Spring has Sprung
In my last post, I was gearing up for a meeting with the Minister for Immigration hoping to be able to offer my thoughts on the current state of the immigration system. I wasn’t expecting to come away with anything earth-shattering but there were at least some signals from the Minister of things to come and when we might seem them. Despite it being spring in New Zealand, with new life, greenery and colours popping up everywhere, there is still no new Skilled Migrant Category sprouting from the ground, but we do appear to be getting closer to having something to work with.
Clearly the pressure on the Government to fill the Residence gap with an update to the Skilled Migrant Category is mounting and as we raised that issue with the Minister very early on in our meeting, he was quick to confirm that something was due imminently. Time however is a very different concept in politics and can be as confusing as when a South African tells a New Zealander something will be done “now now” or “just now” (the South Africans will know exactly what I mean).
The Minister did confirm that he plans on holding a meeting next Wednesday to make a several announcements in relation to the immigraiton system in general and I suspect we will see, at the very best, an outline of where the Government wants to head (the direction of travel) along with a request for input from the attendees and wider public. This is most likely a bit of a scouting mission by the Minister to determine if what they have planned is on track or miles off it. Encouragingly the Minister seems interested in recieving feedback from all interested parties, although the current Government has a bit of a reputation of paying lip-service to that process. We will however take whatever opportunities we can get and the last time I reviewed a draft SMC policy, I spent a good eight hours trawling through rules, picking out plenty of mistakes.
For my part in the meeting, I wanted the Minister to be reminded that New Zealand is falling far behind in the global race for talent and that whilst it is an immediate problem with our current skill shortages, it is also a much longer-term issue when you dont have a clear migration program in place. It is easy to lose your reputation, much harder to get it back. Following the seasonal analogy, right now we have an opportunity to sow the seeds for what will be our migration future and if we want to enjoy the results of the harvest we can’t afford to delay any longer. I can only hope the Minister has a bit of a green thumb.