National Immigration spokesperson Erica Stanford says her party would bring in as many migrants as needed to fire up the economy - but can't put a number on exactly what that would be.
Speaking to Newshub Nation on Saturday, Stanford was asked about net migration and whether National would return it to Sir John Key era levels - which peaked at 61,624 in February 2017 - if elected. Since Labour took office, net migration rose further to 81,506 just before the pandemic but plummeted to -11,478 in June this year.
"I want to bring in as many migrants as we need to have an economy that's firing," Stanford told host Simon Shepherd. "It's hard to say [what that number is] at the moment because we're in such a state of flux… We've lost 12,000 people.
"What we're doing at the moment is I'm in the middle of a big planning session on exactly this; what is the right level of migration? The difficult thing is, you can't control Kiwis coming and going so what you need to do is take a look at who's coming and going, the conditions of the day and pulling all those levers up and down as to who you need to balance that out."
The National MP said New Zealand needed workers across the board as industries deal with critical labour shortages.
"If there is a company out there that says to me, 'I have gone out to the New Zealand sector and I cannot find workers, I've advertised widely, I'm advertising a job at a rate that is fair', I'm not going to be a minister that turns around and says, 'Sorry, I'm not going to allow you to have those workers,'" Stanford said.
"The difference is, though, whether or not we allow those workers to stay in New Zealand and have their residence - that's the key difference."
Immigration Minister Michael Wood defended Labour's policies during an interview with AM on Friday, saying the process of recruiting migrant workers - including the critically short nursing workforce - was starting to happen.
"We would expect those numbers to come up in coming weeks and months," Wood said.
Asked how many people in the past two months had entered New Zealand under the critical purpose visa, which was being phased out in favour of an accredited employer work visa scheme, Wood said about 150 nurses came to New Zealand in May and June.
"I'm advised the numbers are similar for July - the most recently completed month - so that's continued to be a pathway for nurses to come to New Zealand."
Watch the full interview with Erica Stanford above.
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