ACT Immigration Policy

To attract back to New Zealand, able and productive former New Zealand citizens.
To attract able and productive immigrants.
To retain able and productive New Zealanders.

Immigrants bring new hopes, new ideas, skills and entrepreneurial attitudes.
They challenge our way of doing things, they wake us up.
They provide links with markets.
They bring cultural enrichment and diversity.
They strengthen the All Blacks.
Immigration has exposed weaknesses in our occupational licensing arrangements, employment laws, schools, housing and welfare systems.
Migration is a good barometer of New Zealand's attractiveness, however New Zealand has become less attractive during the last decade.

Policies that promote the prosperity of New Zealanders at large will also best turn migration outflows to inflows.
We should be aiming for net inflows of around 30-40,000 persons per year.
We should be aiming to attract the ablest and most productive people (while making allowance for refugees, and family reunion cases).
Immigrants must not have easy access to welfare.
There should be no special government privileges for immigrants - these are a recipe for multicultural strife.
It is essential to reduce employment law barriers, including addressing issues of anti-competitive occupational licensing arrangements.
The education system should be able to respond more freely to any language problems arising from immigration.
Private agencies - banks, lawyers, real estate agents, cultural and ethnic associations and the like - are best able to ease the transition of immigrants.
New Zealand cannot afford the politics of envy. Labour's 'soak-the-rich' policy of raising the top income tax rate provides our best and brightest with yet another reason for emigrating, while making us less attractive to skilled immigrants.
The points system for determining eligibility is superior to earlier approaches.
Immigration consultants should not be required to be licensed.
Governments should not try to control the geographical spread of immigration.

Cut tax rates in order to make New Zealand a more attractive place to live
Cap the tax burden of the highest-earning individuals to attract talented entrepreneurs, and others with valuable international connections, and to retain New Zealanders who would otherwise leave.
Reduce occupational licensing as a barrier to the use of immigrants' skills.
Adopt other immigrant welcoming policies within an overall annual quota set at a level that the country can absorb.
Introduce a five year probation period during which immigrants who offend can be sent home if convicted of an imprisonable offence.