Heather du Plessis-Allan: Micheal Wood's immigration reset is hurting our economy

Michael Wood needs to abandon his immigration reset. He is hurting the economy.

Look at that unemployment number today. 3.3 percent.  

That is above sustainable levels.  We can’t carry on like this.

We do not have enough workers to run this country.

Fullers has suspended ferries between Auckland and The Coromandel because they don’t have enough staff.

AT has cut nearly 1000 bus services in Auckland because they don’t have enough drivers 

Hospitals aren’t admitting high risk patients who need surgery because they don’t have enough medical staff.

Meatworks can’t process carcasses because they’re short workers.

Restaurants aren’t opening every day because they can’t find chefs. 

Prisoners can’t get visitors because we don’t have enough Corrections guards. 

We’re short up to 8000 truck drivers, 4000 nurses, 400 prison staff, 20,000 construction workers.

Fullers and AT and Corrections will not be able to find the workers to fill their vacancies any time soon.

And even if they did by some miracle fill all their spots, they’d just be taking workers from some other job in this country, leaving some other employer having to cancel something because they’re short staffed.

The only place that we can get workers right now is overseas. 

But Michael Wood won’t let those people in. Because he wants to drive wages up in this country by making bosses here fight over the same workers. 

I take the point that was made on the show yesterday that even if he let the workers in, there’s a chance they might not come. Because Michael Wood’s kept migrant workers out so long now that they’ve had time to realise life in Australia and Canada is easier and cheaper and better paid.

That’s probably true, but that is exactly why he needs to abandon this immigration reset. Because it’s already hard enough to get migrants here when every other country is trying to get them.

He doesn’t need to make it harder.

The immigration reset might have been a good idea 5 years ago, but then a pandemic happened and it is now a terrible idea.

How many services do we have to cancel before Michael Wood realises he’s hurting New Zealand? 

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