutions because I draw a distinction between those legacy anchor institutions and the proliferation of other private training establishments which I will not taint this speech by talking about or problems associated with that sector. So other than to say that we support the sentiments reflected by the Minister of Immigration this is a tricky area. This does give considerable authority to the Minister; however it enables him to deal efficiently with the variation of conditions pertaining to thousands—hundreds of thousands—of men and women from overseas who are here. I do say however that those decisions will be exercised within a policy envelope and that policy over time will be developed by the coalition Government. Thank you very much.