Nats' policy changes signal, 'We're listening'

Bronagh and John Key leave the conference yesterday after the PM's keynote speech to the National Party faithful. Photo / Nick Reed

National's latest bit of tinkering with its immigration policy will not solve the Auckland housing crisis. It will barely touch it.

Neither will it silence Winston Peters. Nor Labour, for that matter.

But then the minor extension of current policy to boost the number of migrants taking jobs or buying houses in the regions was never going to do so.

What it is meant to do is send a signal to voters that says National is listening, that John Key's pragmatism is still alive and that no issue is too big not to be treated with that strategy.

It was important that Key used the weekend National Party conference to send that message. When taken alongside his comments about introducing a stamp duty or tax on foreigners buying houses, it shows National is considering all options to curb demand for Auckland homes.

Of course, a stamp tax could increase prices if the property market is seriously overheated. Buyers just have to adjust.

Australia has a similar policy of trying to lure skilled migrants to small towns in rural areas with the prize of permanent residency in exchange for working for the firm sponsoring them.

In Australia, that bond lasts for four years and any migrant breaching it faces severe penalties, including possible loss of residency on a permanent basis, and deportation.

In New Zealand, migrants will get further points to help their application for residency on top of their current level if they are willing to live elsewhere than Auckland. But they would be permitted to move to the Big Smoke after only a year in the country.

The contrast is partly due to Key having to keep those in the party of an economic liberal bent happy. Most of the delegates attending the two-day conference would have been of that mind.

In his keynote speech yesterday, the Prime Minister said National was committed to an open economy, free trade and welcoming skilled immigrants, especially in areas of low unemployment such as the South Island. He said National believed NZ could do a better job of matching the needs of regions with available migrants and investors.

Funny that he just happened to mention the regions following National's humbling by Peters in the Northland byelection. The changes in immigration policy announced yesterday prove that in politics, you can kill several birds with one stone.