New Zealand is a bright, vibrant and multicultural country.
The Kiwi Indian community has contributed hugely to the cultural and economic landscape of our country. A strong country is a sum of its parts.
The National-led Government is building a strong and inclusive nation with incentives, which reward hard work and back our ability to take on the world and win.
Our ethnic communities are integral to this; we are working hard to make it easier for new migrants and their families to integrate quickly and successfully in New Zealand.
Greatest strength
The diversity of our population is one of our greatest strengths, especially when marketing Kiwi businesses offshore.
At the recently held ‘Indian Conclave,’ the Indian community shared some concerns.
Due to lack of time at the meeting, I was not able to respond to the concerns of our community. I hope this column will address a larger audience.
National is working hard to keep our families safer. About half of all homicides in New Zealand are a result of family violence, and about half of all violent offence charges in the courts relate to family violence.
We want to ensure that home is a safe place for all women, children, and men, and ensure that victims are not re-victimised.
Safety Package
We have announced a cross-Government package to strengthen efforts across Justice, Police, Corrections, and Courts to improve the safety of family violence victims and make services more responsive to their individual needs.
We will establish a Chief Victims Advisor to advise the Justice Minister on the needs and views of victims of crime.
I expect to see several positive changes resulting from these reforms, including improvements in culture, systems, and outcomes for families. Our initiatives will improve awareness, support, and protection for victims, and will make them strong.
Youth crime down
Youth crime has fallen 22% in two years, and the number of young people facing court charges is at the lowest level in 20 years.
Last year we announced a new youth crime target, as a part of our drive to deliver better public services. Our target is to reduce youth offending by 25% by 2017, because we had already exceeded our earlier target of 5% reduction.
National is taking action and achieving results. The Government has also set up the Youth Crime Action Plan, which has set the broad direction for youth justice over the next ten years. We are focused on engaging with communities, reducing escalation and creating early and sustained exits from the youth justice system.
As a Party, we understand that the biggest impact can be made by focusing on the drivers of crime. There are many factors behind youth offending and hence Government agencies are working together with providers and families at the local level to get to the heart of some of these issues.
Facilitating migrants
National is committed to providing opportunities for our youth and migrants.
We are committed to attracting skilled talent from overseas in areas where there are skill shortages. We are awarding 15 top Indian students scholarships worth $150,000 to study in programmes directly related to the Christchurch Rebuild.
The students will begin their masters and postgraduate diplomas in subjects such as earthquake engineering, mechanical engineering and construction management in July 2014 and February 2015.
While we cannot influence businesses regarding the choice of their employers, we can do our best to make sure that as many as possible are aware of the benefits that ethnic diversity can bring to the workplace, particularly in terms of experience in overseas markets and networking.
Leadership Programmes
We have leadership programmes focused on arming ethnic migrants with the tools they need to put themselves forward for leadership positions.
We are also working on a new approach to attract and retain migrants with the skills that the regions need and ensure that they are successful in the workplace.
As a part of this new approach, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) is making changes to improve services to customers, not reduce them.
From July 2014, all settlement information will be located on one website instead of 18 sites and all phone calls and emails will be from a single location, namely, the Immigration Contact Centre. These changes will significantly extend the availability of service to 12-hours a day, five days a week.
Ending exploitation
India and New Zealand have a very strong relationship, underpinned by strong people-to-people links. We are working to eliminate exploitation of international students by introducing the Immigration Amendment Bill (No 2). This will introduce heavy penalties, including deportation of migrant bosses or business owners who exploit workers.
INZ officials will be given greater tools to crack down on worker abuse.
Home ownership
As a young person, it is never easy to buy a first home. There is no silver bullet for housing affordability.
National is focused on tackling the root causes. The best way to make housing more affordable is to increase the supply. To help this, we introduced special housing accords to speed up housing development and the consent process with the help of local Councils.
We are also helping first homebuyers by increasing eligibility for the KiwiSaver First Home Deposit Subsidy and Welcome Home Loans.
The Government aims to provide a Superannuation Scheme, which is fair for seniors and taxpayers. For individuals who live in New Zealand, only some part of the year or those who want to live in another country, you may still be able to receive all or part of your NZ Superannuation (or Veteran’s Pension). It will depend on where you plan to move and how long you have lived in New Zealand.
We recommend contacting the Senior Services International team before you leave.
National values the contribution of all its citizens. We are strongly committed to investing in brighter future for all Kiwis.
