second, considering referring the issue of the economics of New Zealand immigration to the Productivity Commission for an inquiry. Perhaps the current policy, as Labour proposes to amend it, has all the net gains the advocates say it does. If so, the Productivity Commission could helpfully, and in a non-partisan way, demonstrate that. But there are still serious issues around New Zealand’s unusually liberal immigration policy, in a country so remote and with such a poor track record in increasing its international trade share. Whatever the economic merits of immigration in some places, it is by no means sure that large scale immigration here is doing anything to improve the fortunes of most New Zealanders. It may, in fact, be holding us back, being one part of the story as to why we’ve failed to make any progress in closing the productivity gaps with other advanced economies. It would seem an obvious topic for the Productivity Commission, and a good way of lifting the quality of the policy debate around this really substantial policy intervention.