06/04/18 - Companies seeking government approval to hire more than 1000 overseas workers

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Rural Contractors New Zealand president Steve Levet says there isn't the skilled labour available in New Zealand needed to fill machinery operator roles.

New Zealand companies are seeking government approval to hire more than 1000 overseas workers to fill jobs they say New Zealanders cannot or will not do.

This week it has been revealed that Ritchies bus company is seeking permission to fill 110 bus driver jobs with migrant workers while telecommunications company 2degrees is wanting to hire 40 overseas workers to fill roles in its Auckland call centre.

Companies wanting to place overseas workers into jobs that are not on the Government's skills shortage list are required to go to Immigration New Zealand (INZ) with an Approval in Principle (AIP) request.

Figures released by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment show the requests by Ritchies and 2degrees are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to companies wanting to import labour for jobs that don't feature on the skills shortage list.

All up 20 organisations seeking a combined total of 1130 overseas workers have AIP applications either being assessed or awaiting allocation.

Rural Contractors New Zealand's request is the single largest, seeking 325 agricultural machine operators.

Its president Steve Levet said INZ was making life difficult for employers in the industry to hire skilled overseas labour.

"The Government are shagging us around something chronic about this AIP," Levet said.

Seasonal labour was required for up to six months a year, he said.

"The guys we require are highly trained with the machinery that they are using."

Pay rates were about $20 an hour and the machinery being operated could be worth up to half a million dollars, he said.

"The Government seems to think you can just pluck someone off the street to fill these positions."

Employers would prefer to take on local workers but there simply weren't the numbers particularly in small rural communities, he said.

The next largest application with INZ was from Korean fishing company DW New Zealand seeking 226 fishing crew.

Silverstrand NZ wants 152 overseas workers to fill quantity surveyor, civil engineer, carpenter, drainlayer and earth moving operator positions.

Auckland Hotel Fitout company - owned by Chinese construction company Fu Wah - is seeking 174 workers from China to complete the fit-out of its $200 million Park Hyatt hotel on Auckland's waterfront.

Commercial ski resort Porters Ski Area is seeking eight overseas workers and Wanaka mountain guiding company Adventure Consultants wants 11.

Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says where genuine skills shortages exist New Zealand businesses will get the workers they need, especially in the regions.

Minister of Immigration Iain Lees-Galloway said skills and training policies the Government was implementing, including three years free post-school education, would help develop a skilled local workforce.

"Our commitment is to put Kiwi workers first, but where genuine skills shortages exist New Zealand businesses will get the workers they need, especially in the regions."

Businesses would need to demonstrate that they had made a genuine attempt to hire New Zealand workers at acceptable market rates, he said. 

Ritchies and 2degrees both said they had advertised locally but were unable to find candidates to fill the roles.

The type of work, hours worked and pay were all cited as reasons for the shortage of candidates.

Malcolm Pacific Immigration director David Cooper said the number of AIPs did not surprise him.

"It probably ebbs and flows depending on what's happening in the job market," Cooper said.

"The days of getting hundreds and hundreds of CVs are over."

Malcolm Pacific Immigration director David Cooper says hiring locally is the preferred option so companies looking overseas are only doing so because they have to.

INZ should be watching closely to ensure there would be no undercutting of wages or terms and conditions of employment to any AIPs it approved, he said.

A request such as 226 fishing crew would need to pass the immigration minister's desk, he said.

(Source: Stuff, John Anthony)

05/04/18 - 2degrees wants approval to hire up to 40 migrants to fill call centre roles

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2degrees says it advertised the call centre jobs locally.

Telecommunications company 2degrees is seeking approval to recruit up to 40 overseas workers for its Auckland call centre.

Immigration New Zealand said 2degrees made an Approval in Principle (AIP) request on November 30 seeking permission to recruit candidates from overseas to fill 40 "contact centre operator" positions.

The application was either being assessed or was waiting to be allocated.

Companies must make an AIP to Immigration New Zealand in order to place overseas workers into jobs that are not on the Government's skills shortage list.

