Work visa approvals up 9% on a year ago, residence visa approvals up 12.8% the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment says

but house prices are the backbone of the economy?!?

then "Reverse!"

How? There have been no real policy changes in the last 3 years to reduce the flow of low-value migrants entering NZ through work and resident categories. Doesn't look like they're working on anything worthwhile either.
Even the announced work visa changes won't come into effect till mid 2020.
For international students, the policy changes last year might have actually pushed up numbers since post-study work visa length for level 8 and above students has been raised from 1 to 3 years.

Crass idea but I would use it to explain how I achieved the point count 16 years ago.

There's a movie called Ali G (by Sacha Baron Cohen, aka Borat) where this is implemented in the UK.

He's a phoney.

They are the one dept that has control of its income without govt approval - they set their own visa prices - and then claim to be under-staffed and employ less than 30 investigators despite proven widespread corruption, exploitation and rorts (identified 3 years ago by Prof Stringer Auck uni).

The entire mental health industry is in a disarray due to both heavy restrictions on inward movement of healthcare professionals and improper working conditions and poor payscale for local workers to move into the sector.

The government really needs to do more if it is at all serious about its well-being agenda.

Try shambles AND National Disgrace!

Maybe because it is never discussed in parliament - only in this blog and at every coffee shop in Auckland.

Incidentally in the UK since 2010 Immigration has been ranked as UK voters top priority just ahead of the Economy. UK immigration rate currently roughly a third of NZ.

It is so sad to see an unnecessary problem bubbling up - NZ needs immigrants (the right ones); NZ is good with immigrants (less prejudice than most countries); INZ even has quotas just quotas that are never discussed publically and are more than double the OECD average. A well informed public debate in parliament would sort this out - OK not everyone would agree with whatever is decided but it would be open for discussion: fruit pickers or nurses, IT consultants or Bakers, traditional marriage without parents approval yes/no, etc.

Clearly Labour-Greens and their unlikely coalition partner do not see eye-to-eye on immigration, despite Labour adopting a tone similar to WP in their 2017 election campaigns.
I wonder what changes, if any, to our migration policy would Labour-Green bring about were they to secure enough votes to form a two-party coalition after the 2020 election.

Interesting. But I don't think the COL clowns are that clever.

We really do get the crumps. That's my observation from having worked in Singapore and Australia

We have the privilege of having that clown Lees Galloway in charge. Never in the history of politics has there been a greater contrast between looks and competence

While both Australia and NZ are adding low-skilled migrants to their population at record high rates, attaining permanency in Australia is a lot harder due to high demand and fewer places.
Moreover, they have quotas across the ditch for different occupations, special fast track places for high-paid migrant workers (149k in Australia, not the NZ government's 52k threshold to qualify as high-paid).

An economic downturn would bite us a lot harder due to the tens of thousands of low-skilled permanent migrants to whom we provide full access to our social system each year.

The quality of our research here is poor

Send them home on boats man.

And we have 300,000 renters receiving a supplement from the taxpayer to prop them up...

Increasing numbers of immigrants turn into increasing numbers of immigrant pensioners in a couple of decades. Who pays for them then?

I screamed "STOP!" but i don't actually want the opposite. I'm not old folk (early thirties) and I part own 1 house with the bank. I just don't to see mass immigration continue to deprive my peers and future generations of a fair chance at home ownership.

I agree with STOP. I am old. NZ's unplanned population growth along with my old house on a large section has made me a millionaire and I do enjoy the cheap quality services provided by immigrant baristas and checkout operators. So if it is good for me why do I rail against it? Simple answer I have 6 children and only one owns his own home and that is in France.

What good is increasing prices if you cant use the money for anything? You either have to increase your already hideously unaffordable mortgage to access your equity, or if you sell, then you still need to buy something else equally ridiculously priced to live in. The only people who will benefit from old people's high house prices are their descendants on their death.