Another interesting month is bringing us closer to Christmas and the New Year. Highlights this month are the following;

• Research recognises immigration's contribution to New Zealand. This is probably nothing new for those working in the industry however it is good that the government acknowledges this.
• Tourism is to receive a boost. This also means that a promise made by John Key, the PM and Minister of Tourism, has been delivered. It is envisaged that this will drive New Zealand's economic recovery.
• The Vatican is to accept married Anglican priest on a case by case basis. May be it is time that marriage of a priest in the catholic church is being accepted and therewith allowing more people in the priesthood.
• New Immigration policy is announecd, the Entrepreneur PLUS.
• The New Zealand Association for Migration & Investment, aka as the NZAMI, celebrated its 20th anniversary. The celebration was attended by many members and the Associate Minister of Immigration, the Hon Kate Wilkinson, who delivered a great speech advising that the Government wishes to work closely with the NZAMI.
• The first of many CPD workshops from the IAA were conducted. Very good content and enjoyable day. One of the presentation slides covered the "Image of the professions - survey" based on a 2007 Morgan telephone poll in which diffrerent professional groups were rated as having "high" or "very high" standards of ethics and honesty. The result was astonishing and alarming, especially for those groups in bold;
• Nurses, pharmacist, doctors, school teachers and engineers, these groups scored between 91% and 71%.
• Dentists, judges, police, ministers of religion and accountants, these scored between 69% to 48%.
• Lawyers, bank managers and public servants scored between 36% and 30%.
• Talkback radio hosts, business executives, MP's, journalists, advertising people, estate agents and car sales people scored not higher than 20%.
• That's it for now, see you next month ....