Katherine Rich: BusinessNZ CEO on the changes to the Accredited Employer Work Visa

Businesses hope to employ more migrants after changes to work visas.  

The Government's updating the Accredited Employer Work Visa in March, removing the median wage threshold and reducing minimum experience requirements for lower skill roles.  

They'll also reduce the minimum threshold for how many domestic workers must be employed. 

BusinessNZ Chief Executive Katherine Rich told Heather du Plessis-Allan it’s a step in the right direction. 

She says there are a lot of areas where businesses can’t get the skills and experience they need, and the changes Stanford is making will be react welcomed. 

Rich says the median wage threshold was too high, and wound up being an artificial proxy for skill and experience. 

She says in some cases it resulted in offshore applicants being paid more than their Kiwi counterparts, creating a bit of friction. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Immigration Minister is making it easier for businesses to hire migrants.
She's changing work visa requirements again. Many businesses can pay
them less, hire more and have them stay longer. Business
ends ed CEO Catherine Riches with us morning, Catherine, good morning.
You like the look of this.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Oh look, this is great to step in the right direction.
There are lots of various where businesses can't get the
skills and the experience they need, and the changes of
Erica Stanford have made will be really welcomed.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Was that threshold that they were been forced to pay,
which is at least the media in wage too high?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Yes it was. It ended up being an artificial proxy
for skill and experience. But what happened in effect was
that in some cases when businesses were hiring and people
from offshore, they ended up having to pay more than
their key we counterparts, and you can imagine that caused
a bit of friction.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Is it weird timing to be doing this at a
time when we're probably in recession again and we're laying
people off or is that too simplistic. You don't just
lay people off and they find a job in a
sector that needs them.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
No. I think that is a bit simplistic. There are
just some areas in the economy where we either don't
train enough people or we don't train at all. And
there are some examples, for example in manufacturing where if
you've got to have someone who runs a particular piece
of pharmaceutical manufacturing kit or makes aluminium cans, you just

(01:22):
simply can't get enough people locally. There are lots of
areas where in New Zealand, because it's small, we simply
don't train.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Catherine's really good to talk to you. I really appreciated this.
Katherine Rich Business New Zealand CEO.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
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