KEY POINTS:
New Zealand First says a cut to the immigration quota does not go far enough.
Persistent inflation has forced the Government to lower its resident migrants target despite ongoing skill shortages in several industries.
Immigration Minister David Cunliffe today said the New Zealand Residence Programme for the coming year would target 45,000 to 50,000 migrants, compared with 47,000 to 52,000 in the past year.
"With the economy strong and New Zealand competing in a global market for skilled migrants, our top priority at present is ensuring we get high quality migrants while not adding to inflationary pressures."
New Zealand First Deputy Leader Peter Brown said his party - which includes Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters - remains concerned at the high proportion of unskilled migrants entering the country.
Mr Brown said while the decreasing numbers are a positive sign, a great deal more needs to be done to increase the proportion of skilled migrants in the annual quota.
"We must end the blind commitment to bringing in 45,000 plus migrants annually and ensure that migrant numbers are matched to true gaps in the labour market that New Zealanders are not able to fill," Mr Brown said.
The Government's move follows Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard raising the official cash rate three times this year and has cited high immigration as one of the factors underpinning a housing market that continues to defy gravity.
Mr Cunliffe said one of the ways the Government would look to meet any additional skill shortages was through temporary migrants.
He had asked the Labour Department to investigate how it could raise awareness of "temporary work policy" among employers.
Temporary migrants could only be employed in areas where there were no available skilled New Zealanders.
"Improving the accessibility of temporary work policy would help to address skill shortages, but still support the government's effort in limiting inflationary pressure."
Of the new resident migrants, 60 percent would come from the skilled stream, 30 percent from the family sponsored stream and 10 percent from the humanitarian stream.
Earlier this year Mr Cunliffe said immigration for the year was being kept at the bottom of the forecast range at about 47,000.
- NZPA
