On the back of National’s tinkering and the kneejerk reaction from Labour and New Zealand First, immigration looks set to be an election issue. It certainly is important, but we need to have a conversation based on the facts, rather than hysteria and xenophobia. Let’s review a few of the facts in light of the announcements in recent days.

In the late eighties and early nineties, New Zealand was virtually devoid of any type of overarching agricultural regulation. Conversely, regulation in agriculture was commonplace in most first world countries at this time.

It’s great news the Minister of Immigration Michael Woodhouse has indicated some tightening of immigration laws. That he has acknowledged that people on the median wage or lower are perhaps not as skilled a category of immigrant as New Zealand needs, is a long overdue admission that National’s immigration policy is about as far from a skill-based strategy as one could get. So that’s progress.

It is becoming increasingly clear that our public sector is shackled to their Ministerial masters. The Opportunities Party had our own, very innocent, taste of this last week. 

One of the often heard regrets from employers is how they can’t get labour from the local market. They resort as much as possible to getting the Immigration Department to approve the importation of labour from abroad. We’re not talking highly skilled labour here; we’re talking about those with middle-of-the-road or lower skill sets primarily.

The question on everyone’s lips this weekend is whether this is bad weather or climate change? Of course we have always had bad weather but the evidence is clear; climate change is making bad weather events more frequent, and it is only going to get worse.

We need more and better social housing. How would TOP’s policy achieve this? We’ve had a lot of questions on this. 

We’ve had a lot of questions about TOP’s position on debt. On one level debt is a pretty simple concept; borrowing money to invest is pretty normal. If as a business or household you can borrow money to buy something that makes your life easier, better or more productive, at least enough to pay the loan back, then it is a good thing. This is how investment, economic growth and the financial system interact. Lenders are in the business of assessing risk and measuring collateral (the assets that back the loan). 

The comments by Auckland University Ananish Chaudhuri that immigrants are a gain not a drain need qualification. It is certainly not universally true and would be better phrased as immigration can provide a gain, rather than implying that is always the case. 

TOP’s policy #4 ‘Democracy Reset’ proposes, among other things, the return of an Upper House. This is a response to the concentration of political power in Cabinet and its ability to wield that power without due recourse to Parliament, let alone to the New Zealand public.