"Contact centre operator" is not on the shortage list.

2degrees spokesman Paul Brislen said the positions had been advertised locally but there was a shortage of candidates.

"A lot of people aren't too keen on the idea of sitting in a call centre," Brislen said.

2degrees wanted to employ New Zealanders "first and foremost", he said. He would not say what the starting pay rate for the workers would be.

The shortage of call centre workers was the result of high staff turnover, workers being promoted internally and the company expanding, he said.

2degrees employed about 350 call centre workers in Auckland and Christchurch, he said.

E Tu union national industry organiser for telecommunications Joe Gallagher described 2degrees' request to import call centre workers as "ridiculous".

"I don't think there's any justification in this current environment to be going overseas to bring in call centre workers," Gallagher said.

It was not uncommon for unemployed people to get off a benefit by landing a job in a call centre, he said.

"I'm sure that a low skilled worker could get into that job and be trained up and deal with the challenges of the call centre environment.

2degrees had never had an overseas call centre since the company first launched in August 2009, Brislen said.

Earlier this week it was revealed that national bus company Ritchies had requested to fill 110 bus driver jobs with migrant workers because it could not find talent locally.

First Union disputed claims there was a driver shortage and said if anything there was an oversupply of bus drivers in New Zealand.

(Source: Stuff, John Anthony)

Comments TNC: It appears that the difficulties to satisfy changes in the various immigration instructions covering a variety of categories, and the apparent mis-match of required skills and education are starting to show up. It will be necessary to address these issues sooner than later to prevent New Zealand's economy to spiral downwards due to a shortage of skilled labour. 

04/04/18 - ’All my money is here': Entrepreneurs beg immigration for residency

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Migrant entrepreneurs who set up businesses here hoping for residency are about to be kicked out due to a minor change they were never told about.

Migrants who uprooted their lives and families to set up businesses in New Zealand are about to be kicked out, despite investing hundreds of thousands of dollars here.

Three migrants' residency applications were denied by Immigration New Zealand because they did not meet a provision added to the approval process by the former National government. 

In late 2013, long-term business visas (LTBV) were abolished. Many migrants used LTBV visas to relocate to New Zealand in the hope of being granted residency under its entrepreneur category.   

Migrant entrepreneurs from left, Magreet and Jan Kruit, Frederick and Maria Lundqvist, and Xi Chen are all about to be kicked out of New Zealand despite bringing money into the country.

Under the LTBV, migrants had to have a business plan approved by Immigration before they relocated. To be granted residency they had to operate that business profitably within two years. The migrants denied residency all met that target. 
 
In March 2014, the then-government replaced LTBV with an entrepreneur work visa. The change required LTBV holders wanting residency to prove they had met sales forecasted in their approved business plan, as well as post a profit.

Migrant entrepreneur Xi Chen has been separated from her daughter in her fight for New Zealand residency for her and her son.

The LTBV migrants denied residency were never notified of that change. 

Jan Kruit  was granted a LTBV in 2013. He and his wife Margreet  sold their home in the Netherlands and sent all of their belongings here to start a lawnmowing business. They left their adopted son behind. 

After posting a $103,000 profit in 2015 they both applied for residency. Their applications were denied. 
Aged 70, they will be deported when their temporary work visas run out in September.

Margreet said she felt "cheated" by the New Zealand Government. 

"All the problems in Europe, with the bombs, it is scaring me. My life is here and not in the Netherlands anymore. Please do not send us back. All my money is here, our investment is here, my life is here and my friends. My heart is here." 

The Kruits were not alone. 

\Xi Chen, called Susan by her Kiwi friends, migrated here from China with her two children, then aged five and 10. 

Her export business turned a $300,000 profit in its first year and another $400,000 in its second year.

Chen's elder daughter returned to China because she could not handle the workload of running a business and parenting two children simultaneously.

"It is very hard for me and her, I do not want to separate from her but I have no choice."

