Erica Stanford: Immigration Minister on the new changes to the Accredited Employer Work Visa

The Government says changes to the Accredited Employer Work Visa should make hiring migrants easier, and protect Kiwis in low-skilled jobs. 

Amendments from March include altering the median wage threshold - and reducing minimum experience requirements for lower-skilled roles. 

Immigration Minister Erica Stanford says previous settings skewed the market, as low-skilled immigrant workers had to be paid the median wage. 

"Which is paying them more than the Kiwi standing next to them - and it's caused huge problems for employers, who've got their Kiwi workers living there doing the same job."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ryan Bridge.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
The government's making changes to the accredited employer of Visa
to make it easier for businesses to hire migrants. From March,
the minimum experience requirement and the median wage threshold of
thirty one dollars an hour for skilled migrants will be gone.
The labor market test will also be simplified significantly. Immigration
Minister Erica Stanford is with me tonight's minister. Good evening,

(00:23):
good evening, How are you very well? Thank you, nice
to have you on the program. Is this just going
to be a race to the bottom, then you can
do you know, more more workers coming in, skilled workers
coming in and just pay them whatever you want. No.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
And the reason I'm saying no is earlier in the
year we put some things in place to make sure
that we're altering the skills mix to more highly skilled
migrants and fewer lower skilled migrants. And the way that
we did that was we said, look, you need to
come in with a certain number of years experience. We
said three years, and you need to speak English, which
is actually a good proxy for skill. And so any

(01:02):
migrants that are coming in are going to have to
have We've been talking to the few different sectors and
fed farmers in particular, who have said, actually two years
skill is a much better workable solution for them. And
we've listened to the sector and said, actually that makes
good sense, and so we've made a few tweaks, but
essentially we are still making sure that New Zealanders are

(01:23):
being put forward first for those entry level jobs because
we know we've got a number of young people coming
out of school who need access into the labor market,
and so those jobs will be available first and foremost.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Four keywis what do you expect that they will be paid?
If the median threshold of thirty one dollars is too high?
What do you expect that these people with two years
of experienced minimum and English will be paid?

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Well, they'll be paid at a rate that is commensurate
with their skills and experience, which is what you do
with every key worker in this country. The problem we've
had ryan over the last few years under the previous government,
as you've been bringing low skilled workers to fill low
skilled roles and having to pay them the median wage,
which is paying them more than the key we standing
next to them, and it's caused huge problems for employers.

(02:09):
You know, who've got you know, their Kei workers sitting
there doing the same job for and being paid a
lower amount, and so it's really skewed the market. So
there will be you know, when we're bringing people, and
of course immigration officers on the front line will be
looking at what is the you know, the market rate
for someone and knowing that you know, a migrant is
coming in with two years experience, they would they would

(02:30):
question any employer bringing someone in on the minimum wage.
That would raise a red red flag for an immigration
officer on the ground.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Are you worried this or mean businesses choose to hire
migrants over New Zealanders when they might have gone with
the kiwis in the first place.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
No, I don't think so, because it is still more
expensive and more cumbersome to bring a migrant into the country.
You know, you have to be accredited, you have to
get a job check, then you've got to go through
the visa process and that takes time. Employers, you know,
if and you will have to hire someone who's got
a minimum level of skills and experience, where if you
wanted to hire a Keywi, it's much quicker, much simpler,

(03:09):
and much more.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Cost If you want why were we doing it in
the first place. I mean, they must be better workers
than us.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Then, oh, you'll have to ask that, you know, the
previous government why they had those settings in place. But
this is going to make this is going to mean
a lot of business.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Do you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Though?

Speaker 2 (03:22):
If you're an employer and you have to pay the
migrant more than you do the keiw, why would you
bother getting the migrant Because.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
You have to remember when after after COVID, we had
a huge labor market shortage because everybody left New Zealand
and people were desperate. And it didn't They just got
people in warm bodies. That's what they've said to me.
We've got brought warm bodies in and we had to
pay them the medium wage even for doing completely unskilled
jobs because there was just a massive need for it.

(03:51):
And it's massively skewed the market.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
All right, Hey minister, how does it feel everyone saying
you're the best Minister of the year and all that
kind of stuff.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
Ah, I don't like. I don't pay attention that it's
a team effet and you know, as you know, I
couldn't do my job without the support of our incredible
Prime Minister.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Ah, there we go. Very humble, very humble. What a politician,
Eric and master tip to you again, Eric Stanford, Immigration
minister and number one in many's books. For more from
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