Immigration Minister Michael Wood yesterday announced the changes aimed at providing immediate relief to labor issues faced as New Zealand recovers from the economic impacts of the pandemic.
Additional workers could enter the country for sectors affected by international labor shortages, Mr Wood said.
Agreements have been put in place in the sectors of elderly care, construction and infrastructure, meat processing, seafood, seasonal snow and adventure tourism.
The working holiday visa scheme would see its cap doubled for 2022-23 so that an additional 12,000 working holidaymakers can enter New Zealand.
In addition, holidaymakers already working in the country on visas expiring between August 26 and May 31 next year would have their visas extended by six months, he said.
“Since our borders have been fully reopened, we have seen the return of working holidaymakers, with around 4,000 already in the country and more than 21,000 having had their application to work here approved,” the minister said.
“Covid has brought the world to a standstill.
“While we can guarantee the ability for these to come and work here, we recognize that the movement of people globally remains slow compared to pre-Covid levels, and this is particularly felt by the sectors of the hospitality and tourism industries that traditionally depend on international workers.
Nonetheless, Queenstown Chamber of Commerce chief executive Ruth Stokes called the announcement “more or less the same”.
She said the changes did not address the underlying issues.
Businesses competed globally; far fewer people applied to come; entering the country was a long and costly process for companies and applicants; and when people arrived it was an expensive place to live, she said.
“Establishing immigration policy at the national level punishes the regions, and we would like to see government support for local initiatives to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of attracting and retaining workers as well as to improve business capacity.
Rees Hotel general manager Mark Rose was more charitable. He called the announcement good news.
The tourism hotspot of Otago had been under significant pressure since borders reopened, he said.
There were restaurants in the area that remained closed due to staffing issues and only 80% of his hotel was open.
Its staff were well paid and well maintained and yet it remained difficult to employ anyone, he said.
People had naturally left the tourism industry and gone to other industries where they weren’t going to be at the mercy of the pandemic, he said.
“We’re continuously running ads and getting no response,” he said.
However, he had spent much of the last 90 days traveling overseas to visit company markets, and wherever he went he was in the same position.
“We have to be a bit aware here, it’s not a New Zealand problem, it’s a global problem.”
NZSki chief executive Paul Anderson said the changes were welcome even though they were “very late” in the current ski season, which ended in October.
The largest group of skilled workers needed by the industry were snow sports instructors, but there were also technical roles such as shop technicians or snow groomer operators that had been affected by border policies.
Snow sports instructors were particularly likely to demand open borders. Instructors came from all over the world and usually worked in North America and Europe during the New Zealand summer before venturing to the southern hemisphere to chase snow, he said.
“If we can retain that kind of pragmatism offered by this kind of easing of restrictions, that will certainly help us recruit staff for next year.”
Most of the international staff were here on working holiday visas.
“What we would love to see is New Zealand immigration increase their processing speeds because they are very, very slow and it takes too long…to get visas when you just don’t have not available workers in New Zealand.”
Comments are closed.