Hon. David Cunliffe's Address to Delegates at the NZAMI Conference on 27 July 2007
It is a pleasure to be invited here today to speak at your annual conference. One of today's key themes is for immigration to serve the national interest and not to be a political football. It has been one of my key objectives since becoming minister to depoliticise this portfolio. There is every reason to do this. New Zealand's national interests in immigration are easily defined; to get more of the skills and labour we need to support economic growth; to keep our borders secure, and to assist migrants to settle and contribute once they get here. There is nothing innately party political in those objectives and I am pleased that there is a good level of cooperation with the opposition on major immigration legislation reform that is soon to be brought forward to the House.
Today I am going to touch on a number of initiatives currently being implemented by our Government which relate to the overall theme of the conference Setting the Standards. I’m going to talk about how the new legislative frameworks we are putting in place will set the standards for immigration. These include the new Immigration Advisers Licensing Act – which I am sure you are all very keen to hear about – and of course the new Immigration Bill which will be introduced shortly, to replace the 1987 Immigration Act. I also want to talk to you about Active Investor Migration and I want to briefly touch on the Immigration Change Programme.
Firstly, the Immigration Change Programme. There are three pillars to this programme – the Immigration Act, Immigration Policy Framework and Immigration Business Transformation. These three pillars form a cohesive, integrated Change Programme. The Change Programme will deliver the three S's – skills, security, and settlement. My colleague, Mary Anne from the Department of Labour, will go into more detail about the Programme later. Although I do want to briefly go over some of the outcomes resulting from the delivery of the three S's.
Firstly, skills, our feedback shows that employers are satisfied with this part of the programme. 81 per cent of employers were impressed with the performance of their skilled migrant staff – this is an excellent achievement. Added to this, our research tells us that 90 per cent of skilled migrants were either "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their lives in New Zealand. This tells us we are hitting the mark with this part of the programme.
We have also made excellent progress in security. When the Labour Government took office in 1999, we inherited a situation where the previous National administration had appointed just one immigration fraud officer after nine years in power. In contrast, we now have a fully-fledged investigations unit with 18 staff including a manager, investigators and support staff. Their work resulted in 55 successful prosecutions in 2005-06 and 31 successful prosecutions in the 11 months to 31 May 2007, compared with one in 1999.
The other part of the programme is settlement. We are doing some tremendous work in this area. Attracting and retaining skilled migrants is crucial to the Labour-led Government's vision for this country. Recently I launched the Revised New Zealand Settlement Strategy. This Strategy provides over-arching framework for more specific national and regional initiatives. It is key to both attracting and maintaining skilled migrants. The easier we make it for migrants to integrate into New Zealand life, the better placed we will be in the future.
The theme of this conference is very timely given that the Labour-led Government is currently putting in place new legislative frameworks for immigration. These changes will effectively set the standards for the future of our immigration system. They include the new Immigration Advisers Licensing Act – pivotal for the futures of most of you in the audience – and of course the new Immigration Bill, which I hope will be introduced to the House in the near future - this will replace the 1987 Immigration Act.
I don’t need to tell this audience just how vital immigration is to this Government’s goal of transforming the economy. Immigration is one of the keys to New Zealand's future. We know that we can't sustain the economy we want without the skills, investment and international connections that migrants bring.
It is therefore an exciting time to be working in immigration - we are in the midst of the biggest overhaul of immigration policy and laws for 20 years.
I am pleased that the New Zealand Association of Migration and Investment has chosen to be a part of that overhaul and will continue to be as we move towards putting in place a truly 21st century immigration framework.
Immigration Advisers Licensing Act
I would like to thank your organisation for the role it has played in developing the Immigration Advisers Licensing Act.
It is a significant achievement and I know the finished legislation represented many hours of hard work and input from your members. My officials certainly valued the robust discussions with NZAMI members during the Act’s development.
The significance of this achievement is that it is the first step in helping you to establish the framework for “a more professional profession”. It is in your best interests and ours to ensure that unethical and illicit immigration advisers are weeded out, and that only people prepared to meet the highest professional and ethical standards, such as that espoused by NZAMI are allowed to work in this field.
We cannot afford to let our game down in this area. We will be relying on a number of agencies, organisations and individuals, including yourselves, to assist with capacity building. Building the framework is the next step and I know that your organisation has already committed to working with the Department of Labour on this.
We are now well into the establishment phase laid out in the new Act. We have until May 2008 to put into place procedures to ensure we can meet the goals of the new legislation.
