Hon Tony Ryall National Party Immigration Spokesman

18 March 2005

More Labour chaos in immigration

National’s Immigration spokesman, Tony Ryall, says the deferral of health checks for potential migrants is just another example of chaos in Labour’s immigration policy.

The proposed new health checks have been deferred after doctors expressed concern about the lack of consultation between the immigration service and medical professionals in formulating the tests.

Mr Ryall says this was a sensible change that enjoyed multi-party support, but it has not gone through and the Immigration Service has once again been plunged into chaos because the Minister is not on top of his portfolio.

“This leaves our Immigration Service looking even more confused than before, damaging our international reputation.

“We have the same kind of problem with the skilled migrant policy where the rules change so often that skilled migrants have been turned off New Zealand and are looking elsewhere.

“And with refugees, Labour is so keen to do the humanitarian thing that they take far too many that we can’t support, and five years down the track 80% are still reliant on welfare.

“Why can Labour never get it right the first time?

”Labour’s immigration policy is in disarray and it has become clear that it will not meet its targets, particularly those relating to skilled migration.

“If we are serious about attracting quality migrants we must have a more disciplined and coherent approach to immigration, not policy that chops and changes every five minutes,” says Mr Ryall.

ENDS

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