John MacDonald: The bit about ACT's immigration policy I don't buy

ACT Leader David Seymour seems to be going all Winston Peters on it, with his party’s new immigration policy.  There’s stuff in it I think is ok. But there’s one part I don’t think is okay. This ridiculous idea of banning immigrants from getting any sort of benefit until they’ve been here for at least five years. I’ll tell you why shortly.  But essentially, ACT doesn’t want immigrants getting any sort of free ride.  It wants people here on temporary work visas to pay for the privilege of being here - charging them $6-a-day to help pay for infrastructure.   That’s another crazy part of this policy. Federated Farmers is already saying it would just put people off coming here. Which is true. If someone has got a choice of where they go to work, they won’t go somewhere where $42 disappears from their pay each week. As well as the tax they’d already be paying.  David Seymour also wants us to get tougher on deporting immigrants who commit serious crimes. Which I don’t have a problem with.   And, he wants people coming here to be better at English - with a higher standard of English required before they’re allowed in. I don’t see any problems with that.   ACT also wants to set-up a specialised enforcement unit targeting overstayers, which has the Green Party all excited. I heard its immigration spokesperson saying it sounds like ACT wants to set up a New Zealand version of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency in the United States, or ICE, as it’s known.  I think others are saying too that we already have a unit targeting overstayers. So I'm indifferent on that part of David Seymour's plan.   But, as I say, the aspect of this policy that I have a real problem with, is banning immigrants from getting any sort of benefit until they’ve been here for at least five years.  You imagine someone moving to New Zealand, things going ok for the first two-or-three years but, then, they lose their job or get crook.  They can’t afford to travel back to their home country, so what are we going to do?  Do we say “Oh sorry mate, get back to us in two or three years - that’s when you’ll be entitled to the unemployment benefit or the sickness benefit or whatever.”  What happens to that person? They end up on the street probably. And is that what we want?     Someone’s life spiraling out of control, all for the sake of kicking immigrants off this so-called benefit gravy train some people seem to think people who come here from other countries are on.  No thanks. And what’s more, we’d deny them a benefit, but they’d still be entitled to ACC. It doesn’t stack up.  LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.