Menéndez March RicardoRICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. I rise to take a call on the second reading of the Immigration (COVID-19 Response) Amendment Bill. I want to begin by acknowledging that our migrant communities are flourishing and our Government should act to ensure that they're able to fully participate in society. History has shown us that during times of economic downturns or when we face uncertainty our migrant communities have been one of the groups that have been often scapegoated. We are still seeing the legacy of the dawn raids where people from our Pacific communities thought to have overstayed their visas were targeted and deported and that legacy still lives with us today in our broken immigration settings. It also lives in the current scapegoating of our migrant communities for having caused the housing crisis and inequality in general.But as the submitters to this bill in our select committee showed us we don't have to repeat the mistakes of the past. In times of hardship we can rally together to uphold the wellbeing of all of us including our migrant communities. Migrant workers have played a critical role in our response to COVID-19. Our communities rallied together to provide kai and look after our elderly. Many sectors who were deemed to be essential rely heavily on migrant workers whether it's for supermarkets the healthcare system or aged care. And while the pandemic changed everything for all of us it has created specific challenges in our migrant communities. Families were split by our border restrictions and temporary visa holders who were in their homelands during the pandemic were stuck despite having deep connections to communities in Aotearoa New Zealand—many who still rent a property or have cars here that they own.Our migrant communities understood the need to act swiftly to protect us all from the pandemic and in fact submitters showed support for the initial purpose of this bill which was to keep us safe. While the bill was initially used to keep us safe I do believe that the powers of this bill haven't been used to the full extent to ensure there's equity within our migrant communities. People from non - visa waiver countries are unable to be reunited with their loved ones still some having to travel to their homelands in order to do so. Post-study work visa holders and people with temporary visas have been anxious about the uncertainty they face—whether their visas will be renewed or when they will be able to come back to the country. These were the sorts of stories that we heard during our time at select committee. I want to make sure that our speeches are centred in the stories of the people who came to us and spoke about their experiences not about political point-scoring. Ultimately the bill needs to be used to uphold the wellbeing of our communities. As outlined in the select committee's report many of our submitters asked that the powers of this bill be used for things like family reunification for border exemptions and visa extensions as well as visa extensions for people offshore who are unable to travel. People also highlighted the need to grant new visas for those whose temporary visas have expired and the granting of visas to people unlawfully in New Zealand as well as implementing a 20-day notice period for the commencement of any special directions which members of the National Party have spoken to plenty.I want to particularly acknowledge submissions from the Auckland District Law Society the Migrant Workers Association and the Association of New Kiwis Aotearoa who spoke about pathways to residency and amnesty to overstayers. This is the time to ensure that our migrant communities are able to participate in the recovery from our pandemic. It is a time to ensure that overstayers are not feeling like they have to hide in the shadows and can participate in the public health response particularly in the stage of immunisation.The Green Party stands behind the submitters who called for these changes and this is why we actually launched last week a series of policy points in order to address our broken immigration system including pathways for residency a broad amnesty programme for overstayers decoupling work visas from single employers requiring immigration to stop visa delays as well as removing the salary criteria for skilled visas and parent reunification categories and ensuring our partnership visas are culturally competent.One of the things that struck me as we've been discussing these issues of immigration is just how discriminatory our settings still are. For the past few weeks we've heard almost on a regular basis the fact that disabled people have been stopped from being able to access residency class visas. We've heard how our disabled community has in fact been one of the most impacted by current immigration settings and we know overseas as well as here that disabled people are some of the most at risk from the ill effects of COVID-19. So the pandemic and the effects of the pandemic should be a wake-up call for us to act swiftly to hear the needs of our community.The submitters were really clear that the issue wasn't so much with the bill itself but how the power is being used and the Green Party is making it clear that we are providing support at the second reading but with the call for the Minister to address the issues addressed by submitters as well as to look into some of the broader structural issues that our immigration system faces. Many of these were discussed during our select committee stage. Some of these may not be able to be addressed by the nature of this bill but we do believe we cannot be waiting for a Productivity Commission inquiry to start acting on some of these key issues such as Immigration New Zealand being run as a business relying on visa fees in order to sustain itself. Issues around visa processing delays ultimately have been a political action to lower residency and immigration numbers and it has caused ill and damage to our migrant communities who are facing anxiety.Ultimately the stories that we heard at select committee speak of an immigration system that's been broken due to the inaction by successive Governments to ensure that our wellbeing is put at the forefront. The issues of migrants being able to be reunited with families is not new. In fact prior to the pandemic we heard many stories of what low-income families faced when it came to being able to be reunited with families. Successive Governments have actually closed the family reunification category. The previous Government changed the sibling category and they restricted the ability for migrants to participate in the education system. So the Minister will need to look beyond the powers granted by this bill to address our broken immigration system and the Green Party offers our support to work productively with the Government to ensure that our submitters' voices do not go to waste and that our Minister acts responsibly to address people who are offshore who actually poured their hearts out to the committee speaking of the lived experience. We must centre these voices to ensure that our migrant communities are not disproportionately affected as we look into the recovery of our pandemic. Kia ora.