Erica Stanford: Immigration Minister on the new residency rules for overseas primary school teachers

The Government's changing residency rules to allow overseas primary teachers to apply for New Zealand residency. 

Speaking exclusively to Newstalk ZB, the Immigration Minister says from next month, offshore primary teachers will only need a job offer, and don't need to have worked here for two years, to be given residency. 

Erica Stanford told Mike Hosking it follows the Government putting secondary teachers on the same pathway last year, which made a big difference to their numbers. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
And so numbers have proved to be a problem with
the public service. We thought we had a lot more
teachers than we've actually got. Turns out we're about twelve
hundred and fifty short this year. So offshore primary teachers
will be put on the straight residency greenlist as of
next month. The Immigration and Education Minister, Erica Stanford is
with us on all of this morning to.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
You, good morning mate.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Have you had to hustle to make this announcement because
of what happened?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
No, I haven't hustled. But the end of last year
when the teacher data should have come out, and they
turned up at my office and handed me a document
that showed me the teacher data, which was wildly different
than the year before. Of course you could imagine my reaction, Mike,
at which point I asked them to start delving into
the data. When they came back to me and they
said to me, Minister, our data is wholly unreliable. Those

(00:46):
were their words. And I ended at that point late
last year that we we needed to get better data.
But I also knew that it wasn't going to be great.
So at that point that's when I hustled, said to
Immigration right what we do right now. They have been amazing,
worked at speed so that I've been able.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
To do this right. So the next thing. All the
problem we have is through a demand. So in other words,
green lighting is one thing. Are there a bunch of
people who will turn up?

Speaker 2 (01:12):
I think that there are because we did this for
secondary school teachers. So when I got there initial data
back in twenty twenty three, when I first became the minister,
I saw the secondary school teachers. We were in trouble.
I mean that it was looking like we were going
to be one hundreds short, and I moved immediately to
put them on the immediate pathway to residence. We didn't

(01:33):
put primary school teachers on because the data told us
something different. And we've seen since then we have had
a quite a big uptick in secondary school teachers coming through.
It has made a difference. So that's why we know
this well. But it's only a very small part of
the puzzle. There's a lot more we need to do
in terms of on site training and scholarships and encouraging
young people to get into teaching.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Exactly are we doing that?

Speaker 2 (01:54):
We are? And I knew last year even though I
had data from the Ministry when I first became the
minister that said we're going to have an over supply
of primary teachers. I knew in my gut. I was like, no,
I doesn't feel right. I've been around the country. I'd
talked to the Southland Primary Principles, the Auckland Primary Principles
and they were saying to me, we're not seeing it here.
So when I said to the Ministry, doesn't feel right,

(02:17):
they had no minister, it's just regional. So I've now
made them do regional data the first time that they've
never done that before. So I knew something was up.
I didn't trust the ministry. And last year and last
year's budget we put in tens of millions of dollars
into helping to train more teachers. The on site training
programs was fifteen hundred more teachers into the mix, and

(02:37):
we and we've put a special category of primary school
teachers because I just had feeling, and we will look
to do that again this year as well.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
So I had run on the program last week when
he wrote his report, and I haven't had the Prime
Minister on, but I've got him on this morning. How
much of what you want to do as a government
is held back by a public service that simply isn't.

Speaker 2 (02:59):
Up for good question. Look, to be honest with you,
I have, for the most part, when you are very
clear and you go in with a with plans and
you know exactly what you want, they will respond. I mean,
the education is doing an absolutely fantastic job because we

(03:21):
are very clear about exactly what we want to achieve.
And yes there's the occasional hack up. But when you
have good leadership and you know what you want and
you're very clear about it, and you stay on top
of them, and yes sometimes you have to micromanage them,
then you get results. And you've seen that in education.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
I appreciate your time as always, Erica Stanford. So the
green light for the primary teachers, they were just if
you hadn't followed the story, we are twelve hundred and
fifty short. They thought we were going to have a
thousand more than we needed, so a two and a
half thousand difference. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast,
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