Immigration denied her applications for residency for her and her now 10-year-old son, saying her business was an illegitimate exporter. 

"[Immigration] makes me feel like, 'I just want your money but I do not want you'. After you invest money here, you can go away." 

She had been granted a temporary visa in the interim but under its conditions if she left New Zealand to visit her daughter, she could not re-enter.

"At the beginning I think this is a very fair country. But, now I think it is unfair. Every morning I wake up, I just feel helpless."

Swedish business owner Maria Lundqvist was shocked to meet migrants in the same situation.

She gained a LTBV to bring her education business to New Zealand. Her family sold everything they owned and migrated here.

She, too,' posted a profit within two years but was denied residency because she did not meet the sales target provision National introduced. Her and her husbands visas expire in August.

Had she known they would not be granted residency, they would not have migrated here, she said. 

Immigration adviser Tuariki Delamere said the added requirement was an "immoral" "escape clause". 

He compared it to human trafficking. "It encouraged people to migrate to New Zealand under false pretences.

"[These migrants] kept their side of the bargain. They honoured and complied with what the Government required of them. However, the previous government did not keep their side of the bargain."

As former immigration minister in 1999, Delamere introduced the LTBV visa.

Migrants granted LTBV visas prior to the sales provision addition in 2014, should not be subject to it, he said. 

In an email sent to Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway and Commerce Minister Kris Faafoi on Monday night, Delamere requested the migrants' residency applications be reassessed.

Lees-Galloway would not say whether the migrants' residence would be reconsidered, or if the sales provision would be altered to not include LTBV migrants.

However, he promised the Government "will take action". Concerns over the entrepreneur work visa had been raised, he said. 

"This is but one example of the mess in immigration left by the previous government that we're determined to put right."

Former immigration minister Michael Woodhouse said the National-led government "recognised the value of migrants".

He said he did not have the details to comment on the LTBV migrants' situation.

(Source: Stuff, Madeison Reidy)

CommentsTNC: Continuously shifting the goal posts for immigrants already in New Zealand is just unfair! Whatever has been advised to INZ in the past appears to have been ignored and or left without any action. In this way New Zealand Immigration shoots itself continuously in the foot. Long term thinking AND long term planning from the Government is required, and not short term to obtain the populist votes!

21/03/18 - New Zealand Herald editorial: It is an honour to have Obama here

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The former US President’s visit has been kept very under wraps, with some engagements made public.

It is not every morning a former President of the United States wakes up in New Zealand. Barack Obama probably still catches up on the news as soon as he wakes so it might not be too presumptuous to say, Good morning, Mr President.

It is a fine tradition in the US that former politicians carry for life the title of the highest office they have reached.

It probably remains as much a burden as an honour for them. They never really revert to being ordinary citizens.

Wherever they go they continue to represent the office and the reputation of their country, state, city or district as the case may be. And part of their duty to the office obliges them not to draw attention from the incumbent, which will be one reason President Obama will seldom be seen in public while he is here.

Over the next two days he will address a dinner of invited guests, meet Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and selected young people, and have two rounds of golf hosted by Sir John Key. Former Prime Ministers of New Zealand also carry the reputation of that office for life, even if nobody calls them Prime Minister any more, and they usually observe the same obligation to take no limelight from the incumbent. So the nearest we will probably get to hearing from Obama is whatever Ardern chooses to tell the press about their chat.

She notes he has taken particular interest in youth leadership since leaving office and looks forward to discussing that subject with him. Obama represented a generational change for the US presidency as well as an ethnic breakthrough.

His efforts to fulfil the hopes of a new generation and the lessons of his successes and disappointments will be of keen interest to a young Prime Minister just six months into her term.

Obama's greatest achievement, though not all Americans agree, was his reform of healthcare. It falls short of the universal coverage other developed countries provide for their citizens but it provides mandatory insurance to many more than could afford it before. It was a need all previous Presidents had recognised but lacked the courage to take on insurance providers.

