National mulls backing down on immigration
While winning elections could be, and should be, the primary focus of any government, the current National government of New Zealand is facing another dilemma - the dilemma of winning regions, out of Auckland, rather than only elections.
In fact, winning regions could be a recipe for winning elections too.
This is related to regions, away from Auckland, which have seemingly been caught up in Auckland related issues around record level of immigrations and are desperately seeking to bring government's attention towards the need of migrant workers for their regional economies.
The government had earlier seemed to respond to this debate around record levels of immigration, by proposing changes to the skilled migrant visa category by setting up a requirement of a job paying a minimum $49,000 annually to become eligible to be considered as "skilled" job, along with requiring migrants on essential skill work visa to leave country after three years stay in the country.
Those changes are supposed to come into effect by the middle of August after the government has released the policy for public consultation.
On Sunday, July 23, Stuff.co.nz had reported that the Prime Minister Bill English has given earliest hints that the government is now actively considering not implementing these new rules after negative feedback from the regions.
This has come after several industry groups and representative associations for regions have been actively lobbying against a knee-jerk reduction in numbers of migrant workers that have kept their respective industries going.
The Indian Weekender has been speaking with many such industry associations and their representatives on the concerns around drastic reduction in the number of migrant workers.
Speaking to the Indian Weekender, Katie Milne, National President, Federated Farmers of New Zealand, expressed concern about the "gap in our workforce that migrant workers fill."
" It is a huge issue that farmers have to face. NZ incs productivity will be affected if there are not enough people available in the labour pool.
"The seasons stop for no man and when harvest comes or cows start to calve there need to be people available to do the work required. Obviously, they need to be skilled as well or be able to get trained here for our conditions to fill those vacancies if Kiwis don't want to change vocations and take up the work.
"It is as simple as that," Ms Milne asserted.
Similarly, Simon Wallace, Chief Executive Officer, New Zealand Aged Care Association, who have made an active submission to Immigration New Zealand (INZ) in May outlining their industry’s concerns against governments proposed changes in immigration policy.
"The Government is proposing to introduce measures that will limit the time for these temporary work visas to only three years when the visa holders will be required to leave the country. This will compromise business continuity and impact on the quality of care for our elderly residents.
"The sector has estimated that we will need extra 1,000 caregivers each year between now and 2026 to cater for an ageing population and in our case an increase in rest home residents from 38,000 to 52,000. While our rest homes do everything they can to employ local New Zealanders, we cannot meet all our labour needs from Kiwis alone. We have to employ migrants," Mr Wallace said.
While winning elections could be, and should be, the primary focus of any government, the current National government of New Zealand is facing another dilemma - the dilemma of winning regions, out of Auckland, rather than only elections.
In fact, winning regions could be a recipe for winning...
While winning elections could be, and should be, the primary focus of any government, the current National government of New Zealand is facing another dilemma - the dilemma of winning regions, out of Auckland, rather than only elections.
In fact, winning regions could be a recipe for winning elections too.
This is related to regions, away from Auckland, which have seemingly been caught up in Auckland related issues around record level of immigrations and are desperately seeking to bring government's attention towards the need of migrant workers for their regional economies.
The government had earlier seemed to respond to this debate around record levels of immigration, by proposing changes to the skilled migrant visa category by setting up a requirement of a job paying a minimum $49,000 annually to become eligible to be considered as "skilled" job, along with requiring migrants on essential skill work visa to leave country after three years stay in the country.
Those changes are supposed to come into effect by the middle of August after the government has released the policy for public consultation.
On Sunday, July 23, Stuff.co.nz had reported that the Prime Minister Bill English has given earliest hints that the government is now actively considering not implementing these new rules after negative feedback from the regions.
This has come after several industry groups and representative associations for regions have been actively lobbying against a knee-jerk reduction in numbers of migrant workers that have kept their respective industries going.
The Indian Weekender has been speaking with many such industry associations and their representatives on the concerns around drastic reduction in the number of migrant workers.
Speaking to the Indian Weekender, Katie Milne, National President, Federated Farmers of New Zealand, expressed concern about the "gap in our workforce that migrant workers fill."
" It is a huge issue that farmers have to face. NZ incs productivity will be affected if there are not enough people available in the labour pool.
"The seasons stop for no man and when harvest comes or cows start to calve there need to be people available to do the work required. Obviously, they need to be skilled as well or be able to get trained here for our conditions to fill those vacancies if Kiwis don't want to change vocations and take up the work.
"It is as simple as that," Ms Milne asserted.
Similarly, Simon Wallace, Chief Executive Officer, New Zealand Aged Care Association, who have made an active submission to Immigration New Zealand (INZ) in May outlining their industry’s concerns against governments proposed changes in immigration policy.
"The Government is proposing to introduce measures that will limit the time for these temporary work visas to only three years when the visa holders will be required to leave the country. This will compromise business continuity and impact on the quality of care for our elderly residents.
"The sector has estimated that we will need extra 1,000 caregivers each year between now and 2026 to cater for an ageing population and in our case an increase in rest home residents from 38,000 to 52,000. While our rest homes do everything they can to employ local New Zealanders, we cannot meet all our labour needs from Kiwis alone. We have to employ migrants," Mr Wallace said.
Leave a Comment