Todd McClay Says No Reason For Concern About India Migration Changes

Russell
Palmer
Political reporter

The Trade Minister
says immigration changes following the India free trade
agreement would not breach that deal’s non-discrimination
clauses.

At the first reading of the legislation
supporting the deal, New Zealand First leader and Foreign
Minister Winston Peters accused
National of covertly making changes that would
discriminate against Indians migrating to New
Zealand.

He read aloud from a briefing he claimed
showed officials raising concern about changes Immigration
Minister Erica Stanford had “approved” that would be “more
restrictive in a way which targets India and India alone”,
and could impact relations with the country and New
Zealand’s reputation.

However, Trade Minister Todd
McClay quickly rebuffed those claims, saying New Zealand
First was “wrong about this” and “should stop promoting
misinformation for the sake of gaining
votes”.

Stanford subsequently suggested Peters had
broken from usual processes in taking those discussions
public before final decisions had been made, and was putting
the relationship at risk.

However, with neither
National nor NZ First being willing to release the
document the public remains in the dark about exactly
what the changes are.

McClay – announcing on Sunday a
National
Party policy to prioritise seven markets for trade deals
– said he could not talk about the detail of immigration
changes.

“Ministers are working through and still
making decisions,” he said, echoing Stanford’s
comments.

He said the public would have to wait until
those final decision were revealed, but indicated “as an
example” that some changes were being made to enact a new
visa for India based on the trade deal, which no other
country would have access to.

“It’s based upon that
negotiation … we always meet our obligations under free
trade agreements. We will in as far as the India-New Zealand
free trade agreement is concerned as well.”

“New
Zealand takes its obligation seriously in all trade
agreements. There is detailed negotiation, and both sides
always understand both their obligation and commitment. I’ll
be very clear, we will meet our obligations under the Indian
Free Trade Agreement in all senses.”

Asked how the
changes being considered were non-discriminatory, McClay
said there were “lots of examples of trade agreements that
treat different countries differently, depending upon what
has been negotiated”.

“We will meet all of our
obligations. There is no reason for people to be
concerned.”

Peters’ claims included that National
would be:

• imposing on Indian citizens a labour
  market/economic needs test that doesn’t apply to citizens of
  other relevant FTA partners
• precluding Indian
  citizens from applying for a temporary employment entry visa
  from within New Zealand, an option available to citizens of
  other relevant FTA partners
• treating Indian citizens
  worse than the citizens of other relevant FTA partners when
  it comes to their partners and children;
  and
• precluding Indian citizens from counting work
  experience on a temporary employment entry visa towards
  residency requirements, a right extended to citizens of
  other relevant FTA partners

The trade
deal announced in December creates a new temporary
employment entry (TEE) visa for Indian citizens, for select
occupations where New Zealand has a skills
shortage.

This includes ICT fields, engineering and
specialised health services, Ayush (Indian traditional
medicine) practitioners, music teachers, chefs and yoga
instructors, with the number of TEE visas capped at no more
than 5000 at any one time over a three-year
period.

© Scoop Media