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To help relieve this problem, immigration criteria are being relaxed so as to lower the barrier to those who would bring their experience and knowledge to this country -- and that can't be a bad thing.

But are we ignoring the real problem?

If we look at the flip-side of the coin, many of our best and brightest continue to queue at airports to fly out of NZ rather than spend many years of their lives burdened with student debts and (compared to other countries) low pay rates.

And who are those who'd come to NZ and work for less than they might get in other countries such as the USA, Australia and parts of Europe? More importantly, why would they come here and work for a song?

Maybe, before we unleash a new influx of skilled foreigners (many of who may end up driving taxi-cabs like so many existing "skilled" workers), we might want to look at how best to retain our own clever and experienced workers.

One option that I've already suggested is bonded relief from student loan repayments, ie: if you agree to stay and work in NZ using the skills you've acquired as a result of your education, your loan will be automatically reduced by a certain amount each year until completely wiped.

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Such a system represents an investment in New Zealand and New Zealanders which strikes me as a far better option than importing more taxi-drivers.

I should make it clear at this stage that I'm certainly not xenophobic or opposed to immigration, in fact I love the cultural diversity that results from reasonable rates of immigration. What does annoy is that we're not addressing the *real* problem with these changes to immigration criteria.

Another suggestion before parliament this week is also a great move in the right direction -- a move by United Future to address the very significant problem of fiscal drift. This has had the effect of dramatically increasing the tax burden of many NZers, and particularly those who are rapidly gaining the very skills we want to retain.

When the present government came into power they told us that their hike to the top rate of personal income tax would affect just a tiny percentage of workers -- but the reality is that it's now affecting many times that figure.

United Future's proposal is to raise the levels at which the various tiers of the tax system kick in -- thus giving those who have gained skills and qualifications some relief from the huge hike in tax they're now paying.

Without some action, we'll continue trying to fill a leaky bucket by importing skilled workers to try and replace those that are leaving.

What do you think? Why are you staying in NZ, or why have you left?

Would a bonded student loan abatement system encourage you to hang around after you gain a new qualification?

Is NZ's "quality of life" really more important than the amount of money that you could earn by working overseas for a decade or so?

What's the highest qualification you've found in a taxi driver?

Have your say on today's column

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