Marie Hasler National Immigration Spokesperson

9 February 2001

Govt moves to cover embarrassment

It appears the Government is taking extreme steps to cover its own embarrassment over the ever increasing numbers of skilled New Zealanders leaving the country, National's Immigration spokesperson Marie Hasler said today.

Ms Hasler was commenting on the Government's decision to revise the immigration target of skilled and business migrants.

"This Government shouldn't just focus on replacement. It must start to focus on rewarding effort and achievement.

"While I am not against some flexibility to target the people most urgently needed, care needs to be taken because requirements can change very quickly. For example, teacher demands can change from year to year.

"The Labour-Alliance Government boasts about developing a knowledge economy on the one hand, and then on the other, contrary to all reason and common sense, reduces the level of education and skill, such as English language pre-requisites, required to build such a learning based economy.

"There still appears to be little consideration given to a more flexible approach for entrepreneurial migrants who will create economic growth for New Zealand," Marie Hasler said.

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