Let’s briefly revisit those goals:
- The Immigration Advisers Licensing Act creates a new framework for the regulation of individuals, providing immigration advice both on and offshore
- Any individual providing immigration advice will have to be licensed (unless exempt) - this includes members of NZAMI, but also other people who may not currently call themselves an immigration agent or adviser - for example people in not-for-profit organisations. The Bill is intended to raise the standard of immigration advice across the range of immigration advisers
- Advisers will have to meet competency standards and be fit to practise, and be subject to complaints and disciplinary procedures.
- Provisional, limited and full licences may be granted by the Registrar.
I know that you will have a keen interest in the two new features of the Act that will be used to set the standards for immigration advice - the new code of conduct and the competency standards that will be required of your profession.
Competency standards will set out rules and criteria relating to relevant qualifications, practical experience and knowledge, continuing professional development, and communication in English.
NZAMI will obviously have a keen interest in what those “relevant qualifications” are. How the continuing professional development programmes can be developed to meet the standards and how NZAMI’s expertise can be used to set the standards.
The Registrar must also develop and maintain a Code of Conduct for licensed immigration advisers to address standards of professional and ethical conduct. The Code of Conduct will include rules for:
- obligations to clients
- obligations to the Minister and Department handling immigration matters
- conflicts of interest
- disclosure requirements
- the 'reasonableness' of adviser fees charged to clients, and
- the provision of consumer complaints process.
The Registrar will be consulting widely in developing the competency standards and the Code of Conduct, including with myself, and with the Department, immigration advisers such as yourselves, and with the people or groups who seek or receive immigration advice.
The Registrar will also need to develop a strong working relationship with NZAMI. NZAMI has represented immigration advisers for many years, and has developed procedures relating to conduct for your members. NZAMI members have knowledge and expertise on immigration matters, procedures and consumer needs. While the role of NZAMI is likely to change with the new legislation, you are a conduit for providing information, and potentially training, on the requirements for immigration advisers under the Bill.
The Registrar will also develop a strong working relationship with the Australian Migration Agents Registration Authority (the MARA). I note that the organisation's CEO – Bernie Waters – is also addressing this conference as one of your keynote speakers. The MARA has been established for many years and knowledge of registration issues will assist the Registrar to develop and maintain competency standards which reflect the requirements on individuals for the provision of sound immigration advice.
Incorporating similar requirements into the New Zealand Competency Standards (and Code of Conduct) for immigration advisers as Australian requirements would aid recognition of advisers’ status under each country’s regulatory frameworks, and thereby meet obligations under TTMRA.
Immigration Bill
Setting the standards in immigration is not just about occupational licensing for you, in the audience. The other major piece of work that will set new standards for immigration is the new Immigration Bill that that will soon be introduced into the House.
Twenty years is a long time, and the legislation which came into force in 1987, is well overdue for an overhaul.
I am confident that this new legislation will provide the means to clarify and strengthen the existing law. It will provide huge benefits to New Zealand, and particularly to yourselves – the people who are working with the legislation every day.
The Government reviewed the Immigration Act 1987 to ensure that New Zealand's immigration law encourages the entry of the people we need, to plug those gaps in the labour force I mentioned earlier, while effectively protecting our borders.
Since 1987, various amendments have been made to the legislation. These included changes to the removal regime for people unlawfully in New Zealand and strengthened provisions to prevent migrant smuggling and trafficking. A major change took place in 2003 with the introduction of the "expression of interest" approach to selection of skilled migrants.
While these changes have all led to improvements in the way the immigration system works, they have been piecemeal and resulted in increasingly complex legislation.
The review was undertaken to make fundamental changes to immigration legislation so as to provide a strong legislative foundation, to allow us to develop future-focused policies and encourage economic growth.
This was a review of immigration legislation, rather than a direct review of policy or operational procedures, which is happening separately but concurrently.
The Bill is framework legislation that modernises and simplifies the immigration system. It will give New Zealand a more robust and accountable system that will create and hold public confidence. It also ensures compliance with New Zealand’s immigration related international obligations in a more transparent way.
It will support the New Zealand workforce - through facilitating access to skills and labour and contributing to output, productivity and economic transformation. The Bill will also allow us to tighten the security at our borders at a time when we are seeing heightened risks and terrorist acts internationally. The integrity of the immigration system is vital to the security of our country.
There are some other big changes in the pipeline. We are proposing a visa system that provides for greater simplicity and flexibility in managing non-citizens’ travel to, and stay in, New Zealand.
We are also proposing a new integrated international protection determination procedure. This would ensure that all claims for international protection are assessed together to provide for a more efficient and fair determination of our obligations.
Aspects of the Bill are also focused on streamlining processes and making them more efficient. One of the areas to benefit is the deportation process, which would become more efficient whilst maintaining a high standard of fairness. Liability for deportation would be largely fact-generated rather than dependent on individual ministerial decision.
