Smith StuartSTUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): I thank the New Zealand First members for the applause; it's welcome. But I want to talk about something quite serious. In a Government a sovereign country one of the main responsibilities is control of the borders. That's a very serious role that's held by the Minister of Immigration and unfortunately our Minister of Immigration has let us down. We heard from the previous National speaker Mark Mitchell about the recidivist drunk-driver who has been granted New Zealand residency. As my colleague said he's playing Russian roulette. The risk to New Zealanders is very real. This man is a repeat drunk-driver. He's driven while disqualified. We just have to hope that the worst doesn't happen but if it does it's on that Minister's head. That follows on from the Karel Sroubek debacle which we still don't have an explanation for but I deeply suspect the Minister was doing what he was told from those above him—in fact we know that's the case but he's yet to admit that.But this person is here in New Zealand. He now has residency and as has been pointed out it did go across the desk of the previous Minister Michael Woodhouse but the only reason it would go across his desk would be because he was looking at an application for residency which he obviously didn't grant. I think the Minister needs to really think very seriously about what he's done. He's got a track record now of putting Kiwis in danger and I think that's a terrible position for someone who helps control our borders.He also has sat by on his hands and watched visa delays grow. Now one of the speakers earlier said that the visa delays are going down. Well in 13 out of the 14 visa categories the numbers are far worse than they were under the previous administration and that is despite having $11.7 million extra funding to try and clear that backlog—that hasn't yet made a dent. This is having a real impact on Kiwi employers. In New Zealand we rely on skilled migrants coming in to help fill roles and help keep New Zealand businesses running. The people that are coming in on those visas have a choice. They have very marketable skills. They can go anywhere in the world and work if they choose to and with these delays we are seeing some of those people deciding to go elsewhere. Why come here? Why subject themselves to such uncertainty about their future and their plans? So they simply do go elsewhere.They also have issues with their partnership visas often for people that have residency here or who are effectively Kiwis as well as Kiwis that are born here with partnership visas which have been slowed down. But I do note that New Zealand First has joined in on the year of non-delivery. The promise of getting net migration down to 20000 has failed by quite some margin. The net migration figure is 54000. So I'm pleased that that's one thing they are missing the mark on.We also have the New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority which has just come in recently. People from those countries jurisdictions offshore get an electronic visa and that was also brought in to collect the $35 tourist and conservation levy at the border. But unfortunately the Minister was warned not to bring this in in such a short time frame—three months is the time frame he brought it in on—and of course the inevitable has happened. It has become a huge issue and the Minister has gazetted a notice—didn't tell anyone about it—that actually he would give a waiver to that electronic authority for those that didn't get it in time before boarding their flight to come to New Zealand. That would be waived. So what happens to the $35 tax that they're supposed to pay and what happens to the people that followed through did what they were supposed to applied for their electronic visa and got it overseas? They have been disadvantaged. They paid $35 and those that didn't do their job weren't able to do it came through and didn't have to pay that tax. It's only fair.