James O'Neill "Reducing skilled migration intakes... Experience shows that one result will be an exodus of skilled Australians because the economy cannot support them here."

Highly illogical.
If there are fewer competitors in your field, your skills would be even more valuable and in demand.
Employers will be licking your boots. Why would you leave the country?
If the skills are *essential*, employers can't choose not to have them. They must pay up or shut down.
If they're not essential, we don't really need more from overseas, eh?

"New Zealanders... not as simple as you suggest... in practice the world doesn't work that way."

Really? Agreements are broken or revised all the time.
Our hands are not tied.
It's the minds of the political class that are bound, by ideology and lobbyists.

@shockadelic. Before you leap into claims of illogicality I suggest you acquaint yourself with some basic principles of economic history.

Of course agreements are broken or ignored, particularly by countries that have scant regard to their international obligations. In the case of NZ migration the former PM Robert Muldoon once observed that he wasn't concerned about the net outflow of New Zealanders to Australia because it raised the average IQ of both countries. Be grateful for small mercies.