David Cooper: CEO and Director of Malcom Pacific Immigration discusses the two new work visas being introduced by the government

Two new seasonal visas have been unveiled, allowing the likes of rural contractors or chairlift operators to return for up to three years or stay for up to seven months.

It follows the unemployment rate reaching a five-year high of 5.2-percent. 

Malcolm Pacific Immigration Director David Cooper told Mike Hosking it's hard to get New Zealanders into domestic seasonal work.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
More movement over the weekend in attracting the right people
into the country to fill labor gaps. This is the
Global Workforce VISA will target specialized workers over a three
year period, allowing them to basically come and go. Pig
seasonal VISA will focus on short term agri and agriculture
things like that for up to seven months. David Cooper
as the CEO director at to Malcolm Pacific Immigration and
is with It's David, very good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Good morning mate, makes sense and fill the gaps absolutely.
Look the Minister of Immigration, Ericus Stanford, she's listened to
industry and she's nailed it. She solved a big problem.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
Why didn't we solve a big problem before? Because what
she's done, although sensible, doesn't strike me as particularly complex
or is it.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Well, it's not complex if you're listening. But if you're
not listening and you're doing what you think is right
and you're not listening to industry, then things don't get fixed.
And for the last eighteen months in the immigration space,
the Minister's been fixing all the problems.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
The come and go aspect of it. Was that a
key the ability to move.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, well look these particularly if you look at something
like the snow industry, for example, these are young people.
They come in, they do a season, and then they
head away. And that's no different to what kiwis do.
You go to Aspen, you go to Hofgarten, you'll hear
Kiwi's working on the ski slopes, right. Just what happens

(01:22):
in that particular industry.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
The agri stuff is have we given up on the
unemployed in this country? We have more of than five
point two percent as of last week. Have we given
up on getting locals to do it? It's just too hard?

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Well, I don't think it's that, Mike. I think it's
the seasonal nature of the job. They're in places where
not a lot of Kewis particularly want to be. It's
messy work, it's not particularly pleasant and it's hard to
attract people. So that's why these employers are having to
bring people in from offshore.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
What's your sense of demand? Are we still attractive?

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Take a look at our Golden visa. We're up to
nearly two hundred and seventy applications and four months were
at over one point six billion dollars and four months
the best this visa ever did in the past was
a billion dollars a year. We are attractive, people want
to come here.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Good. Would it help if they could buy a house.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
You bet. It would supercharge the interest in this visa.
And it wouldn't help just the interest, Mike. It would
get people committed because they'd spend time in our communities
and they'd do more for New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
More common sense, David, always enjoy your company, David Coober,
the CEO director of Melolm Pacific Immigration. If we can
get this sorted out the way he claims, we have
once again, you know, Erica Stamford strikes. I mean, how
many good op eds did she get herself last week
with the NCAA stuff. So she seems to have solved immigration.
If it's that easy and we have now done the
right thing, why is it taking us till twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
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