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Bernard Hickey reviews the day's business news with Duncan Garner at RadioLive, Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Bernard Hickey reviews the day's business news with Duncan Garner at RadioLive, Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Bernard Hickey reviews the day's business news with Duncan Garner at RadioLive, Wednesday during drive-time, October 26, 2016.

You can hear their discussion here.

The NZX 50 fell 1.4% today, giving back all of yesterday's gains and more as a broad selloff spread through the market here and Australia. The fears overseas that inflation is perking up again, which could push up interest rates and make New Zealand's dividend-producing stocks less attractive.

It's time for an official Inquiry into the extent of migrant abuse and what both Immigration NZ and the Labour Inspectorate are doing about it. There was an Australian Senate Inquiry into similar issues in Australia earlier this year. The attached ad put up by the Rayland Motel in Manukau in a Countdown in South Auckland for 'Asian Student Labor' to be paid NZ$6.50 per hour in cash suggests a prevalence and impunity that at least needs investigating. A receptionist told me he did not know if this was true, but he said he was being paid more than the minimum wage. The owner of the motel has not responded to my query. Stories of migrant abuse are now rampant, in particular the practice of international students paying for jobs. 

For a start, an Inquiry should look at the number of inspectors in the Labour Inspectorate. New Zealand has only 54 for the whole country. Australia has three times as many inspectors per head of population. Here's another example of migrant abuse reported recently. 

It may not be coincidental, given so many of the temporary work visas are issued to people working in Tourism and hospitality, that international tourism spending rose nearly 20% to NZ$14.5 billion in the year to March 30, according to new Statistics NZ figures today. Domestic Tourism spending rose 7.4% to NZ$20.2 billion. There is a lot of catching up to do. It is still only 10% of GDP, down from 11% in 2003.  

An icon of New Zealand clothing retailing was officially declared dead today. Pumpkin Patch was put into voluntary administration today and its banks, who are owed NZ$46 million, have appointed receivers. There will be discounted sales before Christmas. It has 117 stores and the receivers will try to sell the company as a going concern, but Pumpkin Patch's 1,000 staff in Australia and 600 staff here face an uncertain future. 

Very angry shareholders in collapsed security software company Wynyard are investigating taking a class action that alleges they were misled by the former high-flying company.


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5 Comments

Pumpkin Patch could have at least waited until Monday. Its annual report September 29 gave reason for hope , almost glowing

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what is interesting is most of those prosecuted for under paying migrants are themselves migrants and rip off folk from their old country. the question is why we allow people to set up here to rip off their own country folk
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/83235642/dairy-worker-visa-frauds…
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11710423
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1606/S00246/kiwifruit-growers-support-…

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Migrant Abuse.
Those in power are supposed to exercise a bit of wisdom. Clearly they are poorly endowed in this area. Allowing such a deluge of immigrants was always going to result in stresses and friction so the quantum and mix should have been carefully managed to avoid this sort of problem. It is not only cruel and insensitive but also damaging to our overseas trade and reputation.
My personal view is that we do not need any migrants other than those who will perform in the top 10% and help transform us from a low wage commodity economy into a high value high wage one. Not withstanding this those who are attacking these folk need to consider that immigrants leave the familiarity and security of their homeland and mostly come here with all the hope and dreams of a new start. I can only suggest that those who are inclined to be bigoted should go along to witness a citizenship ceremony. It is not the fault of individual immigrants that we are all facing the problems resulting from this out of control situation. The blame squarely rests with our government and it is to the government where we should be directing our anger.

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The whole system's corrupt to the core, and our immigration policy is essentialy being set and implemented by organised crime. It's destroying New Zealand, and victimising a lot of people. First thing is to clean up the regime, clamp down on the crooks acting as agents overseas, and get some proper inspection and enforcement in place for prosecuting the offenders. It's damaging to New Zealanders, damaging to the economy, and we're failing our duty of care towards bona fide immigrants.

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Have you witnessed this 'migrant abuse' out there on the street? I once called out an elderly Asian man for spitting in the exercise area at Cornwall Park. Was that migrant abuse?
I have been to a citizenship ceremony and it is largely just BS these days. A lot of them are just getting the rubber stamp so they can get a passport. This was the case with the migrant I went with to the ceremony and I know others that shot off to Australia as soon as they got it.
I don't think we should be too emotional about this. Migrants should be called out for bad behaviour. Also anonymously suggesting we only allow in 10% of the very best seems pretty harsh. You wouldn't go up to those already here and say 90% of them should never have been allowed in would you but that is what you are saying. That would be abuse!
Don't you think their countries need their top 10% of folk?? Stealing their top 10% of talent is kind of abusive too.

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