27 October 2004

Enhancements to key immigration policy

Immigration Minister Paul Swain today announced enhancements to the Skilled Migrant Category (SMC).

Paul Swain said the changes make the SMC more responsive and flexible to labour market needs at a time when labour and skills shortages are increasing.

The enhancements, which come into effect on 1 December, are:

Increasing the level of points allocated to skilled employment, qualifications and work experience in areas of absolute skill shortage

Expanding and clarifying the definition of skilled employment to enable a broader skill mix to qualify for residence

Clarifying the ability to grant permanent residence upfront where an applicant has high potential to contribute and settle (rather than in “exceptional circumstances”)

Recognising a broader range of qualifications where they meet industry needs

Clarifying the definition of contract employment Including points for having close family support in New Zealand.

In order to make sure the enhancements are effective, an onshore and offshore recruitment campaign is to be boosted and a major staff training programme is underway.

"Our first priority will always be to get New Zealanders into work. But at 4 per cent unemployment, skills and labour shortages are emerging. Quality migrants can help fill those gaps.

“The SMC shifts New Zealand’s skilled immigration policy from the passive acceptance of residence applications to one that actively recruits the skilled migrants that New Zealand needs.

“It is starting to deliver results but the government recognises that more flexibility is needed," Paul Swain said.

For further details on the enhancements visit www.beehive.govt.nz/swain or from tomorrow, www.immigration.govt.nz.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>