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Mike's Minute: Government has realised we need immigration

Author
Mike Hosking,
Publish Date
Wed, 13 Nov 2019, 9:48AM

Mike's Minute: Government has realised we need immigration

Author
Mike Hosking,
Publish Date
Wed, 13 Nov 2019, 9:48AM

Isn't it incredible? What were two hot button issues just two short years ago in the midst of an election campaign?

Housing, which was labelled for political purposes as a crisis. And immigration, which for political purposes was labelled out of control.

The now government were going to tackle both, were going to address both, were going to take these situations that had allegedly so outraged us, that immediate action was required.

Phil Twyford was, of course famously, dispatched to deal with the housing and we all know how that worked out. Not only couldn’t he build a house to save himself, the market by-in-large has settled back into a nice rhythm. Prices are solid, money is cheap, consents are going well and housing is doing what housing has always done, just, unlike Twyford, getting on with it.

What about immigration? Well that's as big a fraud as the housing. For the year to June, new stats this week reveal numbers are up to a net 56,000. That's 11 per people per 100,000. Compare that to the United States at three per 100,000, Britain at three, or Germany at four.

The 56,000 is down a bit on the peak periods but still, if you care to remember, no where near where this government promised it would change it to.

Labour promised to cut it by 20,000 to 30,000 a year. So in other words it should be about 30,000 not 56,000. And New Zealand First promised 10,00 net. So it should be 10,000, not 56,000.

What is it with this government and numbers? 100,000 houses, 30,000 immigrants, neither are true, real, or indeed were they ever going to be.

If you voted on those two promises, if you were exercised by the migrant arrivals, thought the country was being ruined, jobs were being taken, and wages were being driven into the ground, and you went and believed Ardern and Peters and their hocus pocus promises, you have been had.

I, of course, love migration. These numbers tell two stories. One, we are a brilliant country and a magnet for a new and prosperous life. Two, migration adds growth, income, skills, and culture to our country. And given our size and geographic isolation, the more people the better, as far as I am concerned.

So I am glad they made all this up. Even they, in their quiet moments, have come to realise this country doesn't operate without immigration. Hence they have hoped you wouldn't notice they misled you.

Will the numbers drop? For a while looked like they might have, but things appears to have have settled, if not turned. I think we are in for the long haul of migrant growth.

If I am right, and you are still upset about all this, you might want to ask your mates running the place, if they still hold to their policy or whether they just said that stuff to suck you in.  

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