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Labour leadership candidate and self-described “kingmaker” Shane Jones has suggested that migration to Christchurch from other countries be restricted, and that beneficiaries be forcibly relocated and put to work in the city’s reconstruction.

The list MP and former immigration minister told Critic, “I’ll be brutally straightforward; before we start bringing any more Filipinos et cetera, [we must] make sure we are not leaving young Kiwis on the scrapheap,” and said that “it’s a tragedy that courses and apprenticeships have not been actively supported by the current government.”

Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse estimates that of the 35,000 workers required to rebuild the earthquake-stricken city, 17,000 additional people must be trained or allowed to move to the city from other countries. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has issued 1,278 work visas related to the rebuild. A little over 16,000 working age New Zealanders have currently been receiving the unemployment benefit (recently renamed Jobseeker Support) for more than one year.

Rex Gibson, manager of the Christchurch Migrant Centre, has previously stated that one of the reasons foreign workers have been easily accommodated in Christchurch is that several male adult workers will often flat together. In comparison, “if they were tradespeople from New Zealand, for six people we’d have to find six houses, and that’s just not available in Christchurch at the moment.”

When Jones’ comments were presented to him, Mr Gibson told Critic “Filipino rebuild workers are all tradespeople. Very few unemployed plumbers, electricians, scaffolders, carpenters, drain layers, etc., can be found anywhere in the country.” He also questioned Jones’ suggestion that migrant workers live in overcrowded housing, saying, “The 10:2 ratio is far from my experience.

Jones also suggested “I don’t buy the notion that because ten Filipinos can live in a two-bedroom house we should favour them over Kiwis; I find that obnoxious.” He also claimed that “immigration and migrant labour has … skewed property prices in Auckland.”

Jones proposed that the government erect “workingmen’s quarters” for those employed in construction projects. “The people of Canterbury that are young, unemployed people must be made to work on the Christchurch rebuild.”

Just over 30 per cent of Canterbury’s 2,256 unemployment beneficiaries are aged between 18 and 24 years old. When asked what should happen if such measures should prove insufficient to provide enough domestic labour for the reconstruction effort, Jones told Critic, “if there’s still a shortage, there’s no scarcity of young workers lounging around in provincial centres in New Zealand and, indeed, in Auckland.”

Asked if the relocation of unemployed young people ought to be forcible, Jones replied “absolutely … I’d thoroughly pursue the option that just as people go and relocate to Australia to work, well hello, you’re not staying on the dole any longer. If you’re able-bodied, capable of working, go through a work readiness course et cetera, and it’s not beyond the wit of … a government that I lead to come up with a solution for temporary accommodations et cetera, go to Christchurch, go to work.”

Jones denied that such a scheme was comparable to the Depression-era relief camps – which the Labour Party once criticised – saying, “I don’t know of anyone who doesn’t want to see Kiwis rebuilding Christchurch.”

When quizzed about his view on Grant Robertson’s suggestion of rent controls in the city, Jones declared himself “in taihoa mode” until he had seen details of the plan, but said that “if we’re prepared to essentially manage the cost of energy,” referring to the Labour Party’s state power-buying scheme, “it’s not a huge ideological step to move towards managing the costs of accommodation.”