Immigration tinkering is hopeless – focus on building
Immigration tinkering is hopeless – focus on building
New immigration figures show that politicians should focus on actually getting houses and infrastructure built, instead of making farcical immigration promises, says ACT Leader David Seymour.
“Tinkering with immigration has not and will not stop our population from growing. Even as National cracks down on working visa migrants, ASB says total immigration will remain at the same level going into 2018.
“The opposition’s answer is to just cut immigration even further. But who will they cut? According to data released today, 8799 arrivals in the last year were for immigrants working in construction-related roles [see attached]. How many of these will Labour, New Zealand First, and the Greens cut? Do they realise we desperately need more workers to build more houses?
“And if they won’t cut construction workers, how will they keep their promises to cut immigration by 45,000 or more? Cracking down on chefs and sales managers will only get them so far. Are they going to pull New Zealand out of our free travel arrangement with Australia? Or stop expat Kiwis from coming home?
“Both National and the Opposition should stop trying to distract New Zealanders with farcical immigration promises. We need to focus on actually getting homes and infrastructure built.
“ACT would address both problems with one policy: let councils keep some GST from building projects. This would fund new local infrastructure while also incentivising councils to allow new housing development.
“It’s a good deal for Councils, but would also come with the condition that they stop wasting money on non-core activities like film studios and special advisory panels.”
ENDS