Minister rejects calls to change Immigration Advisers Act

Helen Winterbottom. Photo / Supplied

Immigration Minister Jonathan Coleman says there are no plans to review or change the Immigration Advisers Act, which makes it illegal for anyone who is an unlicensed immigration adviser to give any advice on immigration matters.

This means people who do not hold an immigration advisers licence can be prosecuted if they discuss, direct, assist, or even blog anything that can be constituted as immigration advice.

Kiwi Immigration Watch, an immigration watchdog group headed by former United Future MP Bernie Ogilvy, says the act breaches the Bill of Rights and the basic human right to freedom of speech.

He wants the act to be scrapped or reviewed.

But Dr Coleman said the act had been passed with the support of all political parties in Parliament, and the question of whether it breached the right to freedom of speech was never raised.

"Part of the act's passage was subject to expert scrutiny in terms of New Zealand's human rights commitments," he said.

"No inconsistency with those commitments was raised."

Dr Coleman said the House received 34 submissions on the Immigration Advisers Licensing Bill, and all supported or conditionally supported it.

The act requires anyone who gives immigration advice to be licensed unless exempt, or face fines of up to $100,000 and up to seven years in jail.

The Immigration Advisers Authority defines immigration advice as "using or purporting to use, knowledge of or experience in immigration to advise, direct, assist, or represent another person in regard to an immigration matter relating to New Zealand, whether directly or indirectly and whether or not for gain."

The authority, which administers the act, has issued 18 warning letters since the law came into effect on May 4, and has warned one blogger, Helen Winterbottom, to stop posting immigration suggestions on her blog.

Mr Ogilvy said the act was inadvertently creating victims.

"The act takes away a citizen's rights to give systematic immigration advice even in free-of-charge, innocent situations, using public domain information ... this is the unintended consequence of a hurried, ill-drafted legislation by a Parliament trying to fix the problem of dodgy immigration consultants, but creating a new problem of absurdity," he said.

"Our Prime Minister can entice people to come to New Zealand, but its citizens cannot. How crazy is that?"

Ms Winterbottom, who has written to Dr Coleman asking for the act to be changed or scrapped, said in her letter: "This law was meant to protect migrants to New Zealand from unscrupulous immigration agents who charged ridiculous fees for often no more than filling out a form, but all that has been accomplished is that there are only around 300 people in the world who can act as agents on behalf of tens of thousands of migrants we want to attract to New Zealand."

A spokeswoman for the Immigration Advisers Authority said there were 279 licensed advisers.