Okay the immigration heat's on but English says it's an indication of the economy's success. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Opinion
We've heard it before but from the opposite side of the political spectrum. Helen Clark once lamented that she was the victim of her own success which she's not quite so chirpy about at the moment.
But now it seems the sentiment's rubbed off. The Dipton drawler Bill English was
responding to questions about a net migration gain of almost 70 thousand last year, not far short of the population of Palmerston North.
Okay the immigration heat's on but English says it's an indication of the economy's success, saying if there's one thing worse than people turning up in your country, it's people leaving. Kiwis are no longer leaving the country in droves and he says the Beehive views that as a measure of its success.
Just to put the migration gain of 69 thousand into some sort of perspective. Kiwis coming home increased by nine thousand to 31 thousand, Aussies moving here doubled from five to ten thousand while all others increased by 28 thousand, half of which were on student visas and the other half on work visas.
Labour's Andrew Little waded into the argument, asking what's up then with sixteen thousand kiwi labourers listed as being on the dole while we've imported six and a half thousand foreigners to do their jobs for them. Yeah well, you've got to drill down into the figures to see in what areas the labourers are working and whether their kiwi counterparts are willing to do the job or move to a place where the spade hits the dirt.
