{"id":39070,"date":"2025-09-23T16:09:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T16:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/39070\/"},"modified":"2025-09-23T16:09:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T16:09:18","slug":"new-zealand-first-national-at-odds-on-immigration-policy-whether-new-zealand-a-launch-pad-to-australia-jamie-ensor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/39070\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand First, National at odds on immigration policy, whether New Zealand a \u2018launch pad\u2019 to Australia \u2013 Jamie Ensor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Positioning the announcement as being one to help businesses grow<\/a>, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis highlighted concerns that migrants with crucial skills and experience<\/a> \u201cnot available in the existing workforce\u201d were struggling to get residency here.<\/p>\n

The downside of that for the economy<\/a> is that people currently contributing to Kiwi businesses may have to leave the country, stalling growth and hampering productivity while employers replace them.<\/p>\n

Immigration Minister Erica Stanford has previously warned about the lack of residency options for talented migrants<\/a>. She says many are currently excluded, including those in the trades.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s her view the pathways announced on Tuesday are designed to address genuine workforce shortages and attract truly in-demand skills.<\/p>\n

There will be a variety of restrictions and exclusions attached and many of those expected to benefit are already working in New Zealand, just without a clear pathway to residency.<\/p>\n

The changes won\u2019t lead to a \u201cflood of people\u201d coming here, Stanford said, but \u201ca very small, targeted number of very highly skilled people that we desperately need\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"ImmigrationImmigration Minister Erica Stanford said only a small number of additional migrants will come in on these pathways. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n

NZ First leader Winston Peters<\/a>, in explaining his party\u2019s decision to \u201cagree to disagree\u201d on the policy, said filling workforce gaps isn\u2019t a new issue and he recognised \u201cthe importance of retaining some critical workers\u201d.<\/p>\n

His alternative to what the Government ended up putting forward was to instead extend existing work visas for workers already in New Zealand for another three years to address \u201cshort-term demand\u201d.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Peters wants to see a system that focuses on training New Zealanders to fill<\/a> the current skills gap.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s classic NZ First policy and has been throughout the party\u2019s several stints in power. Get the neffs off the couch, out of the dole queue and into jobs instead of relying on people coming from offshore.<\/p>\n

It was a topic canvassed when the Herald interviewed Peters back in July about<\/a> immigration issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, like wise countries, have always believed we should be training and employing our own people first and not use immigration as an excuse not to do that. That is still our plan,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Back in 2003, when he spoke from the Opposition benches, Peters complained that \u201ca hundred thousand New Zealanders are out of work, yet we are bringing in tens of thousands of immigrants\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to 2025 and Peters is in Government. At the end of June, there were more than 216,000 New Zealanders on the Jobseeker benefit, about 120,000 of whom were \u201cwork-ready\u201d. There were also still thousands of migrants coming to New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Peters blamed the media for not giving his message more prominence. If it had received more attention, the party would have more MPs and more power to make change, he said. That would include greater \u201cdrivers to take people from secondary school into employment\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"NZNZ First leader Winston Peters wants a system focused on upskilling Kiwi kids. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

Stanford, both the Immigration Minister and the Education Minister, may argue she is attempting to strengthen just that.<\/p>\n

Her scrapping<\/a> of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) and the reforms to secondary school qualifications put a significant focus on improving the attractiveness of vocational education<\/a>, putting it on a par with academic pathways and ensuring courses are relevant to the real-world careers that it is meant to lead to.<\/p>\n

The Government has also added more sanctions for beneficiaries<\/a> who don\u2019t meet their obligations, intended to incentivise the unemployed to do everything they can to find a job. That was part of NZ First\u2019s coalition agreement with National.<\/p>\n

Peters has already indicated immigration will be a major part of NZ First\u2019s election campaign next year.<\/p>\n

His deputy Shane Jones was explicit on Tuesday that this was a \u201cpolitical issue we have identified ourselves with and we are going to fight the next election on it\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur objection is that increasingly large number of peoples are going to be fast-tracked to residency, which means they\u2019ll either become citizens or, after a period of time, they will continue to use our country as a staging post and go to Australia,\u201d Jones said on Herald NOW.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a deep and fundamental point. No doubt it will feature widely in the next election campaign as to what is the optimal immigration policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones said those migrants getting residency may bring in their children or spouses. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to change the population character of New Zealand, go and campaign on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked for evidence that migrants were using New Zealand as a stepping stone to get to Australia<\/a> \u2013 or a \u201claunching pad\u201d as others like Peters have called it \u2013 Jones referenced recent media reporting.<\/p>\n

The Australian Department of Home Affairs has been reported as saying that between July 2023 and the end of June this year, more than 92,000 New Zealand nationals with a Special Category Visa have applied for Australian citizenship. Of those, 48% were born outside of New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Recent Stats NZ data also highlighted that 35.1% of New Zealand citizens who migrated to Australia in 2024 were born outside of New Zealand. That\u2019s slightly higher than the proportion of New Zealand\u2019s population who are overseas-born (29% in 2023).<\/p>\n

But Stanford said suggesting New Zealand is becoming a stepping stone to Australia isn\u2019t borne out in reality.<\/p>\n

For many of the roles these pathways cover, she said it would be easier for the migrants to go straight to Australia to get residency.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia is more likely to be used as a stepping stone to New Zealand. It is just not the case that people are coming here [and] waiting to get into Australia,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It would also require significant forward planning by the applicant if they were coming to New Zealand with that intention.<\/p>\n

Those getting citizenship in Australia today would have entered New Zealand at least 14 years ago, Stanford said. Many may have been there for a long time already and were now taking advantage of the new Australian citizenship pathway.<\/p>\n

They\u2019d have to spend a substantial period contributing to our economy first before they can get New Zealand permanent residency and then citizenship, which \u201cadds up to about a decade\u201d, Stanford said.<\/p>\n

Then there is a four-year required period living in Australia before they can become citizens there.<\/p>\n

Migrants won\u2019t be able to just arrive here, get residency, hop across the Ditch and become Aussies.<\/p>\n

Jamie Ensor is a senior political reporter in the NZ Herald press gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist this year for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Positioning the announcement as being one to help businesses grow, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis highlighted concerns that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1975,85,35674,3278,1888,917,9519,3331,3556,117,111,43,139,69,6644,90,4488,7254,61,14905,80],"class_list":["post-39070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-at","tag-australia","tag-ensor","tag-facts","tag-first","tag-immigration","tag-jamie","tag-launch","tag-national","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-odds","tag-on","tag-pad","tag-policy","tag-to","tag-whether","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}