As a small and, until very recently, a very open economy, migrants will always, always play an important role in New Zealand society. We simply can't provide and generate the skills that we need right across the economy, and migrants, as our friends, colleagues, family, and community leaders make an incredibly positive contribution to New Zealand. But even prior to the pandemic, it was becoming increasingly clear that we needed to re-evaluate the immigration settings. Migration levels grew over the last 10 years, prior to the border closure, as the previous National Government focused on growing GDP through the immigration system, rather than by addressing the structural impediments to wage and productivity growth. This led to New Zealand having the highest share of temporary migrants as a proportion of our labour force of any OECD country and an entrenched low-wage, low-productivity economic model that we inherited when we came into Government in 2017. 