A former Finance Minister thinks life in New Zealand's about to get much more expensive

Steven Joyce claims the lack of immigration and labour shortages from closed borders are creating a perfect storm.

Yesterday, Immigration New Zealand let 50-thousand longstanding visa applications lapse - and refunded the workers and students applying.

Joyce claims the Government's running a social experiment to create a closed economy.

He says the result's playing out in front of our eyes - with the most constrained economy since the 1970s driving up the price of labour.