The Opposition have been attempting to draw further information from Labour's election promise to reduce immigration by an estimated 20,000-30,000 from the 72,402 figure for the year ended in July, 2017.
The Labour Party said prior to the election they would do this by limiting student visas for low value courses, remove work visas for low level graduates without a job offer and they said they would regionalise the occupation list.
Today during Parliament's Question Time today, National's immigration spokesperson Michael Woodhouse asked the Minister of Immigration, "Does he agree with the Prime Minister when she said this week that the Government’s current immigration policy is' exactly the same one we campaigned on'?"
Iain Lees-Galloway answered, "Yes". He went on to read Labour's first party manifesto line: "Labour will ensure that businesses are able to get genuinely skilled migrants when they need them."
Mr Woodhouse asked, "Which position on the campaign commitments is correct? That a 20,000-30,000 reduction was an estimate, or the Labour leader's response when asked last year, 'Will you cut tens of thousands of immigrants coming into the country', replied, 'yes, it has to be'."
Mr Lees-Galloway again read from their manifesto, saying their changes were estimated to reduce net migration by the 20,000-30,000 figure.
The student visa aspect of the policy was intended to decrease immigration by 6,000-10,000 .
Mr Woodhouse asked Mr Lees-Galloway, "Did he advise independent Tertiary Education NZ, that he no longer intended to implement the policy of restricting visas for so-called low level sub degree courses, that were estimated to reduce migration by 6,000 to 10,000?"
Mr Lees-Galloway answered, "The Member will be aware that student visas, and study-work visas in post study work visas are an area of priority for this government. We will have proposals available for public consultation in the very near future and the member can look forward to that."
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