The backlash against mass immigration is spreading as the politics boils over, with New Zealand’s National Government set to announce curbs to the country’s immigration program along similar lines to those announced by Australia’s Coalition Government. From Interest.co.nz:
“Tweaks” to New Zealand immigration settings to be announced Wednesday will give the government better control over inflows and allow for better matching with skills shortages, Prime Minister Bill English says…
English, speaking to media Tuesday at his post-cabinet press conference, was coy on the details but said the changes were about “controlling the flows.”
However, he wouldn’t go as far as to say the government would specifically target reducing record net inflows seen in recent months. He warned that migrants to New Zealand were still required and that cutting inflows too much could reduce economic growth.
“We’ve got an awful lot to do…a lot of houses to build,” he said. “We’ve got to keep the balance right, here”…
English noted high inflow numbers had stayed high longer than most had expected – with annual net inflows over 70,000 in recent months.
The announcement of immigration curbs comes after the Labour opposition last week took aim at New Zealand’s mass immigration program, which it claimed is choking housing, infrastructure and public services in Auckland, as well as undercutting working conditions:
“When you look at the work visas being issued at 42,000 [a year], we can see there are work visas that are being issued for roles that I am confident New Zealanders already here can do,” [Labour leader Andrew] Little said.
Too many people had migrated to an “overcrowded” Auckland, with infrastructure bursting at the seams he said. He pointed to traffic congestion, school overcrowding and housing shortages in New Zealand’s largest city as indicating the need to refine immigration policy. “We need time to catch up,” he said.
Little said he was confident New Zealanders could manage some of the occupational needs currently filled by immigrants.
“I’m not saying we’re going to can immigration all together,” he said. “We’ve always relied on immigration to meet skills shortages needs that we have. I want to make sure that we are better matching the amount of skills that we’re bringing in with the skills that are needed here at the moment.”
Current policy was not matching immigrants with the specific skills needs of industry, he said. “We will reduce the number of…immigrants coming in, particularly under work visas. [But] we will continue to have people coming in under work visas to meet the skills shortages that we actually have”…
With the New Zealand general election scheduled for 23 September, National is very wise to attempt to catch-up to Labour on this issue.
New Zealand added nearly 100,000 people in the 2016 calendar year, with the lion’s share coming via net overseas migration:
With Auckland the major recipient (44,500 people):
According to Statistics NZ, “about a third of all migrant arrivals for the year were people coming to New Zealand on work visas”:
The Salvation Army, the Treasury, the RBNZ, and former RBNZ special adviser Mike Reddell have all raised concern that New Zealand’s immigration program does not take sufficient account of whether their are genuine labour shortages, and may be depriving incumbent residents of employment opportunities.
Meanwhile, dwelling construction in New Zealand has failed badly to keep up with population growth, with only 30,174 new dwellings consented across New Zealand in the year to February 2017, and just 10,045 consented in Auckland – way below the 15,000 homes required to keep pace with Auckland’s population growth.
Due in part to this supply-demand imbalance, Auckland’s median house price was an insane $1,043,680 as at end-February 2017, thereby pricing young Kiwis out of the market:
And New Zealand’s housing market is even more extremely overvalued than Australia’s against GDP, again driven by Auckland:
Traffic congestion has also become hideous in Auckland, due to manic population growth, as reported in the NZ Herald earlier this month:
Auckland’s rapid population growth has led to a quarter of the city’s busiest roads, including Lake Rd, Lincoln Rd and routes to the airport, being congested at peak hours, up from 18 per cent in just three years.
Auckland Transport said one in three main roads will be congested by 2020.
The city has grown by 121,000 people in the past three years – the size of Tauranga – and 122,000 new cars over the same period. Every week, 800 new cars are registered in the city…
Motorway speeds have fallen from 64km/h to 55km/h at peak hours between 2014 and 2016 and the morning crawl on the Southern Motorway from Papakura to the city has dragged out from 46 to 67 minutes in just three years…
Cutting New Zealand’s immigration intake is a policy no-brainer to alleviate pressures on housing, infrastructure and congesion, to boost weak wages growth, and to improve overall living standards of New Zealand residents.
