Erica Stanford: Immigration Minister on the changes to the Recognised Seasonal Employer Scheme

The Immigration Minister says she's making needed changes to the Recognised Seasonal Employer Scheme.  

The cap on seasonal workers will increase by 1,250 to 20,750, and the pause on accommodation cost increases will be lifted.  

Employers will be able to average out workers' minimum 30 hours a week over four weeks and need to pay experienced staff only 10% above the minimum wage.  

Immigration Minister Erica Stanford told Mike Hosking the sector needs more workers.  

She says if the horticulture industry is going to double its exports it's going to need them, and that's why country Timor Leste is now included in the programme. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good news, bad news story. Economically, we'll have more seasonal
workers heading our way. These are changes to the rc
CAP for the Houghton viticulture industries. The Immigration Minister Erica
Stanford's with us on that's very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Good morning mate.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
So good news for the employers and the islands, of course,
bad news for a lot of people who are unemployed
and don't want to pick fruit. How do we explain this, Well.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
It's a delicate balance, isn't it. And as an immigration
minister I always walk that very fine line in between
the social development side on one side and making sure
we're getting key reason to work, and on the other side,
making sure that we're doubling our exports, that we're supporting
our our primary sector and we're growing that sector as well.
So we think we've found that delicate balance.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
If I talk to the industry and say an extra
twelve fifty are you happy? Will they say yes, we are.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
I hope that they would, because we've worked really closely
with them to forecast what is required and that was
a number that they worked with us on and came
from freemonton.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Is this about the number we're going to have forever,
no matter what is happening in the economy, no matter
how many people are unemployed. We need these people. And
that's just the way it is.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
I think the numbers will continue to rise. We do
need them, and it is the way that it is.
It's also a really important relationship that we have with
the Pacific, as you know, in terms of aid and
upskilling our some of the young men and women from
outh Pacific neighbors. So it's mutually beneficial. But also if
we're going to support our horticulture industry and double our exports,

(01:24):
then we are going to continue to need them, which
is why we've included ten more lester Day now in
the program, and Winston Peters and I will start to
look at other countries as well.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Do we undersell the actual job in the sense A
lot of people text me and say, if you've never
done it, which I have, as it turns out, but
if you've never done it, it's actually a skill.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
It is. And those those people who come back for
three or four years, I mean, they are making a
lot of money. Their peace rate is very high, you know.
And I do look at this sometimes, like I look
up North. I went to visit to Hacker up North
ew up North and they you know, they are planting
and picking and growing and they don't use any RAC workers.
And I asked them about that and they said, well,

(02:04):
actually we invest in our local people. We have a
mental health worker on staff, and we have transport for them,
and we have pastoral care like you would for IRF workers.
But we don't believe in our local workers. So there
is a part to play those for these employers also
to look at local people.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
From your understanding, is this all been sorted out? Because
during COVID it was a transport problem, it was a
housing problem. There's a million reasons why we couldn't solve
the problem. Has all of that been ticked off now? Generally? Look?

Speaker 2 (02:32):
I think so. I think there were always going to
be regions in New Zealand where it's very difficult to
get people to move to short term and you're always
going to need to bring in workforce to meet that need.
And it doesn't matter what you do, you are just
not going to get New Zealanders to move to those
regions for a short period of time. It's very difficult.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Okay, while we've got you. We had Grant Webster on
yesterday tourism holdings, and he said, these visa changes that
even ounced the prices of visa, it's killing. What it's
not killing, it's having a material effect on people arriving
in the country. Do you accept that or not?

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Well, I don't. And also look, MBIA and Immigration worked
very closely with the sector when we were looking at
these changes, and they also looked at the data and
evidence from what's happened before when we've raised fees. They
looked overseas at what's happened and they determined that this
wouldn't have a material impact. And so we were very
careful about this. But look, we will continue to make

(03:27):
sure that we are monitoring it, keeping an eye on it,
and if it is having these impacts, then we will know.
We will take another look at it. But I am
confident on what I've seen it won't make a difference.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
And a quick comment on the numbers we got this
week from migration. They're coming in from India, China, the
Philippines and Fiji and every young person under forties scarpet.
Is that good for this country?

Speaker 2 (03:47):
No, it's not. You know that. I always say that
the most important part of the immigration portfolio is actually
nothing to do with immigration. It's everything else. It's health
and education and the economy and bordable house prices because
those are the things that in the economy, those are
the things that anchor young kiwis here to want to
be here when the opportunities are here. And a lot

(04:10):
of times have been tough after COVID and got the
previous government left us with and so we have to
tidy that up if we want young people to stay here,
to believe they've got a future here. And I think
we're starting to see the green shoots of that now
after our hard work.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Good stuff, all right, nice to talk to Eric Stanford,
Immigration Minister with us this morning. For more from the
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