Erica Stanford

We are turning results around, and we can't afford to change tack and go back to, you know, let's guess the word by looking at the picture.

We're up to 27,000.

It's an increased slide.

No, no, no, no.

But it's still lower than the March rolling average over the last 20 years or whatever.

Neither am I, as you know.

I thought the Prime Minister laid out a really good, clear position, which is actually...

Migrants are incredibly important to our economy and our social fabric.

But also we need to make sure that we're maintaining a social licence.

And as I spoke to you about, I think a week or so ago, Labour really put a strain on that social licence by the RV21 programme and the mass immigration, 135,000.

And we need to make sure we've got a good balance, that we're putting Kiwis first for jobs

while also making sure that businesses have access to the skills that they need, that we're getting the right skills to build a productive economy.

That's what we have been doing for two years.

And the Prime Minister was laying out exactly that position, a smart immigration system that works for New Zealand, that gets that balance right to make sure that we maintain the social licence.

And it shouldn't be an election issue because we do not have

the same issues that they're seeing overseas because of what we've done over the last two years.

Erica Stanford in education and immigration, as it turns out.

Look, I think it's clearly an election year and this is what happens.

And I possibly stupidly thought that immigration wouldn't be an issue this year because of the incredible work that we've done over the last two years to get things under control.

We inherited an absolute nightmare from Labour with 70% low skilled workers, 135,000 net migration on the back of the largest