parliament beehive venu

Minister of Immigration Michael Wood said the government’s decision to offer nurses and midwives a straight-to-residence pathway is not a U-turn, as described by the opposition National Party.

He called it an acceleration, instead.

The minister was answering queries put to him by National’s Erica Stanford in Parliament on Tuesday.

“When the government put in place the green list policy, we gave all 13 occupational groups of nurses a clear pathway to residency that did not exist previously. We have further streamlined and simplified that now,” Wood told the House, adding, “and I think it will assist us in respect of the offer of nurses to come to New Zealand.”

Wood noted that the government had worked closely with the health sector, “not just to assess the situation of nurses and midwives but also to offer a streamlined residency pathway for other clinical workers and allied health workers.”

Until now, nurses had to wait two years for residency.

Fending off a further query as to why nurses and midwives were not placed on the straight-to-residence pathway six months earlier, the minister alluded to changed circumstances as the grounds for the current policy shift.

“When we launched the green list, we had some of the most competitive settings in the world for nurses and midwives, offering both groups a pathway to residence that did not exist for many of them under the previous government,” Wood said.

He said the country had witnessed a high influx of nurses and midwives since May. He put that number at about 3,500 nurses during that period.

But in recent months skilled migrants, particularly from the health sector, were being drawn to competing job markets in other countries.

“Our targeted adjustments to the green list announced yesterday will ensure that we remain internationally competitive and attractive to these migrants,” Wood explained.

He said the latest policy shift addressed immediate workforce shortages in the health sector.

The minister summed up the government’s rationale behind the latest move: “We have a simple message for any offshore nurses and midwives: come to New Zealand.”

Earlier, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern expressed full confidence in Minister Wood, saying she stood by his “immigration rebalance work, which has meant we are recruiting for 90,000 places right now.”

Retorting to opposition leader Christopher Luxon’s dig that she had suddenly woken up to the fact that NZ had a nursing shortage, Ardern doled out figures to buttress her government’s health policy.

She said 2,900 nurses arrived in NZ during the pandemic. This year, 4,500 internationally trained nurses have registered with the Nursing Council.

A record 900 nurses arrived in the country in November alone, the prime minister informed the House.

“The change we made yesterday is about maintaining our competitive edge and attracting health workers whilst many other countries experience a similar shortage,” Ardern added.