Because obviously the tourism industry can't pay people more...

Queenstown has a problem: its a tourist-trap, so no-one can afford to live there. Which means they have a labour shortage. In a free market, the solution is obviously that employers need to offer more money, so as to attract the required workers. But that might affect profits. So instead, they've got the government to give them open-slather for foreign labour.

We have 5.7% unemployment - and National would rather than employers exploited foreign backpackers than pay kiwis enough to live on. Isn't it so very, very National?