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.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Episode Transcript
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):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news talks that'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.