Latest / Best of Business / Alan McDonald: Employers and Manufacturers Association Head of Advocacy on the Government's new visa scheme for seasonal workers

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Alan McDonald: Employers and Manufacturers Association Head of Advocacy on the Government's new visa scheme for seasonal workers · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 3: The Immigration Minister Erica Stanford has just finished giving a
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  Speaker 3: speech in Auckland. She's announced a new visa for seasonal
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  Speaker 3: workers to deal with upcoming worker shortages. They have to
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  Speaker 3: be paid at least twenty nine dollars sixty six, cannot
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  Speaker 3: work for more than nine months. And don't get this
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  Speaker 3: confused with the extended fruit pick of visas that's already
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  Speaker 3: been announced. This is something else. She's also laid out
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  Speaker 3: her vision of a smart immigration system, trying to balance
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  Speaker 3: the need for workers with more sustainable migration.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 3: Alan McDonald from the AMA was listening to the speech,
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  Speaker 3: Hi Allen hi Hee. There were suspicions that she was
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  Speaker 3: going to crack down on migrants in this speech.
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  Speaker 2: Has she No, she hasn't, and I think the way
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  Speaker 2: she outlined thinks will be pretty much good news for
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  Speaker 2: the business sector and our members certainly will welcome some
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  Speaker 2: of the initiatives that she talked about today.
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  Speaker 3: So she has though encouraged New Zealanders to start training
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  Speaker 3: up New Zealanders to work to work in their businesses.
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  Speaker 2: Is that right? Yes, she has in a group of
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  Speaker 2: labor ministers that includes Louis Upstein and also Brook van Velden,
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  Speaker 2: and their challenge, and it's come from the Prime Minster two,
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  Speaker 2: is that look, while you've had access to immigrants and
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  Speaker 2: skilled labor, we really want you to train up more
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  Speaker 2: kiwis and get some of those people off the job
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  Speaker 2: seekers and they're non employment and training services, those eighteen
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  Speaker 2: to twenty four year olds. And I think it's a
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  Speaker 2: justifiable challenge, but we still need some support to help
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  Speaker 2: train those people up and she outlined a pathway to
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  Speaker 2: do that too.
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  Speaker 3: What is the pathway?
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  Speaker 2: So when they've done the work on the Credited Employer
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  Speaker 2: Work Visas Scheme the AAWZ, and that should be wrapped
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  Speaker 2: up by the end of this year, they're going to
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  Speaker 2: look at the skilled migrant pathways to permanent residents. At
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  Speaker 2: the moment that's heavily weighted towards the professions and university degrees,
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  Speaker 2: and they're going to look at putting more weighting on
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  Speaker 2: the trades and the skills that are trained in those
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  Speaker 2: trades so that we can bring more of those people
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  Speaker 2: to train up our own people and get them through
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  Speaker 2: into that skilled trade category.
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  Speaker 3: It's a very different approach to how labor approached this, right,
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  Speaker 3: it's a lot more hold the hands of the employer
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  Speaker 3: rather than crack down. I imagine that this is welcome.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it will be because our members are telling us,
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  Speaker 2: and it's across many sectors too, that they just simply
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  Speaker 2: don't have the skilled people that they need to train
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  Speaker 2: up more apprentices and those sorts of things. In fact,
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  Speaker 2: we heard from Rodney Wayne today about the shortage of
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  Speaker 2: hairdresses which many people really suffered through COVID. With that,
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  Speaker 2: so you know, it's a much more nuanced approach and
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  Speaker 2: that will be the same with the accredited work visa
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  Speaker 2: when they work through that. It's to give it more
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  Speaker 2: direction and more focus rather than a broad brush approach.
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  Speaker 2: So I think it's a recognition we are short in
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  Speaker 2: some areas, but we do need to put more effort
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  Speaker 2: for employers into that training and working with MSD, we're
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  Speaker 2: getting some outstanding results at the moment.
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  Speaker 3: Just on the new visa for the seasonal workers is helpful.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, I think it will be because it goes wider
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  Speaker 2: than just the heart sector and the viticulture sector. So
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  Speaker 2: for one of the examples was the seafields bringing in
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  Speaker 2: ski ski instructors and maybe even the people to support
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  Speaker 2: the steafields in the cafes and things like that. I
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  Speaker 2: think it could apply to the meat industry, which is
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  Speaker 2: highly seasonal of course, and maybe even if you look
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  Speaker 2: at the start of the construction season, like the road
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  Speaker 2: work season coincides with for better weather, so we're short
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  Speaker 2: in construction. Maybe that's an option there for them as well.
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  Speaker 3: So some good things from there, Alan, Before I let
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  Speaker 3: you go, just want to quick take on what do
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  Speaker 3: you make of the changes to the companies act? You
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  Speaker 3: like what you're seeing?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we do like what we're saying. That particular provision
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  Speaker 2: around having the director's home addresses available that wasn't great.
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  Speaker 2: And if there's something they can do around those Phoenix companies,
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  Speaker 2: which I know is a real bug beer for people
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  Speaker 2: losing money in the construction sector. You know, they liquidate
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  Speaker 2: one day and they resurf somewhere else doing another development
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  Speaker 2: under a similar name, that that sort of behavior is
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  Speaker 2: something that they can address. That that's good.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, good stuff. Hey, Alan, thank you so much appreciated.
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  Speaker 1: Alan McDonald.
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  Speaker 3: The airmads some of the changes this is Andrew Bailey,
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  Speaker 3: the Minister for Commerce and Consumer Affairs, who's been looking
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  Speaker 3: into some changes in the company's act. As Alan was
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  Speaker 3: just saying, it would take the identifying details of the
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  Speaker 3: shareholders and the directors, perhaps off the register which is public.
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  Speaker 3: Also changes around major transactions it would, you know, would
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  Speaker 3: be things like only the capital structure of a company,
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  Speaker 3: or rather things related solely to the capital structure of
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  Speaker 3: a company like the shares issues and the buybacks and
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  Speaker 3: the dividends and redemptions would not be considered major transactions.
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  Speaker 3: Update aspects of the law so things can be done online,
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  Speaker 3: more things, rather than manually expanding how the new Zealand
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  Speaker 3: business number is used and then introducing new changes to
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  Speaker 3: insolvency law and stuff like that.
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