His greatest frustration, he has said, was his failure to reform gun laws. Obama should know that his heartfelt appeals to American public opinion after mass shootings were widely admired in the rest of the world.

He was a rare President who knew the Pacific and Asia better than most. Born and raised in Hawaii he also spend some of his childhood in Indonesia. As President his style was more modest and collegial than most, a style more familiar to the Pacific, and he moved US diplomatic and strategic effort in this direction. The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement owes a great deal to his leadership and the way is open for the US to rejoin it when good sense returns to Washington.

US politics took an unfortunate turn after the high hopes and idealism of Obama's election. He became a target of vicious misinformation, some of it stoked by the man who now carries the same title. Obama endured it with unfailing grace and restraint. He was a class act and still is. It is an honour to have him here.

(Source: NZ Herald)

21/03/18 - Net migration slows, but still at historic highs

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There was a 7.3 percent increase in work visas granted in the year, to 46,200, while student visa numbers rose 0.5 percent to 24,000.

New Zealand annual net migration continued to moderate in February, though it's still at historic highs, as more New Zealanders and non-New Zealanders left.

Annual net migration was at 68,900 in the year to February, from 71,300 in the year to Feb. 2017, Statistics New Zealand said. In January, monthly net migration on a seasonally adjusted basis rose to 6,210, which was a seven-month high, causing market watchers to question whether the trend of declining net migration had reversed or whether the month was an anomaly. On the same measure, February net migration was at 4,970, lower than any month in 2017.

Some 29,100 non-New Zealanders left in the February 2018 year, up 22 percent from the February 2017 year, Stats NZ said. A net 69,800 non-Kiwis arrived in the latest year, while a net 800 citizens left, bringing the total to 68,900.

"All migrant departures to Asia increased by 31 percent in the February 2018 year to 11,700," Stats NZ said. "Nearly two-thirds of migrant departures to Asia were to China, India, Japan, and the Republic of Korea. Overall there was a net gain of 30,500 migrants from Asia in the February 2018 year."

New Zealand has been experiencing record levels of net migration in recent years, which made rising immigration a key election issue as it strains the country's infrastructure and is blamed for inflating property markets. Net migration peaked at 72,400 in the July 2017 year.

Chinese migration continued to be the largest on a net basis, with 8,600 of net arrivals coming from China, though that was down 16 percent on a year earlier. India was the second-largest source at a net 6,900, though Indian net migration was also down 16 percent from a year earlier, with a 4.1 percent drop in annual student visas granted to Indian citizens to 6,000.

China continued to be the biggest source of migrants on residence visas, though that dipped 19 percent to 2,800 in the year, while the total number of residence visas dropped 12 percent to 14,800.

There was a 7.3 percent increase in work visas granted in the year, to 46,200, while student visa numbers rose 0.5 percent to 24,000.

Short-term visitor arrivals, which include tourists, people visiting family and friends and people travelling for work, reached 3.8 million in the January year, up 7 percent from a year earlier.

(Source: NZ Herald)

05/03/18 - Majority of Auckland work visas taking more than 60 days

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The latest figures from Immigration New Zealand show officials did not meet performance targets for deciding residence visas in half of all cases.

Almost three-quarters of work visas are being completed within 24 days nationwide, but that figure falls to 62 percent in Auckland.

Only one in three applications was being finalised within 60 days in the city.

Immigration New Zealand said processing times depended on the complexity of applications.

(Source: RNZ)

Comment; The good thing is that with our company this is improving week by week!! Postive spin-off of technology and staff.

08/03/18 - Crackdown on partnership visitor visas: ‘It’s just so frustrating’

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One in three partnership visitor visas are being declined as immigration advisers warn that officials are taking a tougher stance on visa cases.

The number of rejections among the partnership category of visitor visa has increased from 14 percent a decade ago to 35 percent last year.

An immigration lawyer says the human toll could be considerable if the government decides to cap the number of partnership visas.

The Association for Migration and Investment said there had been a shift in the way applications were dealt with, and a tightening of how appeals to the immigration minister were handled.