We have also proposed a single independent appeals tribunal to establish a robust, independent single-appeals system, based on a new Immigration and Protection Tribunal. This would create greater efficiencies in the overall immigration system, again while maintaining high standards of fairness – this is important.
We also propose to introduce additional safeguards in cases where foreign nationals are detained under the law, including legal aid for detainees who meet criteria and tiered restriction on detention after six and 12 months. It is proposed to extend the maximum period of detention without a warrant to 96 hours. This is intended to help reduce the overall time taken for turnarounds at the border and reduce the need for detention in police and corrections facilities.
In addition to current information-sharing provisions, the Bill allows information to be shared with publicly-funded service providers who require immigration status information to establish eligibility for those services, and with employers to establish entitlement to work.
The Bill provides additional support for the settlement of migrants, refugees, and protected persons, we will be doing this through facilitating compliance with our immigration-related international obligations.
I mentioned earlier that the Immigration Change Programme had three layers: the legislation, the policy reform programmes and strengthening and modernising of the operations of the New Zealand Immigration Service.
Active Investor Migration
Within the policy programme, as you know, Active Investor Migration is another area we are focusing on. As I have said in previous forums, the old Investor Policy wasn't working. This will always be a controversial area and we know that generally, the public are very cautious of investor migrants. We have, therefore, used a very thorough process before making any changes to the category. As many of you know, this included consultation with NZAMI and NZII.
As we promised, we have made some very substantial reforms. We are putting New Zealand's national interests first: This is critical, but we are also allowing more flexibility for investors and operating on a 'real world' scale.
We have substantially shifted the investor migrant policy toward active investment in real businesses and employment. This should expand productivity and economic capacity, more than demand, while being appropriate for current economic conditions
It is important to note that there have been some widely exaggerated claims made by the opposition about both the investor migrant category and our immigration policies.
Our economy currently faces a new range of challenges in the fast-paced modern world. Immigration policy aims to contribute to the economic growth we need through enhancing the overall level of human capability in New Zealand. The government does this by encouraging enterprise and innovation, and fostering international links, while maintaining a high level of social cohesion. We select a broad mix of migrants on the basis of either their skills and experience or their family links to New Zealand.
The new Active Investor Migrant policy is firmly focused on investment in New Zealand's economy, to the benefit of all New Zealanders. An investor migrant applicant is required to provide evidence that they have made an acceptable investment in New Zealand. The criteria for an acceptable investment include that the investment is not for the personal use of the applicant, is invested in New Zealand, and is beneficial to New Zealand.
An investment that is beneficial to New Zealand is one that is made in a New Zealand company capable of promoting economic growth, through introducing, creating or enhancing products, services, export markets, and/or employment. The investment may introduce or enhance technology, management or technical skills. Any applicant whose investment proposal does not meet these criteria will not be accepted.
As an example, if a New Zealand software company is seeking to expand into the United States, this policy would enable the company to engage with an American investor who is experienced in the IT sector. The investor could provide technical knowledge to improve the New Zealand company's product, and contacts in the USA to develop export markets. The resulting expansion of the New Zealand company would then require development capital, which the investor would also provide. New Zealand would benefit through the development of a globally competitive company. Job creation or productivity gains would ensue from this expansion, and the tax take from business and investment profits would increase correspondingly.
As this scenario indicates, the new Active Investor Migrant category is based as much on attracting skills as on attracting money. Apart from the financial investment, the increased international connectedness and additional skills and talent that investor migrants bring will be valuable for the New Zealand business community.
I understand that AMI has been involved in the development phase of this policy and I look forward to your continued support.
It was pleasing to hear National's immigration spokesman Lockwood Smith say recently that he wants to see the full detail of the changes but says moves to encourage active investment by migrants is a good step.
It is also important to note that it is not just permanent migrants that make a contribution to easing skill shortages in the New Zealand economy, temporary migrants can also be used to fill immediate skill shortages. And it is important to remember that some shortages may be due to recruitment and retention difficulties.
As I said earlier most of the goals are not inherently party political but derived from national interest. For too long immigration has been political football and it is high time we all changed that. I'm pleased that the Immigration Bill soon to be introduced will enjoy multi-party support. That is good for the industry and good for the country. I look forward to working with you all as a far-reaching reform programme continues through House, and the political reform programme and the necessary changes which are still to come.
Now is the time to get on and make the new legislation work. As always, we will listen to your feedback, but we are relying on you and your best efforts to make it work. Afterall, you are the ones who will be out there working with the legislation every day.
As you have heard there are some interesting times ahead for immigration. The new Advisers Act and the Immigration Act will work together to set the legislation standards for immigration, as part of this Government’s broader Immigration Change Programme. I want to reiterate again, how pleased I am that your organisation has and will continue to be a part of these historic changes.