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Sarah and Rob, you might have seen their story.

They are a couple of specialists, as in doctors. They came here during Covid under a critical work visa,\xa0now they are thinking of heading back to the\xa0UK\xa0because of,\xa0you guessed it,\xa0immigration delays.

They don't get to be on the green list. Ah, the magic green list. The list that gets you residency. It's\xa0called fast track residency. But\xa0fast track being over a year,\xa0so not really that fast.

The problem, of course, is if you are not a resident, you don\u2019t get to buy a house, you don\u2019t settle down, you don\u2019t sort your kids, and you are in the waiting place. And as\xa0Dr\xa0Seuss so eloquently said,\xa0\u201cyou\xa0don\u2019t want to be in the waiting place\u201d.

By the way,\xa0when\xa0I\xa0say 12 months,\xa0that changed\xa0and\xa0it got pushed out. I\xa0wonder why that happened? Anyway,\xa0they think at this stage it's more like 2024.

Part of the reason\xa0is,\xa0of course,\xa0the processing rate. For a while there,\xa0things looked on the up. They were ticking off 570-ish a day,\xa0but now it's back to 235. So\xa0not exactly gearing up,\xa0more gearing down.

These two, Sarah and\xa0Rob,\xa0are just two of a myriad\xa0stuck\xa0in this mad battle between us and the Government.

Us being regular\xa0New\xa0Zealanders who every day,\xa0in a huge variety of ways,\xa0see the cold hard reality of not having enough people. And we're up against the\xa0Government who tell us it's all good, things are ticking along,\xa0and applications are being sorted by the million.

The two\xa0things we seem to agree on are that we are short of people and the people that might come to help have a lot of choice as in other countries.

Where\xa0it becomes an issue is the bit where the Government do anything urgent about it.

Grant\xa0Robertson on this show last week said they monitor these things all the time. I\xa0had raised the lack of bus drivers\xa0and the\xa0$61 million that was being handed out to boost the pay of the bus drivers that weren't here.

Robertson said they're monitoring. I said, well if\xa0you are, why aren't you letting more in? He said well that\u2019s Michael\xa0Wood's job. Which it is.

So\xa0where is\xa0Michael\xa0Wood?\xa0Where is the monitoring? Where is the announcement? Where are the bus drivers?

That's the problem, they are mouth no trousers.

Here is your rule of thumb. Do we need you? If the answer is yes,\xa0you're in.

Under that system, Sarah and Rob\xa0would be buying a house in\xa0Tauranga they would be new\xa0New\xa0Zealanders and we would be grateful for their arrival.

Under\xa0this Government?\xa0Not even close.

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