Its chair June Ranson said Immigration New Zealand was adopting a more cautious approach to visa applications.

"Some of them are quite unfair, quite unjust because it's not transparent," she said. "We've seen there definitely has been a shift in the way applications are being looked at.

"I do think that they have tightened up a lot in the partnership area, it's all about them being genuine relationships and just because a person has a joint bank account - it's only part of the evidence that's being produced.

"They need a lot more than that because people do things as a matter of convenience to be able to get through the system."

People turned down for visas when they are abroad should have the right to have their case reviewed by an independent body, she said.

Steve Razos met his wife Krystel in the Philippines four years ago and they have a two-year-old son, Johnny, together.

Immigration New Zealand said they misled them when they broke up temporarily, and cancelled her visa while she was visiting family in the Philippines.

She supplied false and misleading information and it was not satisfied they were in a genuine and stable relationship, it said.

Mr Razos visits his family regularly but he has a 10-year-old son and business in New Zealand so cannot live there.

He estimated they had spent $30,000 or $40,000 in travel and legal and immigration costs.

Three visitor visas and one partnership visa had been declined since then and there were no legal avenues for them to appeal, he said.

Associate minister, Kris Faafoi, had declined to review the decision as his predecessor looked at the case last year.

"The minister, for whatever reason, has decided to not even look at it so I'm really baffled about that," he said.

"There's a child involved, we're a married couple, clearly we've been together for a long time now - we're not going anywhere, we love each other and the only thing that's stopping us is them.

"It's just so frustrating that we just keep getting met with walls put in front of us all the time."

Immigration lawyer Simon Laurent said partners had avenues to appeal temporary visa rejections if they were already in New Zealand, but not if they were abroad.

Fears of an upcoming change on partnership visas have been sparked by a government request for officials to report back on family categories.

The human toll could be considerable if the government decided to cap the number of partnership visas, meaning partners and spouses could wait years to be reunited, he added.

"Myself and colleagues in the industry have noticed a tougher stance on the criteria that are being applied to partnership visas both work and residence where cases which would have been approved without question in the past are now being more rigourously questioned," he said.

Immigration New Zealand area manager Marcelle Foley said it needed to be satisfied that the relationship was genuine, stable and likely to endure.

"Every application is assessed very robustly to maintain the integrity of the immigration system," she said. "There have been no recent changes to immigration instructions against which such applications are assessed."

(Source: RNZ, reporter Gill Bonnett)

Comment: It is a real difficult issue where some have made it difficult for others. However, INZ should have learned from their own experience that not all applicants are not in a true relatioinship. From all applicants my company has brought to NZ, not one is separated or not together anymore!

06/03/18 - Changes to internet could put byte on your business

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One of the great things about attending deep-geek technology conferences is that you get early insights into what's to come, and how engineers try to second-guess what could possibly go wrong with what seemed like good ideas.

See, the internet isn't a single piece of technology, and the web on which you read this (unless you're one of the many wonderful people who subscribe to or buy the print edition of the Herald, of course) is just one of many different types of data flows that traverse the global network.

Many of our interactions using apps with servers over the internet take place over the Transmission Control and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite. You don't normally have to worry about TCP/IP, which figures out how to send and receive your bits and bytes reliably over long distances and often unreliable networks — or its cousin User Datagram Protocol (UDP), which is used for streaming data when reliability isn't a top priority.

Applications using TCP/IP talk to servers using specific ports. Email is usually sent over TCP port 25 for instance, and web browsing in clear text, with the hyper text transport protocol (HTTP) done over port 80. 

Secure, encrypted and authenticated web browsing, the padlocked HTTPS that you see in Chrome, Brave, Safari, Opera, Firefox and Internet Explorer, is done over port 443.

There are 65,536 ports available for both TCP and UDP, with many of the lower ones below 1024 reserved for specific apps. Apps can use many different ports too, when they look up domain names for sites to send and receive traffic from, and other things.

