3. JOHN KEY (Leader of the Opposition) Link to this
to the Prime Minister
Does she stand by her statement that “When I am looking at year after year after year of positive net migration to New Zealand, I know this country is very capable of attracting and retaining its best and brightest.”?
Is the Prime Minister saying that she is unconcerned about record levels of emigration from New Zealand as long as the number of people arriving here from overseas is greater than the number of New Zealanders leaving; if so, why?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
I have said in the past that there is a “brain exchange” going on. I note that 62 percent of the permanent and long-term departures from New Zealand are of skilled or highly skilled people, while a larger proportion of those coming into New Zealand—namely 67 percent—are skilled or highly skilled. So New Zealand is the net winner in those terms.
How can we be retaining skilled New Zealanders, when according to the latest figures more than 45,000 people left New Zealand to live permanently in Australia last year, making this the highest loss for a June year since records began 30 years ago?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
The member is somewhat fixated with numbers to and from Australia. I think it is much more honest to look at overall net migration figures. Net migration figures in the ninth year of the Labour-led Government, in the year to June 2008, were positive by 4,732. In the ninth year of the National Government, the year to June 1999, the net migration figures were negative—by minus 11,369. I rest my case.
Hon Peter DunneWhat does the Prime Minister say in response to comments by various migrant community representatives that one of the reasons why people move on is there is not the same level of opportunities in New Zealand as in Australia, and that the Government has not done enough in its three terms of office to amend our immigration and resettlement policy to encourage people to make long-term commitments to New Zealand, rather than to come here, gain citizenship benefits, and then move on to other countries?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
No, I would not agree with that. I think our Government has done a great deal to improve the settlement of migrants. When I became Prime Minister quite a high level of new ethnic communities’ members were experiencing unemployment. That has fallen quite sharply, and we are seeing new migrants represented right across the mainstream of employment, which I think is a good thing. I think the reality for a number of migrants is that they go to be with bigger communities of their own people in Australia—I think that is quite a powerful pull. But no, I could not agree with the assertions that the member quoted from some other source.
Does the Prime Minister recall that back in 2000 she told the New Zealand Press Association that the main driver for the number of skilled New Zealanders choosing to move to Australia, rather than to live in New Zealand, was the relative state of the economy; if that is the case, is Mr Dunne not absolutely correct—that the reason they are deserting New Zealand in droves is the poor economic management of her Government?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK Link to this
It might be relevant to compare the average per annum economic growth rates of New Zealand and Australia. From December 1999 to December 2007, New Zealand grew on average by 3.4 percent and Australia grew on average by 3.3 percent, as compared with the period from 1991 to 1999 inclusive, when the Australian economy grew at 3.5 percent a year on average, and in New Zealand, under a National Government, we grew at 2.8 percent on average.