Yesterday’s Monetary Policy Statement confirms Labour's immigration failures are reducing productivity, driving up prices and contributing to higher mortgage rates, National’s Immigration spokesperson Erica Stanford says.

“The Reserve Bank says that labour shortages are ‘now the major constraint on production’ and that access to labour is ‘the key constraint on firms’ productive capacity’, leading to higher prices for Kiwis. 

“This morning on the AM Show, the Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr repeated this statement saying that “scarcity of labour is the number one constraint on economic activity”.

“The Reserve Bank is echoing what National has been saying since the start of the year; our immigration settings are causing needless bottlenecks in our economy.

“The Government has utterly failed to deliver on any of its border announcements. Whether nurses and teachers or rural contractors and farmworkers – Labour has been unable to provide the workers this country desperately needs.

“Kris Faafoi and Immigration New Zealand had two years of closed borders to prepare for the country’s reopening but their lack of delivery has meant lower productivity, higher prices and higher mortgage rates for Kiwis, exacerbating the cost of living crisis.

“National has called for the borders to be open for months to ease the critical shortages faced by businesses.

“Additionally, we need to provide certainty to migrants, a pathway to residence with efficient visa processing to have any hope of attracting migrants. Until that happens, the Labour Government’s lack of delivery will continue to drive migrants to more attractive countries such as Australia.”