This is a flexible system that has worked very well in the past, but it's been undermined by understandable security paranoia that's seen operators block ports that they don't recognise.

Governments wanting to censor can also order blocks (or subversion) of traffic across specific ports — like TCP/25 for email — to stop or capture data.

Internet technologies and protocols are flexible, as I said, and route around damage.

Providers and operators are putting increasing amounts of traffic across the website protocols HTTP and HTTPS, which is unlikely to be blocked, a development which will reshape the internet as we know it.

Some of the advantages of doing this include having just one or two protocols to optimise instead of thousands to make everyone's internet access much quicker.

It's an all-or-nothing thing for government censors too: don't want people to see certain things? Well, the easy option of blocking traffic won't work too well, as it means nobody will have web access.

The old-timers at the APRICOT technical conference for internet overlords recently remained dubious as to how well stuffing web traffic with data that was separated out to other protocols will work, however.

They point out that the current system of digital certificates for HTTPS is deeply flawed, overly complex and easy to abuse; if HTTPS connections are silently monitored and people wrongly think their subversive opinions, personal data or finances transmitted over them are secure, this could be an information-spillage disaster in the making.

Whatever happens, and this whole thing might seem like esoterica, it represents a fundamental change in how the internet will work.

If your business depends on the internet, and it almost certainly does, pay attention to the engineers debating the pros and cons of the changes, and understand what's coming up, because it is guaranteed to affect everyone.

(Source: NZ Herald, Juha Saarinen travelled to APRICOT 2018 as a guest of APNIC)

01/03/18 - Jump in January arrivals sees NZ net migration remain above 70,000

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New Zealand gained more than 70,000 people from migration in the year to January 31, down slightly from the record of mid-2017 but well above long term trends.

A dip in Indian and Chinese student arrivals has seen net migration ease slightly, but the net annual gain remains close to record levels.

In the year to January 31, the number of long term arrivals to New Zealand exceeded the number who left by 70,100, Statistics New Zealand said. 

This is down from the record high of 72,400 reached in July 2017, but is still well above historic trends.

Back in 2013 New Zealand close to 40,000 Kiwis were moving to Australia, however throughout 2017 the number leaving was matched by those returning home and Australians coming to live here.

For January alone the gain was just over 6200, well above both December and the level economists were expecting.

In Opposition, Labour pledged to drastically cut New Zealand's migration gains by 20,000-30,000, although its stance appears to be softening now that it is in Government.

Westpac said January had been unexpectedly strong, and the easing off of annual gains may be arresting.

"While off its highs, net migration is still showing a great deal of resilience. Consequently, even though we expect a continued easing off over the next few years, this may be quite gradual," Westpac senior economist Satish Ranchhod said.

ASB said that the expected tailing off in net migration may be delayed, and be less significant, than had been expected.

Statistics New Zealand said there had been a dip in migrant arrivals on student visas from India and China, New Zealand's two largest education markets, down around 8 per cent to 11,100.

Student visa arrivals from India are down around 45 per cent down from the peak reached in early 2016.

However, the drop in students coming from India and China has been made up with more students from other countries.

The overall number of migrants arriving on student visas was 24,100 in the year to January 31, 2018, down just 150 from the preceding 12 months, Statistics New Zealand said.

China made up the largest net gain in the year to January 2018, at 9300, followed by India (6700), Britain (6100) and South Africa (4900).

The main reason for the high net figure is that net migration to Australia has fallen sharply from recent trends, and remainsmarginally positive.

Just under 25,000 people have left New Zealand to live in Australia in the last 12 months, but this was virtually matched by those returning or Australians coming to live here.

Overall, the net gain from Australia over 12 months was 40.

(Source; Stuff)

27/02/18 - Simon Bridges is National Party's new leader revealed

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Simon Bridges is National's new leader, while Paula Bennett has retained the deputy's role. The pair emerged from today's caucus vote with wide grins after sealing the leadership.

Simon Bridges has the accent of New Zealand's future. Get used to it

Bridges said it was an "enormous privilege" to replace Bill English.

