Unlike Australia, NZ rationally debates immigration

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By Leith van Onselen

Excessive immigration is becoming a hot political issue in New Zealand with a conga-line of experts now questioning whether running such a high immigration program is actually beneficial for living standards.

Back in June, the New Zealand Treasury released a bunch of briefing papers warning that an increasing share of New Zealand’s record intake of non-New Zealand migrants are increasingly low skilled and could be lowering the nation’s productivity and GDP per capita.

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About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.