Moroney Sue: Immigration Advisers Licensing Bill — Third Reading 
Moroney Sue: Immigration Advisers Licensing Bill — Third Reading 
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SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 It is a real honour to be able to rise to speak in support of the Immigration Advisers Licensing Bill for its third reading. I would also like to thank the member who has just resumed her seat MetiriaTurei for giving such a clear indication of the Green Party’s support for this bill as well by giving real-life examples of some of the issues that she has dealt with in her role as a member of Parliament and by really informing the debate in this third reading on this particular issue. In contrast I have to say to the National Party speakers on this bill that it has been really quite difficult to work out from the contents of their debate here at this third reading whether they support the bill or whether they are in fact opposing the bill.  
In his speech before the dinner break Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith talked about regulatory creep. Now he may well be a regulatory creep but I am not. I think his speech displayed just how uncomfortable the National Party is in dealing with introducing standards into our legislation. What this bill does is introduce standards for those people who are among some of the most vulnerable in our society—those people immigrating from their own countries and who wish to have appropriate professional advice. Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith is feeling uncomfortable about licensing immigration advisers because he sees that as being regulatory creep. I think that tells us all that the National Party still believes that the market fixes everything. That fundamentally remains its belief. Its members demonstrated that in their debate on this bill.  
In the select committee process they had to come face to face with the fact that the market does not fix issues such as this. They should have learnt that during the 1990s. All of the failed “let’s just be a lazy Government sit on our hands and leave it to the market” approaches absolutely failed. If members talk to any employer in this country they will find out about the skills shortage that they now face because of that “sit on the hands” approach of the National Government in the 1990s. No the market does not fix these issues. This bill is another clear example of exactly why there must be a hands-on Government approach taken to these issues. 
We are dealing with very vulnerable people. I want to remind the House here at this third reading that the people who rely on immigration advisers for their advice come from countries where they cannot possibly understand how we do things here in this country when it comes to our immigration laws. They are absolutely at the mercy of those from whom they seek their immigration advice. That fact is absolutely important as they make that life-changing decision to immigrate to New Zealand. It is a life-changing decision because they are uprooting family they are leaving family behind and they are going from a situation or a country where they understand the systems well and coming to join our society here in New Zealand which they may not understand so well. They are very vulnerable when they are making this life-changing decision. Often the advice they get from immigration advisers is the first contact for new immigrants to New Zealand. This bill ensures that there will be some professionalism taken with regard to that advice. It is important for the reputation of this country because as I said often the first contact that these new citizens—these immigrants—will have is through the immigration adviser. They should expect a professional service and competency and they should expect that it will reflect the type of country that they are choosing to immigrate to.  
I think this bill is very significant because it is about enhancing New Zealand’s reputation overseas and it is about—yes—creating standards. I know that some in this House find the idea that it is government’s role to create standards a little daunting. This Labour Government does not find that at all daunting. We take up that challenge because we know just how important it is.  
Because some debates in the third reading of this legislation have been less than clear about what the bill is about I want to remind those who are listening what this bill is seeking to do and what it will deliver. The bill creates a new regulatory framework. Yes it is regulation—the regulation of individuals providing immigration advice both onshore and offshore. It was important that we covered both of those aspects because people pending their decision to immigrate to New Zealand seek advice both from onshore and from offshore consultants in this area.  
This bill is critical to managing the growing immigration advisers industry. While many immigration advisers do provide good services there have been insufficient regulatory constraints or market incentives to prevent some advisers from providing unethical or incompetent services. This legislation will bring New Zealand into line with countries such as Australia and Britain. So we are actually upholding our international obligations in this regard as well by introducing the Immigration Advisers Licensing Bill.  
Further by raising the standard of immigration advice this bill will promote and protect the interests of migrants and potential migrants who receive immigration advice and it will enhance the reputation of New Zealand as a migration destination because we want to keep that reputation up as high as possible. People who are fortunate enough to travel overseas will know that New Zealand’s reputation is extremely high on the world stage. That is because of the very principled approach it has taken on many foreign affairs issues. Continuing to improve our professionalism on immigration advice will enhance it even further.  
This Labour-led Government understands that a sustainable well-managed balanced immigration programme is one of the keys to New Zealand’s economic transformation and this bill is part of that understanding. We know that for the people whom we as members of Parliament see in our electorate offices and in our constituency offices this bill is coming not a moment too soon. I have certainly had contact personally myself as a member of Parliament with people who have had the wrong advice on their chances of gaining residency and citizenship in this country. They have come to this country in good faith. They have found out many thousands of dollars later and many months—or many years in fact—later that the advice they were originally given was incorrect advice and that they did not have the qualifications or meet the criteria that would enable them to spend a long period of time in New Zealand. They have therefore made some very critical decisions in their lives about coming away from their country of origin and investing here in New Zealand—perhaps buying property becoming owners of businesses or starting up new companies—only to find that the original advice was not in fact correct and they now need to make some different decisions and return to their country of origin.  
I remind the House how important the sorts of decisions are that people are making and why therefore we need a professional system in place to ensure the competency of the advice that people are given. Certainly I can recall about 2 months ago a woman from the Cambridge area who told me exactly that story of having been given the wrong advice from an immigration adviser who assured her that if she did certain things she would absolutely become resident in New Zealand when that was quite incorrect information. She came here in good faith. She put her money into setting up her own catering business only to find that the advice she was given was incorrect. She now has to fold up that business opportunity that she started up. When I informed her of this bill’s passage she said to me: “I wish this had been in place when I first made my inquiries about New Zealand. I have spent $10000 trying to make my New Zealand dream come true. I hope this won’t happen to others in the future. Good on you.”  
Good on the Labour-led Government for bringing this bill into place. That woman knows that other people are coming along in the same situation and that they will be much better placed.