Lees-Galloway IainIAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North): It is no surprise that New Zealanders are feeling increasingly uneasy about the way this Government is running our immigration system. It is not just something that has appeared to New Zealanders out of thin air. Of course we have already had Treasury tell us that the Government is running the immigration system inappropriately. We have had Immigration New Zealand itself tell us that the Government is getting it wrong on immigration. We have had the Reserve Bank warn that the way the Government is running its immigration system is causing problems in the housing market in Auckland. A number of Government departments have said that immigration is being run incorrectly improperly and not in the best interests of New Zealand—and New Zealanders are feeling it. If any member opposite thinks I am wrong watch the 6 o'clock news tonight. New Zealanders know that what an immigration system should be about is bringing in the skills and experience that this country needs to grow our economy and to grow our society. But what are the main jobs that this Government is using the immigration system to bring people in for? The main jobs are for dairy farm workers. In New Zealand of all places this Government has prioritised bringing people in from overseas to work on dairy farms. It is bringing in retail managers cafe managers and retail supervisors. I ask members opposite (1) do they seriously think that those are the jobs that are going to grow our economy and to provide good wages and good living for people in New Zealand and (2) do they seriously think that we cannot train people here in New Zealand to take on those roles? Of course we can. But what the Government is doing is using the immigration system to subsidise employers who are not prepared to pay decent wages and provide decent conditions so that New Zealanders will want to train and get into those jobs. That is what Immigration New Zealand and Treasury have been saying to this Government—that there is an increasing focus on using the immigration system to bring people in with low skills to do low-wage jobs and they are pushing New Zealanders out of those jobs which are the first rung on the ladder. Do not just take my word for it. The chief executive officer of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce that well-known lefty Michael Barnett came out today and said that he is concerned that there is a disconnection between the immigration system and the skill shortages that we have in New Zealand. He says the roles that we should be encouraging people to come to New Zealand to fill are in construction in engineering in electronics and in ICT. Instead what has this Government focused on? Retail cafes and working on dairy farms. That is where this Government sees the need for immigration at a time when we have over 80000 young people not in education training or skills development—or work for that matter. At a time when 80000 young people are not working and they are not training and they are not in education we are bringing people in from overseas who will do those jobs in poor conditions and at poor pay rates rather than encouraging employers in New Zealand to actually invest in their own industries and to invest in New Zealanders. Of course we know that immigration is one of the factors contributing to the housing crisis that this Government will not face up to. I would say to that that migrants are voting with their feet. Migrants are settling in Auckland because this Government has stifled growth in the regions. Migrants do not want to move to the regions because they do not see opportunities there and that is one of the reasons that there is so much pressure on the Auckland housing market—because migrants are voting with their feet. They know this Government has failed on regional development and so they see their only opportunities as being in Auckland and Christchurch even though I have to say as a regional MP we would welcome more people coming to our region seeing opportunities in our region starting businesses and taking up jobs in those high-skill areas that are going to support regional economic development. But that is not where this Government's focus is. This Government's focus is on providing a large pool of people to take up low-skill low-wage jobs and to suppress wages for ordinary working Kiwis. That is what it is using the immigration system for. We should aspire to much better things than that. Yes immigration is important to New Zealand. Yes we are a nation founded on immigration and immigration is an important tool and can be a very successful tool for economic growth but not the way this Government is running it.