"My focus as leader will be ensuring we build on those policies to improve the lives of New Zealanders," he said.

"Our caucus has an incredible depth of talent and abundant energy which is why we continue to enjoy so much support. New Zealanders believe in our vision for New Zealand and in our team.

"My job as leader will be to hold the Jacinda Ardern-Winston Peters coalition to account.

Bridges replaces Bill English, who resigned on February 13. He will leave Parliament this week, after two stints as National's leader and 10 months as prime minister after Sir John Key quit.

Judith Collins was the first to announce she would run for leader, followed by Amy Adams, Simon Bridges, Mark Mitchell and Steven Joyce.

A quick look at Simon Bridges  – aged 41

• POLITICS: MP for Tauranga, first elected in 2008 replacing National MP Bob Clarkson. Former Minister of Economic Development, Transport, Energy, Labour, Communications and former Leader of the House. Joined Young Nationals aged 16. Stood a deputy leader in 2016 against Paula Bennett.
• WORK: Previously Crown Prosecutor in Tauranga.
• FAMILY: Raised in Te Atatu, West Auckland, the youngest of six children. Father was a Baptist minister, mother was a primary school teacher. Ngati Maniopoto. Met his wife, Natalie, at Oxford University. Three children, two boys and a daughter who was born in December.
• EDUCATION: Former head boy at Rutherford High, where former Labour minister Chris Carter was one of his teachers. BA and LLB (Hons) from Auckland University, Bachelor of Civil Law from Oxford University.
• VOTING: Voted against same sex marriage but says now the law is working well and would not change it. Voted against first reading of euthanasia bill.
• OTHER: Likes drumming. Tamaki MP Simon O’Connor is his brother-in-law.

Simon Bridges has said:


• “My focus as Leader will be ensuring we build on those policies to improve the lives of New Zealanders.
• 
“Our caucus has an incredible depth of talent and abundant energy which is why we continue to enjoy so much support. New Zealanders believe in our vision for New Zealand and in our team.
• 
“My job as Leader will be to hold the Jacinda Ardern-Winston Peters coalition to account.

• “Their Government is big on lofty intentions, but struggling to turn that into real gains for New Zealanders.
• 
“That’s why we will continue to present an ambitious and strong alternative Government, heading into 2020."



The first challenge for Bridges will be to unify the caucus after the intense two-weeks leadership contest.

That will be done partly through a re-allocation of roles in a reshuffle, which can be expected as early s this week.

All leadership contenders can expect to have prominent roles in the new lineup.

The biggest issue will be who gets finance, held for the past year by Steven Joyce.

Bridges will be straight into their work - appearing in Parliament at 2pm today to lead National's questions to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

Performance in the House is not considered the most important part of the leader's role but it is crucial to maintaining morale in the party.

After 27 years in Parliament, Bill English will deliver his valedictory address on Thursday.

English took over the leadership for a second time, after the sudden resignation in late 2016 of successful Prime Minister John Key who won three consecutive elections.

National was the highest polling party at the 2017 election – 44.4 per cent compared to Labour's 36.9 per cent – but failed to get a fourth term because New Zealand First elected to form a coalition with Labour.

The National caucus met today behind closed doors to select the new leader, who required the support of at least 29 of the party's 56 MPs. The actual voting numbers are not revealed to caucus.

Each candidate presented a final five-minute pitch to their colleagues at today's meeting.

End of an era

Today's outcome spells the end of the John Key and Bill English era – an era of unprecedented high popularity for National, including three terms in power from 2008-2017.

Bill English arrived at Parliament earlier today - for his last few hours in the job - keeping tight-lipped about the process to replace him.

He plans to pack up his office, go to a temporary office and be out of Parliament by the end of the week.

He would not make a prediction or say who he was voting for. But he said the new leader needed to be "patient".

Caucus had handled the process of selecting a new leader well, English said.

"They have been civil, they have been respectful, they have gone about it competently and that is a great start for a new leader."

(Source: NZ Herald,