Rachel Simpson: Business NZ Immigration Specialist talks government getting tougher of businesses wanting to recruit migrants

Belief that both employers and the Government need to up their game to ensure Kiwis are being hired before migrants. 

The Immigration Minster's getting tougher on employers hiring more migrants than unemployed New Zealanders.

Erica Stanford says employers will be stripped of the chance to recruit migrants if they're not looking closer to home.

Business NZ Immigration Specialist Rachel Simpson told Ryan Bridge the Ministry need to help businesses prioritise Kiwis. 

She says employers will always look locally but immigration is about the skills those people bring to the country. 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Eric Stanford, Immigration Minister having a bit of a crack
at employers who aren't trying hard enough to hire local workers.
So these businesses could get their accreditations canceled if they
don't talk to MSD properly and try and hire beneficiaries
where they're supposed to. Rachel Simpson's business ends immigration specialists
with me this morning.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Morning, Rachel, good morning, How are you good?

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Thank you? Do you why aren't businesses doing this properly?
Do you think?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Well, they are doing it. There's already a labor market
test within the Accredited Employer Work Visa system, so you
have to advertise the role and you have to go
to MST and have a chat with them. So I
think the signal from the minister, you know, is really
puts the onus on the government departments to make sure
that they're timely and responsive for those requests from employers.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
So you're saying you are getting in touch with MSD,
but MSD's does not getting back to you.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Well, I think there's a few things in it, but
at the heart of it, immigration is about the skills
that those people bring to New Zealand. So you can
go to NEST and check that it's really about whether
there's somebody with the skills that's available on the local
labor market, and employers will always look locally before going
to immigration, but they're more extensive. It's difficult.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
I mean, the minister says eleven percent of these cases
that she's talking about is when an employer who hadn't
actually gone to MSD at all. What's that about?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Well, I think that's part of the process. So it
would be useful for Immigration to make sure that the
guidance to employers around what's involved in those steps is
really clear to employers and make sure that employers can
bring up immigration and check on those including things like
how long to wait for a response from NFT.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Sorry, Rachel, I just want to be really clear here.
So are you saying that there's a problem on MSD's
side or are you saying, actually, yeah, there's a few
businesses who probably aren't doing it right and we need
to fix that.

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Ah, it's probably a mix of both, be honest. So
we both did it on the process.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Everyone needs to up their game. Yeah, okay, all right, good,
well let's do that because we need to hire Kiwis
before we hire foreigners as part of the problem this
country's got. In fact, if you look, that was Rachel Simpson,
by the way, Business News immigration specialist. The problem that
we've gotten this country, which Erica Stanford points out, so
since we brought in the invest that the accredited employer

(02:25):
worked visa scheme, since the first one was issued back
in twenty twenty two, we've got twenty thousand more kiwis unemployed.
For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live
to News Talks it'd b from five am weekdays, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.